Category Archives: Web

Cybersecurity, Usability, Online Privacy, and Digital Surveillance

** This post was originally published in ACRL TechConnect on May. 9, 2016.*** Cybersecurity is an interesting and important topic, one closely connected to those of online privacy and digital surveillance. Many of us know that it is difficult to … Continue reading

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Using the Stripe API to Collect Library Fines by Accepting Online Payments

*** This post was originally published in ACRL TechConnect on Sep. 10, 2014.*** Recently, my library has been considering accepting library fines via online. Currently, many library fines of a small amount that many people owe are hard to collect. As … Continue reading

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Query a Google Spreadsheet like a Database with Google Visualization API Query Language

***  This post was originally published in ACRL TechConnect on Dec. 4, 2013. *** Libraries make much use of spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are easy to create, and most library staff are familiar with how to use them. But they can quickly … Continue reading

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Redesigning the Item Record Summary View in a Library Catalog and a Discovery Interface

***  This post was originally published in ACRL TechConnect on Oct. 15, 2013. *** A. Oh, the Library Catalog Almost all librarians have a love-hate relationship with their library catalogs (OPAC), which are used by library patrons. Interestingly enough, I … Continue reading

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Playing with JavaScript and JQuery – the Ebook link HTML string generator and the EZproxy bookmarklet generator

***This post has been published in ACRL TechConnect on April 8, 2013. *** In this post, I will describe two cases in which I solved a practical problem with a little bit of JavaScript and JQuery. Check them out first … Continue reading

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Aaron Swartz and Too-Comfortable Research Libraries

*** This post has been originally published in ACRL TechConnect on Feb. 11, 2013. *** *** Update: Several references and a video added (thanks to Brett Bonfield) on Feb. 21, 2013. *** Who was Aaron Swartz? If you are a … Continue reading

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More APIs: writing your own code (2)

*** This blog post has been originally published in ACRL TechConnect 0n October 9, 2012. *** My previous post “The simpest AJAX: writing your own code (1)” discussed a few Javascript and JQuery examples that make the use of the Flickr … Continue reading

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A bad business model or a savvy market strategy? Thinking like a vendor

I want to talk about an e-book platform called Inkling whose web version is not cross-browser compatible. But what I am really interested to talk about is neither an ebook platform nor its cross-browser support. I am interested in thinking … Continue reading

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The simplest AJAX: writing your own code (1)

*** This blog post has been originally published in ACRL TechConnect 0n September 12, 2012. *** It has been 8 months since the Code Year project started. Back in January, I have provided some tips. Now I want to check in … Continue reading

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The Mobile Web and the Mobile Websites of Libraries

I have given a talk at the 2012 Amigos Online Conference – Access by Touch: Delivering Library Services Through Mobile Technologies last Friday. Thanks to all who attended my session! I won’t be really write any post on my blog … Continue reading

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