Over the summer of 2006, an eclectic mix of librarians, programmers, and interested individuals with Web skills applied their talents to the task of Mashing Up The Library, competing for a first prize of ?1,000 (more than $1,900 at today's exchange rate) while together demonstrating numerous possible future directions for the delivery and integration of library services.

Modern approaches to thinking about providing library data and services online create opportunities for numerous applications beyond the traditionally defined library management system. By adhering to standards from the wider Web community, by considering the library system as an interlocking set of functional components rather than a monolithic black box, and by taking a bold new approach to defining the ways in which information from and about libraries is "owned" and exposed to others, we in the info industry make it straightforward for information from the library to find its way to other places online. Rather than being locked inside the library system, your data can add value to the experience of your users wherever they are, whether it's Google, Amazon, the institutional portal, or one of the social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook. By unlocking data and the services that make use of it, the possibilities are literally endless, and it is here that efforts such as those around the Talis Library Platform become important.

One very early example of combining library data with other sources in order to add value to both is the whole area of the "mashup." Mashups are not only found in the library world, but are proving increasingly prevalent in association with a whole host of Web 2.0 companies and ideas. Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, defines a mashup as "... a website or web application that uses content from more than one source to create a completely new service."

As part of our wider effort to nurture a more open and scalable approach to library data and services, Talis recently worked with an expert panel of judges to solicit innovative examples of library-related mashups. The Mashing Up The Library Competition was open to anyone, anywhere, and it received a range of very different entries from the U.S., Canada, Denmark, and the U.K. These spanned everything from very simple enhancements to existing library functions right through to a collaborative effort to provide library services inside the Second Life 3-D online digital world.

The first prize of ?1,000 was awarded to John Blyberg of Ann Arbor (Mich.) District Library. His entry, Go-Go-Google-Gadget, shows how simply library information can be integrated into the personalized home page offered by Google. Talis' Paul Miller, competition sponsor and member of the judging panel, described it as "an excellent example of taking information previously locked inside the OPAC and making it available to patrons in other contexts where they may spend more time than they do in their OPAC." Available information includes new material in the library, the most popular material in the library, and patron- specific information on checked-out and requested items.

The second prize of ?500 was awarded to the Alliance Library System in East Peoria, Ill., and its global partners in the Second Life Library. Its entry, the Alliance Second Life Library 2.0, was described by Talis' Miller as "both a testament to international cooperation amongst libraries and a compelling demonstration of the ways in which traditional library functions can be extended into cyberspace, reaching new audiences in ways exciting and relevant to them.

"With this competition, we set out to demonstrate some of that which is possible with library information today. The excellent entries submitted this year certainly served to do that, and the interest expressed by many who did not enter this time illustrates both the potential significance of this new approach to rethinking aspects of the library service, and the early stage at which many in the sector are at in getting up-to-speed."

More information on the competition, its international team of judges, and the entries received is available at http:// www.talis.com/tdn/competition. The site will soon also carry information on an exciting new phase of the competition for the rest of 2006 and 2007, so don't forget to check back.