Give me an A, a P, an I - go quality!
Jinfo Blog

By Joanna Ptolomey

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Early in 2010 I wrote about opportunities for librarians/information professionals to "Get with the programme" and extend their competency base and services with the addition of programming skills (http://www.vivavip.com/go/e27911).

One of the ways in which they could do this is to take advantage of APIs (application programming interfaces). APIs allow software to interact and integrate with other software.

For example a website could get additional content from external sources – a simple and common example to be found is the use of Google Maps allowing geo-location. Information providers are realising that there data and information can be put to better use by the "users" of the information.

We all know that the true value in content is when it is matched together with other information and presented in a way that is appropriate to particular user groups – in other words it becomes more meaningful. More and more information providers are now making their APIs available, such as the Guardian newspaper that officially launched an open platform for their content earlier this year.

But there are many more open platforms coming on stream now from all sectors of the information market. Nancy Davis Kho, in a recent article about Elsevier, made reference to the content on SciVerse, ScienceDirect and Scopus being made available to be pulled into customer workflow applications (http://www.vivavip.com/go/e30458). This development comes from over 2 years work involving interviews with users of this information – amongst them researchers and librarians (http://digbig.com/5bcjcs).

The outcome being that it is not just about slicing and dicing information, but is an opportunity to facilitate connections. APIs are all about finding innovative ways to package and re-use content – and that has benefits for both parties.

Firstly providers have their information showcased in ways that perhaps they had never imagined and highlight their content in a competitive marketplace. Secondly it provides an excellent opportunity for librarians/information professionals to take on the role to provide specific content solutions for their niche users.

Librarians in the biomedical field have vast amounts of information available to them and they already provide value-added services for clinical and research professionals by packaging up content specific to their needs. However, this content can seem flat and without energy by being pulled from traditional database sources, and it is sometimes hard to make the package bespoke – so it would be interesting to see how using APIs would enhance their service delivery outcomes.

As I write this I have also deposited my forthcoming FUMSI folio with the draft title of "Prove your worth by delivering quality not quantity". More now than ever we are consumed by information overload and my question is - "why not take this as an opportunity as information professionals to use technologies, such as APIs, to deliver on quality and directly show our true value?"

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