Blacklight (software)
| Initial release | October 30, 2009 |
|---|---|
| Stable release |
6.3.1
/ July 7, 2016 |
| Written in | Ruby |
| Type | Library and information science software |
| License | Apache License |
| Website |
projectblacklight |
Blacklight is an open source Ruby on Rails Engine for creating search interfaces on top of Apache Solr indices. The software is frequently used by libraries to create discovery layers or institutional repositories; museums and archives to highlight digital collections; and by other information retrieval projects.
History
The University of Virginia began developing Blacklight based on its Collex scholarly publishing software, which also used Ruby and Rails and Solr.[1] The goals of the project included improved user experience over contemporary OPAC systems, particularly with regard to relevance ranking, and showcasing historically underutilized library collections.[2]
Features
Blacklight includes support faceted browsing, relevance based searching, bookmarking documents, permanent URLs for documents.[3] It is relatively simple to customize Blacklight, typically by writing Ruby code that overrides default Blacklight code.[4] There are several plugins available for Blacklight as well, including an extension for geospatial data,[5] a digital exhibit creation tool,[6] and various search and user interface features.
Implementations
- Early adopters of Blacklight include libraries at University of Virginia, Stanford University, North Carolina State University, WGBH Open Vault, and University of Wisconsin–Madison.[7]
- The National Radio Astronomy Observatory uses Blacklight to provide access to data about telescopes, papers, conference proceedings, and theses.[8]
- The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists used Blacklight with Apache Tika to comb through the 11.5 million documents from Mossack Fonseca popularly known as the Panama Papers.[9]
See also
References
- ↑ Cohen, Laura B. (2007). "Adapting an Open-Source Scholarly Web 2.0 System for Findability in Library Collections or: Frankly, Vendors, We Don't Give a Damn". Library 2.0 initiatives in academic libraries. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries. pp. 58–72. ISBN 9780838984529.
- ↑ Eden, Brad; Sadler, Bess (6 March 2009). "Project Blacklight: a next generation library catalog at a first generation university". Library Hi Tech. 27 (1): 57–67. doi:10.1108/07378830910942919.
- ↑ Kang, Hyeran. "A new interface for IUCAT: Blacklight". reDUX: a blog by the Discovery & User Experience dept. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
- ↑ "Configuring and Customizing Blacklight". GitHub. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
- ↑ "GeoBlacklight". Retrieved 19 July 2016.
- ↑ "Spotlight". Project Blacklight. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
- ↑ Cartolano, Robert T. (4 November 2015). "History of Blacklight". doi:10.7916/D8J38S9M.
- ↑ DuPlain, Ron; Balser, Dana S.; Radziwill, Nicole M. (19 July 2010). Build great web search applications quickly with Solr and Blacklight. Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy. doi:10.1117/12.857899.
- ↑ Hackett, Robert (11 April 2016). "The Panama Papers Search Tool Began as an Academic Skunkworks Project". Fortune. Retrieved 19 July 2016.