Aggregator of Data – Role of Web Developer and Librarian

In taking a survey of my info gathering and recent web dev activities, I noticed something. First, there is a lot of data in my daily channels of news and info. Raging river of data is probably a better description. Second, the trend in our local library development and app building has been to bring these data bits into manageable streams. Witness:

Library Lifestream

Feed Me Some Worldcat

libTweets

cil2009-TwitSearch

Journal Table of Contents (TOC) Service

Mobile view of MSU blog feed

And these are just local library apps at Montana State… There are open web services and desktop clients (FriendFeed and TweetDeck) that make similar attempts to aggregate data and add value. Wheat from the chaff… Signal from noise… By and large, this has been a role that libraries have played within the physical (our selection of books and relevant, vaild info). I’m wondering how well we can latch onto this trend of aggregation and extend ourselves into the virtual.