Populating, Updating, and Utilizing New York Times Lists

Owned by Ashley Sneesby, created
Last updated: Aug 11, 2021
4 min read

This documentation describes how to create, update, and utilize New York Times Bestseller lists in Pika.

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Basic Navigation and Configuration

In order to use the New York Times (NYT) Lists functionality in Pika, an API must be installed.  The API installation happens when a Discovery site is first configured.  Marmot members all use the same, existing API.  The NYT Lists functionality requires a Pika User account in their ILS.

Go to Pika Configuration and NY Times Lists.

Create and Update NYT Lists

The first time you access the NY Times List, you will see the drop down list and the Create/Update List button.  

The drop down list is all the lists that are available from the API.  Each list will have the publication date listed, because some of the lists are not being updated anymore. 

Please review the publication date to ensure you’re creating and using a recently published list. There are a good number of now-obsolete lists that are still available in the API but not recently updated.

Lists are refreshed on Sunday, but it will be for the following Sunday.  

To update or create a NY Times List, choose a list from the drop down menu, and click on the Create/Update List button.  

This will give you a blue bar with the updated or created list. This creates a Pika User List of all the items in the catalog that Pika can find relative to the NYT List.  The NYT List might have titles that are not in the catalog, so those items will not end up in the list. 

Any lists that have been previously created will display as NYT – List Name, so they do not duplicate any names from other users' lists. They will also have the Last Updated information (which is not the same as the publication date of the list).

There is an automated cron job that updates NYT Lists everyday, which should mitigate the need to manually update NYT Lists.

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Adding a NYT List as a Browse Category

Click on the list to open it.  

You can click on the Add To Home Page under the Admin Options to add this list as a Browse Category.

Below two examples of libraries using NYT Lists as browse categories.

Marmot Consortium

Mesa County Libraries

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NYT Lists in Catalog Search Results

If your library includes public lists in search results, the NYT Lists can be included in search result.

Perform a keyword search for NYT and limit the format to Lists for easy access.

Clicking into a NYT List from the search results will direct you to the list’s options, including sharing and admin options e.g. sharing via email or creating a Browse Category.