So I thought I’d spice up my blog this week by giving Yahoo! Pipes a shot and dazzling everyone (and myself) with my pipe building skills.
No such luck.
It’s a fair bit more difficult than I anticipated (though Amanda did warn us of that) AND as it turns out most of my ideas weren’t as original as I thought.
Idea 1:
A pipe that aggregates LIS job postings in Canada. So easy, I thought. Well, it’s not so easy when most of the sites that list the postings don’t have RSS feeds (and, yes, this includes the FIMS site). And it seems that there are ways around this but I’m not pro enough to figure that out, and my attempts to clone and edit other pipes was just disastrous.
Some pipes to have a peek at:
Library Jobs
Job LibSearch
Canadian Library Jobs
UofT LIS Student Career Services
Idea 2:
A pipe that combines a number of the feeds from Library Journal. But then that seemed too boring so I didn’t pursue it…
Pipes to peek:
Reviews from Library Journal
Budget stories from Library Journal
LJ Feeds
—–
The following ideas may or may not be mashup-able…
Idea 3:
I haven’t checked out Zip.ca in a while so I don’t know if Zip lists have RSS feeds, but if they did, I’d like to be able to have corresponding links to Amazon.ca to see how much the film ‘retails’ for, or maybe even links to the TPL’s OPAC so I can see if the film is available locally (and for free!).
Idea 4:
IMDB meets TPL’s OPAC! I know that some libraries are now including film synopses in the bibliographic details but if they aren’t wouldn’t it be nice to have a link to the IMDB summary (and additional info) right there?!
4 responses so far ↓
Sandra Herber // Mar 25th 2010 at 9:25 AM
Wow, Amena! I think your ideas were creative and interesting and worth pursuing (when you oodles of time on your hands).
I had the same problem with job sites not having RSS feeds. My solution: click on them upwards of 5 times a day hoping for something new. I feel like a rat in an experiment! This kind of behaviour is not sustainable if I want to get anything else done.
Google Reader, however, has the ability to create a feed from a page that doesn’t have an RSS feed. You just submit the URL and you get a “generated feed” within your Google Reader. It’s a bit clunky, but maybe it would work with your first idea.
Amena // Mar 25th 2010 at 8:45 PM
Thanks, Sandra :] I’d definitely like to give the mashups another chance when I’ve got more time.
I didn’t know that GR could generate feeds – so good to know!
michel // Mar 27th 2010 at 9:26 AM
The Pipes didn’t work for me either.
Megan Neilans // Mar 27th 2010 at 2:33 PM
Thanks for links Amena! I did not have any success with the Pipes either this week, but I will not give up. I will however switch my energy to other projects for the time being. I too liked your ideas! Thanks, Sandra for info. about GR as it was news to me as well.