| | Here are the requests that have come in through the Access web site, if there is a system or application that you think would be useful to libraries that isn't here, or if such systems already exist, feel free to toss it out as a suggestion:
1. There is a need for a system to disseminate HIV/AIDS information and Learning Materials to health care workers in southern Africa. K-Net <http://knet.ca> is one possible model for the type of system that could be used for this. The system will include a map of southern Africa with HIV/AIDS statistics on it, research documents, HIV/AIDS legislation for every southern african country, list of organizations and pharmaceutical companies, country profiles, publications, word and pdf documents, medical associations and research councils, treatment and care information, library catalogue, CD-ROM searches, other programmes that the organization is involved in, etc. The system will also have a password-protected section for members to access organization-specific information. [Note: this system would assist the South Africa regional office of the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care (IAPAC).]
2. Patrons are often interested in receiving e-mail lists in digest format, but it would be useful if the library could offer a service to create digests from several listservs, possibly based on subject areas, and maybe offering an option to scan message text for certain keywords. The listservs could be requested/selected from a central point, and patrons could choose to connect or disconnect from the service at any time.
3. Virtual Reference systems seem to become very expensive when they offer any kind of co-browser technology (a co-browser is a browser mechanism where a remote patron and library staff can view the same web page at the same time and see the same results). The chat technology of Virtual Reference Systems is easy to find in Open Source options, why not come up with a working co-browser? [Note: I haven't done any research to confirm whether Virtual Reference systems are really that expensive when co-browsing technology is offered, or exhausted all open source repositories to verify that a working co-browser does not exist, though there are several that haven't seemed to get off the ground. Perhaps someone more familiar with virtual reference can chime in on how useful co-browsers are?]
4. EZproxy is one of the most popular and useful systems for working with IP-authenticated resources, yet is quite cumbersome to add entries for new services and requires starting and stopping the system for changes to take effect. Building on some existing tools for working with EZproxy, it would be useful to a large number of libraries to define an Open Source management system for maintaining EZproxy. |