Installing the Greenstone Digital Library Software on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx)

Date May 21, 2010

Greenstone is a suite of software for building and distributing digital library collections. It is not a digital library but a tool for building digital libraries. It provides a new way of organizing information and publishing it on the Internet in the form of a fully-searchable, metadata-driven digital library. It has been developed and distributed in cooperation with UNESCO and the Human Info NGO in Belgium. It is open-source, multilingual software, issued under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
— http://www.greenstone.org/factsheet

Installing Greenstone is really rather simple, though the online tutorials can be somewhat confusing given the different configurations for servers, etc. These instructions are for a local, non-networked, installation on a computer running Ubuntu 10.04, though they will work for other recent Ubuntu versions as well.

  1. Download the most recent release for GNU/Linux at http://www.greenstone.org/download. For me, the most recent release is Greenstone-2.83-linux.

  2. Open a terminal and navigate to your downloads folder. If you are new to Linux, typing pwd will tell you your current directory. li will tell you the contents of your current folder. For me, I entered the following to move from my home directory to the Downloads subdirectory:

    cd Downloads

  3. Next, double-check to ensure that your downloaded file is in this directory using the li command. Then, make that file executable with the following command (be sure to use the correct filename if you downloaded a different version):

    chmod a+x Greenstone-2.83-linux

  4. Leave this terminal window open, but now open your desktop file browser and go to the Downloads folder. For me, that is “Places” then “Home Folder” then “Downloads”. Then double-click on Greenstone-2.83-linux to launch the installer. Alternatively, you could launch it from within the terminal window if you are comfortable with that.
  5. Follow the installation instructions by clicking “Next” throughout the dialogue, but be sure NOT to install the “admin” pages when asked since we are only installing this for local, non-networked use.

  6. Once Greenstone is installed, these last two steps are what will be necessary for launching the program each time. Greenstone does not install into the Applications menu and must be started from the terminal in Linux. First, launch the Greenstone Server from the command line within the Greenstone directory.

    Navigate to the Greenstone directory from the Downloads directory:
    cd ..
    cd Greenstone

    Launch the Greenstone Server:
    ./gs2-server.sh

    Greenstone will then also try to open a web browser and take you to the default page. If this encounters an error, click “File” on the little server window, then “Settings” and change to one of the other options like “/localhost” or “127.0.0.1″ until you find the right setting.

  7. Now open a new tab in the terminal window and launch the Greenstone Librarian Interface (also from within the Greenstone directory):
    ./gli/gli.sh

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ReadersRepair.com

Date May 12, 2010

Okay, I’m shamelessly plugging my new (somewhat) remunerative endeavor.

I bind books. I rebind books. I make them from scratch, and I repair them. It’s what I enjoy, and though this enjoyment had until recently been shelved until I finished my library science degree (MSLS, at the University of Kentucky), I am now pleased to return to this pleasure.

And so I am announcing the re-launch of my bookbinding business, Readers Repair. I have some backlog to work through, but after that, bring me your injured bibles, your damaged books, your dissertations in need of fine binding. I am still putting products and services onto the website and I welcome your suggestions of what types of products and services you think might be worthwhile. There was at least some minor interest in custom-bound Greek and/or Hebrew texts a couple of years ago, but what else? Any ideas?

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The Getty Now Provides Free Access to the Bibliography of the History of Art

Date April 5, 2010

From a recent release:

As of April 1, 2010, the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) will be available free of charge on the Getty Web site at http://library.getty.edu/bha. Free Web access to BHA is an advantage not only to all traditional users of the database but also to such potential users as institutions in developing countries and independent scholars worldwide, who until now have been unable to afford access to the BHA.

…

BHA on the Getty Web site offers both basic and advanced search modules, and can be searched easily by subject, artist, author, article or journal title, and other elements. To search BHA, please visit, http://library.getty.edu/bha. Note that the database search includes both BHA (covering 1990-2007) and the International Bibliography of Art (IBA), covering the years 2008 and part of 2009. The Répertoire de la litterature de l’art (RILA), one of the predecessors of BHA, with records that cover 1975-1989, will be online by May 1.

Use the BHA at: http://library.getty.edu/bha

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Category Posted in Art, History, Research, Web Comments No Comments »

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