I have updated my Amazon-to-Seattle Public Library lookup Greasemonkey script to work with Firefox 1.5 and Greasemonkey 0.6.4. Get it here.

It inserts a link under the book title indicating the book’s status at SPL.

Here’s the original post.

Book Burro is way better than any lookup script I have seen. And it looks like he’s working on a new feature for adding your own custom sources. Go get Book Burro now.

I’ll be keeping tabs on Greasemonkey developments in the near future, and should something turn up that I can use to update my library lookup script for Firefox 1.5, you can be sure I’ll post about it here.

About six weeks ago, I cobbled together a quickie Greasemonkey script for including a LibraryLookup link in Amazon’s book pages to the Seattle Public Library. It’s proved very handy. Some non-techie family members are using it, and it’s generated more comments and feedback than any previous entry on this here blog.

So, it was to my wonder and amazement that I recently happened upon a similar user script that does more tricks, more better. Over at snarfed.org is a script that queries the Palo Alto Libraries and displays the circulation status of whatever book you’re looking at on Amazon.com, just like Jon Udell’s script. As luck would have it, the Palo Alto Libraries use the same Dynix cataloging system as the Seattle Public Libraries, making the task of adapting the script for SPL trivial. Here’s a screenshot. Notice the nice green link under the book title which informs me that The System of the World is available in the Seattle Public Library:

Cool or what? Click that link and it takes you directly to the item in SPL’s catalog. The script is smart enough to also tell you if the book is checked out, on order, in process, or not available. I like.

Now, if you have previously installed my first script, I suggest you uninstall it before grabbing the new one. Also, I make no guarantees that this will by my last version. To make use of the script you’ll need Firefox, Greasemonkey, and to right-click the following link: amazonspl.user.js, then choose “install user script.” Then browse for a book.

A few weeks ago I set out to paste together my first Greasemonkey script along the lines of Jon Udell’s uber-cool LibraryLookup. What I have so far falls short of Udell’s, but it is a step forward. I borrowed code not from Udell but from another LibraryLookup script: Amazon Linky.

My script does one thing. On any Amazon.com book listing page, the script inserts a link below the book title which, when clicked, will search for the book in the Seattle Public Library catalog. It’s like inserting a LibraryLookup bookmarlet into the page itself. Here’s a picture:

To make use of this script you’ll need Firefox and the Greasemonkey extension. Once those are installed, right-click (or ctrl+click) amazonspllinky.user.js and choose “install user script.” Then browse for a book.

I’ve set upon myself to create a similar Greasemonkey script for the Seattle Public Library. So, while I bone up on JavaScript and flail about helplessly for a time, I’ve decided to update my Seattle Public Library LibraryLookup Bookmarklet which had become useless since the library upgraded its catalog at the end of February. Just drag and drop the link to your bookmarks toolbar. Then when you’re viewing a book listing at Amazon (or other site that includes ISBNs in the URL) you can click the bookmarklet and a new window will pop-up showing you the status of that book at the Seattle Public Library.

Here’s a complete menu of all my collected bookmarklets, some of which I made and others I found elsewhere. Drag and drop any and all just like the LibraryLookup bookmarklet above.

• King County Library Lookup
• 43 Things tags search
• Technorati tags search
• del.icio.us tags search
• Flickr tags search
• Metafilter tags search
• Upcoming tags search
• del.icio.us linkbacks from the inestimable Alan Taylor.