Dean Giustini forwarded me the link to the article "An Introduction to Mashups for Health Librarians" published in the Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association (Volume 28, Number 1, Winter 2007 p. 19-22).

It is a great article for librarians to get a better understanding about mashups and the opportunities they present to librarians and library users.

Mashups have definitely created a sort of programming revolution due to the ease at which they can be created, developed, and improved. Granted, you don't need to be a "programming expert with training in C++ or Visual Basic," but according to ProgrammableWeb. com creating mashups is still "mostly a programmer's affair." There are tools such as MapBuilder and Wayfaring that can help you create basic mapping mashups without any coding. Google also offers some help with their Google AJAX Search API Wizards which allows you to enhance your site with Google search without writing any code. But to create other types of mashup programs you might need to know some programming languages to use the APIs. For example, the API for ISBNdb.com, a worldwide database of books, "is primarily intended for use by programmers."

Don't be turned off by mashups just because you think you lack the necessary programming skills. There will come a time when it will be very easy for non-programmers to make some cool library related mashups. What is important is that librarians who don't yet have the skills to create mashups, keep them in the back of their mind and keep their eyes open for the mashups created by other techie and programming librarians.

Labels: Mashups