As a thought experiment, I was wondering if we could easily get our library homepage up and running on a platform other than LibGuides. On the one hand, this seems like it should be pretty easy, as it’s all HTML/CSS/JS. But nonetheless, I wouldn’t be surprised if there would be some problems lurking in the… Continue reading Could it run somewhere other than libguides?
Author: Mark Eaton
AR, future directions
For me, holidays are a time to do a bilan, to take stock and to think about what’s next. In that spirit, here are some augmented reality things I’d like to pursue in our library in the new year: Use AR.js to render text in the virtual space, not just shapes. Explore more of the… Continue reading AR, future directions
Task force
It is probably very nerdy that I am as excited as I am to join something called the Alma Extensibility Task Force. It’s basically a committee to work with the Alma APIs, and I am totally here for it. There are a bunch of reasons for this: It’s a chance to work with some stellar… Continue reading Task force
Migrating to bootstrap 5
LibGuides seems to have finally begun its long journey to Bootstrap 5. In the abstract, this is really good news. New features! Modern tools! No longer having to worry about Bootstrap 3 being EOL! All good stuff. But in practice, I think this might ultimately mean a lot of work for our library. Our library… Continue reading Migrating to bootstrap 5
Research and sordid calculations about promotion
I’m up for promotion this year, and it’s too late to try to get any more research papers published before my file gets reviewed by the promotion committee. So a few days ago I made the very pragmatic/mercenary decision to not start any new research projects right now. Instead, I’ll focus on committee work, which… Continue reading Research and sordid calculations about promotion
Offpunk
I’m trying something new: cross-posting from Gemini. I don’t foresee doing this very often. It’s a bit of an experiment. So I had been using AV-98 by solderpunk as a gemini client, which was last updated 3 years ago according to the repository on tildegit. Anyhow, the recent lack of maintenance has been catching up… Continue reading Offpunk
Status page
Over the past two weeks, I put together a “status page” for our library services. It’s not live yet, but I hope to make it public soon. Basically the page gathers HTTP response codes by submitting GET requests for each of our outside services (website, collections, and other services like ILLiad, Primo, and EZproxy), and… Continue reading Status page
The thanksgiving challenge, revisited
In 2021, I posted about how I was planning to stay home by myself for the Thanksgiving weekend and work on writing code for my Open Journal Matcher project. I then went on about how great it was. So this year I’m going to do the Thanksgiving programming challenge again. The premise is simple: stay… Continue reading The thanksgiving challenge, revisited
Ubuntu on an 2012 macbook pro
The cheap Chromebook I bought last year is starting to flake out. The keyboard is becoming less responsive; the left shift key has become particularly troublesome. I’m realizing that you can only expect so much mileage out of a $300 machine. It has been my daily driver for a year, so I think it has… Continue reading Ubuntu on an 2012 macbook pro
Editing
Despite doing a lot of writing over the past few years, I’m definitely not a well-seasoned editor. If I’m being honest with myself, I’m not critical enough: I’m too willing to say “yes, this is fine.” But with some texts, strong criticism is definitely needed. I also sometimes feel that my edits are too superficial,… Continue reading Editing
