Library clips

When you list a batch of links in a blog post it usually looks like this:

Google Challenges for Academic Libraries (web page)
Do libraries matter? The rise of Library 2.0 (pdf)
Library Success Wiki - Web Browser Extensions (wiki page)
Where Do We Begin? A Library 2.0 Conversation with Michael Casey (blog post)
Podcasting: Easy Audio Casting (ppt)

From this list people can launch to every website, but what if they could read these sites from within the blog post
…along comes Bitty to the rescue.

Just load all the HTML links into an OPML.

Is there a quick way of doing this, ie. whack in 5 HTML URL’s and submit to wrap them in OPML
…you can do this with feed URL’s via RSS to OPML, but what about with normal URL’s…it will still work but the type will still be “rss” and not “link”…fix this up by pasting it into MSword, do a find and replace - find “rss” and replace with “link”…and another one - find xmlUrl and replace with “url”.

Then paste this code into OPML Workstation to give your OPML a URL.

Then whack this OPML URL into Bitty, and whack Bitty into your blog post.

NOTE: I posted about Tony Hirst’s bookmarklet that will make an OPML code out of all the links on the page you are viewing, you just have to save it as an OPML file/URL.
But with this post I’m looking for a textpad to enter all my HTML links into, then generate the OPML code…otherwise I could enter them one by one in OPML Workstation as a last resort.

Here is an OPML URL I knocked up with 5 links above, these are blog posts, webpages, PDF’s, wiki pages, presentations, any type of HTML link.

So instead of listing those 5 links like at the start of this post, I can list them in a browser, this way people can read those links from within my blog post…or take the OPML and dump those links into their own application.
NOTE: not sure if the powerpoint link works within Bitty.

This won’t work with Grazr or Optimal as they are not web browsers, they are only OPML Browsers/Readers, whereas Bitty is this, as well as a general web browser…see Adam Green’s illustration.
NOTE: Grazr also accepts an RSS feed, but to enter more than one you need to do it via an OPML URL.

NOTE: it seems Optimal can view HTML links within the box (iframe)…check out this example.
Left box - if you click on the item “TagCloud” (this is a normal HTML link) it will open in the whole window
Right box - if you click on the item “TagCloud” (this is a normal HTML link) it will open in the iframe just like Bitty.
Now, how do I make an iframe at Optimal for the sidebar of my blog, just like Bitty, and Grazr offer.

What about if you want to do the same thing for all the scattered hyperlinks within your post…once you have published your post you could hit a bookmarklet and it will list all these hyperlinks as a bibliography at the end of your posts…maybe a biblio bookmarklet.

An alternate step to listing the hyperlinks as a bibliography is; to first publish your blog post, then view it and hit Tony’s bookmarklet (pageLinks2OPML), this wraps all the hyperlinks in OPML, just save this as an OPML URL, then insert it into Bitty
…is it possible for all these things to happen all in one go from one click of a bookmarklet.

With one hit you would be able to have an instant bibliography listed in a mini-web browser at the end of your post…and you would be able to read these weblinks within the post itself.

If you don’t like a mini-web browser box within your blog post you could link to a pre-made box on the Bitty website

…or just include a Bitty button within your blog post (or even just a hyperlink), clicking on this button will launch a mini-browser (approx the size of an ipod).

NOTE: I can no longer find where to make Bitty buttons, or even a hyperlink that will launch a mini-browser…I made one from a previous version of Bitty (see below), perhaps they no longer offer this feature.

Related:
Bitty Browser: save space with OPML