Earlier this year, Equinox’s president, Brad LaJeunesse, put out a call to the wider Evergreen community for literal and figurative buy-in to a project for improving the QA processes and tools used with Evergreen development:

http://georgialibraries.markmail.org/thread/i3x7nsd3eygau4nb

Several members of the Evergreen community pitched in and this Equinox-managed project is now funded.  The deliverables are outlined below.

• Identify and assess the efficacy of existing resources and processes.
• Deploy examples of unit tests for each language and domain within Evergreen.
• Deploy examples of API tests for Evergreen’s internal and published APIs.
• Document, with narrative, an example usability test and analysis, and the resolutions to problems discovered.
• Identify or create best examples of developer documentation for each language and domain within Evergreen.
• Demonstrate through initial implementation how continuous integration can provide regression testing.
• Analyses of available UI testing automation tools, and, if possible, design of a UI Testing framework.

The project has been running for a little over a week and here are the results so far:

• Reviewed a historical perspective on unit testing within the Perl community and a modern perspective from the TDD (Test Driven Development) community, and some other resources on testing. This was to give us some grounding and a mental framework with which to work with, and help with the jargon used within the testing community:
  • http://xprogramming.com/articles/manual-testing-does-exist-and-it-is-bad/
  • http://www.developsense.com/blog/2013/02/manual-and-automated-testing/
  • http://www.satisfice.com/blog/archives/856 Testing and Checking Refined
  • http://drainbrain.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/unit-testing-primer/
  • http://osherove.com/videos/2009/8/25/understanding-test-driven-development.html
  • Debugging Perl, by Martin Brown
  • Professional Test Driven Development with C#, by James Bender, Jeff McWherter
  • Clean Code
• Identified the Perl and C unit testing frameworks in use with Evergreen and OpenSRF, along with their respective documentation, and how they are invoked through Autoconf. We’ll need to surface this as developer documentation within the community, along with our examples on how to write such tests. It seems very likely that we will be able to use some of the same frameworks for API testing in addition to unit testing.
  • http://search.cpan.org/~mschwern/Test-Simple-0.98/lib/Test/More.pm
  • http://check.sourceforge.net/doc/check_html/index.html#Top
• Surveyed competing and complementing tools. Every problem a person solves extends what they’re capable of accomplishing, which introduces yet more problems to solve, and so on. Here we’re hoping to leverage some of that collected wisdom within the wider development community. For example, we use Test::More which can analyze return values from code, but our code can generate output along multiple vectors, and a module like Test::Warn can help us tap into one of those.
  • http://search.cpan.org/~leont/module-build-0.4005/lib/module/build.pm
  • http://search.cpan.org/~rgarcia/perl-5.10.0/lib/Test/Tutorial.pod
  • http://search.cpan.org/~nachbaur/Test-Story-0.07/lib/Test/Story/Tutorial.pm
  • http://search.cpan.org/~mschwern/Test-Simple-0.98/lib/Test/Simple.pm
  • http://search.cpan.org/~ovid/Test-Differences-0.61/lib/Test/Differences.pm
  • http://search.cpan.org/~rjbs/Test-Deep-0.110/lib/Test/Deep.pm
  • http://search.cpan.org/~ovid/Test-Most-0.31/lib/Test/Most.pm
  • http://search.cpan.org/~adie/Test-Exception-0.32/lib/Test/Exception.pm
  • http://search.cpan.org/~chorny/Test-Warn-0.24/Warn.pm
  • http://search.cpan.org/~ebhanssen/Test-Trap-v0.2.2/lib/Test/Trap.pm
  • http://search.cpan.org/~mschwern/Test-Simple-0.98/lib/Test/Builder.pm
  • http://search.cpan.org/~ovid/Test-Harness-3.28/lib/Test/Harness.pm
  • http://search.cpan.org/~ovid/Test-Harness-3.28/lib/TAP/Harness.pm
  • http://search.cpan.org/~pjcj/Devel-Cover-1.04/lib/Devel/Cover.pm
  • http://autotest.github.io
• Improved an existing unit test and implemented a new one in Evergreen leveraging a complementing tool, Test::Warn, and shared it with the community:
  • https://bugs.launchpad.net/evergreen/+bug/1190717
  • http://git.evergreen-ils.org/?p=working/Evergreen.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/collab/phasefx/test_cleanup
• Started investigating how we could make better use of AutoTools to manage the test suites. AutoTools is a framework we use for building Evergreen and OpenSRF, and one of the most immediate tie-in’s is that it calls the test suites we use, and is itself called by Buildbot when testing an Evergreen build. Autoconf is also built around tests, and we’re wanting to see if there is functionality here that we can leverage.
  • http://lrde.epita.fr/~adl/autotools.html
  • http://www.edwardrosten.com/code/autoconf/

From here, the next steps are as follows:

• Continue gaining experience with the Perl and C testing tools, and clean up and augment the existing tests.
• Introduce C tests to Evergreen, modelled after their use in OpenSRF. This may be easier than “porting”.
• Continue investigating AutoTools, and move into learning the in’s and out’s of Buildbot. Survey competing and complementing tools for them both.
• Start learning the testing frameworks of other languages, and in particular, pgTAP for PostgreSQL.

Add to:

New vacancy listings are posted weekly on Wednesday at approximately 12 noon Central Time. They appear under New This Week and under the appropriate regional listing. Postings remain on the LITA Job Site for a minimum of four weeks.

New This Week

Asst./Assoc. Professor / Non-Serial Electronic Resources, Librarian, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte – Atkins Library, Charlotte, NC

Chief Executive Officer,  Bibliomation, Inc.,  Waterbury, CT

Coal and Coke Heritage Center Archivist, The Pennsylvania State University Libraries, Fayette Campus, Lemont Furnace, PA

Manager, End-User Technologies,  Joliet Public Library,  Joliet, IL

Systems Librarian,  Eastern Oregon University,  La Grande, OR

Technical Content Specialist, Computercraft Corporation, Bethesda,  MD

1-Year Temporary Librarian and Instructional Technology Consultant, Mount Holyoke College South Hadley, MA

Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a  job posting.

The Smile Politely blog has posted Freedom of Information Act documents related to the Urbana free Library weeding kerfuffle.

http://www.smilepolitely.com/splog/foia_documents_from_ufl_staff/

A snippet: ”She also reminded me that our mission was no longer lifelong learning.”  I am having trouble processing such a statement.  What will happen next?

Also, see: http://www.smilepolitely.com/culture/voices_from_urbana_city_council/

 

(June 19, 2013). Ex Libris announced that the University of South Australia, the University of Western Sydney, and New Zealand's Otago University have chosen the Ex Libris Primo discovery and delivery solution to complement their Ex Libris Alma library management service. As a result, these institutions will offer users a unified discovery experience that is seamlessly integrated with library services and operations. At University of Western Sydney and University of South Australia, Primo will be replacing Serials Solutions Summon systems.

(June 18, 2013). The HathiTrust Digital Library will partner with the recently launched Digital Public Library of America to expand discovery and use of HathiTrust's public domain and other openly available content.

 

 

Please follow LIS professor Carol Tilley for more on what’s been weeded at The Urbana Free Library! https://twitter.com/CarolGSLIS

Follow #bookgate too!

Barbara Fister writes about the kerfuffle at Insider Higher Ed: http://www.insidehighered.com//blogs/library-babel-fish/throwing-books-each-other

(June 18, 2013). OCLC has been named among Computerworld's Best Places to Work in IT.

(June 6, 2013). Gunnison High School and Gunnison Community School, located in Gunnison, Colorado, are joining the Colorado Library Consortium (CLiC) AspenCat LibLime Koha union catalog.

My library has been doing a few different things with our Twitter account the last couple of years, and have finally settled on a Twitter strategy to try for the next 6 months or so.

Who’s connecting with us? Our Twitter followers tend more towards marketers, advertisers, start-up business types, the “activist/we get stuff done” types in town, the 20-40 year old business up-and-comers, and a lot of media types (broadcast, newspaper, and some radio journalists). And a bunch of young geeks.

We are focusing on this type of content:

• What’s interesting (to the library) right now and why?
• Library “breaking news”
• No big sell – share what the library finds interesting
• Be yourself, be casual, but at the same time remember you represent the library
• Friend our customers and local businesses
• In general, try for friendly and helpful, but not pushy.

Posting schedule: We post multiple times a day, every day. We have seven staff members assigned, one on each day. I’m the floater/substitute for when people are sick, on vacation, etc. And I monitor activity, answer the harder questions, and make sure we’re on-target.

How will we know if we succeed? I will measure growth and engagement via the new-fangled Twitter analytics!

That’s our plan. What’s your organization’s Twitter strategy?

Pic by Jeff Turner

Related Posts

• Five Tips to Reshape your Social Media Plan in 2013
• Answering some Questions about Social Media
• Face2Face – my Handheld Librarian 7 Presentation
• 3 Ways to be more Social in Social Spaces
• My New Book – Face2Face: Using Facebook, Twitter, and Other Social Media Tools to Create Great Customer Connections

Zemanta

(June 18, 2013). Yale University selected the Summon discovery service from Serials Solutions®, a ProQuest® business, to improve access to its distinctive collection, including 15 million volumes and information in all media. Yale University Library, the most recent of six Ivy League schools to adopt the Summon service, determined ease of customization, integrity of search results, a unified index architecture and the company's track record for rapid innovation of new discovery features were essential in choosing to work with Serials Solutions.

(June 18, 2013). Ingram Content Group and EBSCO Information Services announced that more than 400,000 e-book titles from EBSCO eBooks have been integrated with Ingram's OASIS content platform and are now available to academic libraries worldwide.

This blows my mind!

http://www.smilepolitely.com/culture/do_you_ever_read_any_of_the_books_you_weed/

Both UFL staff and the public (who were alarmed at the rapidly emptying shelves) spoke out, but the weeding continued until a library board meeting (and Mayor Laurel Prussing) was called. JP Goguen, a university library employee, was at the meeting, recorded it, and sent the recording to me (the board normally does not record meetings). The conversation at this meeting is alarming. Urbana Free Library’s director, Deb Lissak, made a unilateral decision to weed books in the print collection by date alone. It seems that the Adult Services staff’s expertise and knowledge of the collection was neither consulted nor welcomed. In fact, Anne Phillips, Director of Adult Services, was not even in the country when the project began and was unaware that it was happening at all. 

Bolding mine. Read the comments after the full article.

Here’s another:

http://will.illinois.edu/news/story/urbana-free-library-scrutinized-over-book-weeding

The breakdown in communication and lack of transparency in the process is concerning to me. In the comments on both articles it’s reported that resolutions have been initiated. I hope the outcomes are positive: some books returned, better policies, and a much more open and collaborative process of communication.

Update:

Follow #bookgate for more: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23bookgate&src=hash

(June 17, 2013). Ex Libris announced that Coventry University has selected the next-generation Alma solution from Ex Libris. Following its 2010 decision to implement Primo to improve the user experience, the university has now taken a strategic step to improve library operations with Alma. Alma will replace the Aleph integrated library system and the SFX OpenURL link resolver, enabling the library to increase efficiency by employing a single, cloud-based solution to manage its electronic and print resources. The combination of Alma and Primo will enable Coventry University to streamline workflows while continuing to offer their users access to the wealth of its resources via a single interface.

(June 16, 2013). EOS International, a leader in cloud computing library automation software, added 7 new clients in May 2013, hitting 37 new clients year-to-date. EOS.Web meets the complex needs of the library patrons and management. EOS continues to expand its products and services in several key markets.

Today we review two notable debut novels featuring teen protagonists who are talented at the sports they love — riding and rowing. There are a surprising number of similarities between these books. Both take place in elite boarding schools, and feature teens who are new kids among long-time classmates, less wealthy outsiders struggling for the regard of their peers. Both novels deal with tragedy, and both authors generate suspense by cutting back and forth between the past and the present.

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls is set in 1930, right before the Depression. The New York Times review calls it “this summer’s first romantic page turner,” and it has already earned starred reviews from Booklist, Library Journal and Kirkus. We’re adding a fourth right here! It was a featured title in the Penguin Debut Author program, titled First Flights, which includes a live online chat with the author. The transcript of the May 13th chat with Anton DiSclafani is available on the First Flights site.

Flat Water Tuesday is alternately narrated by Rob as an adult in his early 30s, and Rob as a teen. While you might think this a disadvantage for teen readers, I think this is what gives the novel its power. Understanding adult Rob’s life gives insight into teen Rob and, of course, visa-versa. The challenges that adult Rob faces are just as dramatic as those of his younger self. Rob may have learned a lot during his time on the rowing team at Fenton, but he still needs to learn how to participate fully in his own life as an adult. There is still a lot of growing up to do and responsibility to face, and I believe teen readers will find these insights engrossing.

The other really outstanding part of Flat Water Tuesday are the rowing scenes. Author Ron Irwin is a rower himself, and the level of detail he provides is fascinating, especially the sheer physical difficulty of training to compete.

* DISCLAFANI, Anton. The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls. 400p. Riverhead . June 2013. Tr $27.95. ISBN 9781594486401. LC 2013003603.  

Adult/High School–For 15-year-old Thea Atwell, finishing the summer of 1930 at an exclusive riding camp/boarding school in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina is a punishment rather than a privilege. Exiled following the tragic event her doctor father refers to as “all this mess,” Thea desperately misses her family, especially her sensitive twin brother, Sam. Raised in a large house on the family’s orange grove in rural Florida and homeschooled by her mother, she knows little about the intricacies of female friendship. Introverted and observant, she is, however, a passionate and skilled horsewoman. She soon takes her place among her peers, turning an eye toward the handsome, married headmaster. Formerly sheltered Thea begins to think about the world outside herself as she forms relationships beyond the bounds of family. The book’s setting provokes thoughts about class and the ephemeral nature of wealth and social standing. DiSclafani succeeds in making the horses characters in their own right, and equine lovers will revel in detailed descriptions of daily care and the excitement of riding. Told by an older Thea looking back on her coming-of-age in the midst of personal scandal, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls is a book young adults will easily fall into and undoubtedly savor. DiSclafani has written a relatable protagonist with a rich inner life, a girl unapologetically exploring and coming to terms with her own sexuality with little regard for the possible consequences of her actions.–Paula J. Gallagher, Baltimore County Public Library, MD

IRWIN, Ron. Flat Water Tuesday. 320p. Thomas Dunne: St. Martin’s. Jun. 2013. Tr $24.99. ISBN 9781250030030; ebook $11.99. ISBN 9781250030023.  

Adult/High School–Robert Carrey is a 19-year-old postgraduate student, recruited from a small high school in upstate New York to row at the elite Fenton School. Rob’s working-class father convinces him that an extra year of high school is worth the chance of being invited to row for Harvard. Even though he is a solo champion, Rob is brought to Fenton to fill out their five-person team, the God Four, and help win the all-important Warwick Race. Rob immediately conflicts with Connor, the only Fenton rower who can match him, even as they begin a sort of friendship. Ruth is the God Four’s coxswain–she runs practices and calls the strokes during competition. Rob can’t help falling for her mixture of tough and vulnerable. Day in, day out training pitting the rowers against each other takes its toll, and from the beginning readers know that there’s tragedy to come. The novel alternates Rob’s months at Fenton with his present as a 30-something documentary filmmaker dividing his time between Cape Town and his girlfriend’s Manhattan loft. Back with Carolyn after a long work absence, their relationship on the rocks, Rob learns of the suicide of a former teammate. As a student at Fenton, Rob struggles to succeed within a team. As an adult he needs to change his solitary ways if he hopes to keep Carolyn in his life. This is more than a sports novel or a boarding school story, although it certainly illuminates the devastating consequences of competition. Teens will be drawn by the story’s honesty, suspense, and heart-stopping racing descriptions.–Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City 

(June 15, 2013). The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, an internationally renowned organization advancing innovation in metadata design and best practices, will become a project of the Association for Information Science and Technology upon DCMI's wrapping up activities at it's current location in Singapore.

(June 13, 2013). Janet Lees, OCLC Europe, the Middle East and Africa Community Liaison, has announced plans to retire after 31 years with the worldwide library cooperative.

(June 13, 2013). LibLime, a division of PTFS, announces that Rocky View School District is adding five more libraries to its district-wide LibLime Koha union catalog. Springbank Community High School, Westbrook School, RVS Education Centre, Cochrane High School, and Glenbow Elementary School will be the newest school libraries to join the Rocky View LibLime Koha union catalog.

Way back in 2011, Twitter announced they were starting to offer Analytics for some Twitter accounts. Finally – almost two years later, they are offering analytics to everyone!

Here’s how you access those analytics:

• Get into your Twitter account (the web version)
• Click the Settings icon (looks like a gear)
• Click Twitter Ads (and sign in again. If you haven’t signed up for Twitter Ads, you’ll need to do that first. No cost associated with signing up, so do it for the analytics)
• Once you’re logged into Twitter Ads, click Analytics (in the black bar at the top of the page)
• You’re in!

What types of analytics do you get? 

Right now, there are two choices – Timeline Activity and Followers:

Timeline Activity

The Timeline Activity view provides most of the analytics. At the top of the page is a handy graph showing Mentions, Follows, and Unfollows for the last month. Hover over the graph, and you can see a per-day breakdown of those numbers.

Below the graph are Recent Tweets. This shows individual tweets, going back all the way to your first tweet (I think – I scrolled back about a year)!

For each tweet, you can see these analytics:

• # of Faves
• # of Retweets
• # of Replies
• If there’s a link included in the tweet, you can see how many clicks that tweet received.

For example, I now know my tweet about Twitter analytics (as of last night) was favorited 7 times, retweeted 3 times, and the link included with the tweet was clicked 45 times.

You can also choose which tweets you want to see – All, Best, or Good.

• Best shows the top 15% of tweets with some level of engagement, going back to August 27 (so, about 10 months).
• Good shows the top two-thirds of tweets with some level of engagement, in that same timeframe.
• All shows all tweets in that same timeframe.

This page also includes a CSV download, which provides a list of all tweets with numbers for Faves, Retweets, and Replies.

Followers:

Followers is the second option, and includes some pretty cool stats about your followers. At the top of the page, there’s a graph showing your per-day follower count from day one of your Twitter account. Below that, you are given some interesting topical, location, and gender info, including:

Interests:

Most unique interests – shows the top five most unique interests of your followers. I’m assuming this comes from some data-mining of follower’s Twitter accounts. For my Twitter account, my followers most unique interests are:

• 39% Biographies and memoirs
• 11% job search
• 9% Education news and general info
• 7% freelance writing
• 2% genealogy (yes, that’s how they spelled it. Oops)

Top Interests:

The top ten interests of my followers, which include:

• 72% politics and current events
• 58% book news and general info
• 56% business and news
• Etc. Hover over any of the numbers in this section, and you can see a total number for that percentage.

Location:

This shows the top countries and states of my followers (USA, Kansas, New York, Illinois, Ohio, and Massachussets). Also a lot of people from Australia and Canada.

Top Cities:

In my case, they include: Topeka, Wichita, Sydney AU, Melbourne AU, and Perth AU. Alright – you Australians are awesome!

Gender:

45% male, 55% female.

And finally, a Your Followers also Follow list. My followers, unsurprisingly, also follow these Twitter accounts:

• 36% @ALALibrary
• 33% @ALA_TechSource
• 33% @amlibraries
• 30% @jessamyn
• 25% @buffyjhamilton
• 23% @OCLC
• 22% @AtYourLibrary
• 17% @yalsa (I find this one a bit odd, but whatever. Cool!)
• 15% @ALA_JobLIST
• 13% @ALA_Booklist

So that’s that! Twitter – thanks for the analytics! There’s some really good stuff here!

Related Posts

• Getting More Facebook Clicks – an experiment and some thoughts
• Interesting way to get some Twitter Stats
• Five Tips to Reshape your Social Media Plan in 2013
• Face2Face – my Handheld Librarian 7 Presentation
• 3 Ways to be more Social in Social Spaces

Zemanta

(June 14, 2013). Softlink's soon-to-be-released primary school ePlatform, engineered for digital resources and devices will be launched under the name Scout the company announced today.Softlink Chief Operating Officer Nathan Godfrey said Scout would enable schools to discover and deliver digital resources through modern devices, as well as provide innovations to captivate the curiosity of young learners.