Talis Source Blog

There I was, happily sitting at my desk moaning about the weather (rain again) when I was interrupted mid rant. Noticing my rather delightful mood they eagerly informed me that Talis Source was growing.

I thanked them very much for telling me the ‘wonderful’ news but I had already spotted that – and blogged about it here and here, my colleagues Ian Corns and Kevin Worth have also blogged about it here and here. So one could say it was pretty well known that Talis Source is growing and has certainly surpassed the old database that was used back in May 2006.

Eager to get back to my rant, I was just about to launch into my epic finale about how rubbish weather is in the UK raining all the time and the instant the sun comes out there’s a drought, when I was interrupted again. They had more news… Talis Source has now over 220 users, over 25% the libraries in the British Isles and Ireland contributing every month and over 54 million holdings.

Not bad for a free service.

(Photo taken by laffy4k displayed in Flickr)

Technorati Tags: Resource Discovery, Talis, Union catalogue, Talis Source, Stats, Talis Platform, library,

Posted by Grant White at 07:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For a long time now, I have been banging on about how great the Talis Platform is, free to contribute, free resource discovery and available to integrate with any application. And if I have spoken to you I have probably rather excitedly said that soon there will be many applications using the same holdings data.

Well today’s the day (in the vein of a game show host) that I can prove that my rather excited ravings have become a reality as we have just announced a platform partnership with Medialab the creators of AquaBrowser.

How does the partnership help you? Well, using exactly the same data that you used to contribute to the Talis Platform to be used in Talis Source, Whisper, Amazon etc you can now use to sign up to AquaBrowser. For example, Islington and Clare County have deployed the automated harvest script updating their holdings and now they have a rather stylish OPAC front end, as shown here and here – good for them.

I’m really excited about all of this, can you tell? Not only are there other companies in the big old bad world that share our philosophy but it gives libraries another choice. Contribute your holdings and spend as little as $99 a month on AquaBrowser – it’s your choice. For me that’s what the Talis Platform represents; choice and ease of use.

We have already provided two Talis LMS customers as examples, but now we want to find a few DS and SirsiDynix users to try this for free. First come first served - just let me know ....

Technorati Tags: Resource Discovery, Talis, Union catalogue, Dynix, DS, Talis Source, Talis Platform, library,

Posted by Grant White at 06:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Talis have refreshed the Talis Source web page, including an update of the analysis page; illustrating how Talis Source and the Talis Platform are growing.

I have the most peculiar feeling that the continued growth of the service (increase of holdings, increase of the number of institutions, especially the number of HE libraries, contributing to the Talis Platform) is only going to lead to some exciting things…

Technorati Tags: Talis, Talis Source, Talis Platform, Library,

Posted by Grant White at 05:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My colleagues, Ken Chad, Lisa Kirby, Karen Reece, Alan Holloway and myself will be attending the PLA conference next week.

It looks like it’s going to be another great conference and I look forward to meet with you. Visit us at our stand where you can watch demonstrations, ask any questions and generally mingle with Talis. If you have any questions about Talis Source please don’t hesitate to speak with me; at any time.

See you next week..

Technorati Tags: PLA, Talis, Public Libraries Group, Talis Source, Talis Platform, Library,

Posted by Grant White at 01:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I have the pleasure to confirm that my colleague Richard Wallis and I will be attending the SILL meeting at Warminster Library next Wednesday.

I’m thoroughly looking forward to it. We have been tasked to explain how ILL tools have developed and specifically Talis Source, all in an hour! What a challenge, I’m not quite sure how we are going to fit it all in (is there such a thing as verbal shorthand? If there is, please let me know!).

Currently there are a few topics scribbled on my notepad that I want to cover:
• A brief history of the various ILL tools
• How Talis Source has grown (wow, hasn’t it blossomed)
• The technology that will assist the ILL world in the future

If there’s anything else you would like us to cover please let me know. If not I look forward to seeing all of you that will be attending the SILL event next Wednesday.

Posted by Grant White at 05:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)