I just stumbled across this: Talis is sponsoring a Mashing Up The Library competition, due date Friday 18 August.

This is your chance to wow the world with your ideas; your chance to build better systems on top of library data; your chance to demonstrate the value and the power of libraries; your chance to take library information and display it in exciting new ways.

This is a cool idea, I think. For one thing, it’s a good way to encourage innovation in this field which, heaven knows, could use more innovation. I’ve always thought that this field needs to put more of its money where its mouth is, so to speak. For another, it’s a great recruiting junket for Talis. Plus you’ve got to love any competition where one of the evaluation criteria is coolness.

Among the judges are our very own Andrew Pace, Gary Price, and Jon Udell, creator of the LibraryLookup Project.