A Sept. 16 2006 posting on the LibraryThing blog noted a few libraries using LibraryThing to display their new books on their website. I took a look at some of those libraries and did not like what I saw. Yes, you could see their new books with their cover art, but click on a book and you are taken to LibraryThing, not the library's catalog entry. You are taken out of the library's website entirely. One library's new book links takes one to Amazon, again not their own library catalog. I'd think that would be kind of confusing to patrons. How many must be thinking that the library doesn't own that book and is sending them to Amazon to purchase it for themselves?
I can't see myself using LibraryThing or any other online book list. I read a lot but have a so-so memory so years ago I made a database of books I've read. I refer to that often, both to refresh my memory and to recommend good reads to my friends. If I'm looking for something to read and my huge stacks of books start dwindling, I head over to Novelist for recommendations or just go to the library book sale and pick up another bag of possibly interesting books. Then I might check other people's reviews online to see if I might like the book. If not, it gets donated back to the Friends to be resold.
There are other online services doing similar things as LibraryThing. Shelfari gets mentioned often. I signed up for both LibraryThing and Shelfari. I entered 15 books I enjoyed reading into LibraryThing. Shelfari did not have one of the 15 in its database. Also, LibraryThing appears to be at least 10 times larger than Shelfari. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood was in over 3,000 people's collections in LibraryThing but only about 300 in Shelfari.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Thing 10 - image generator
Some of the image generators could be used for creating certificates or buttons for library events. Some are just plain fun.
In honor of the caffinated librarians group in Flickr I generated this image:
In honor of the caffinated librarians group in Flickr I generated this image:
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Thing # 6 Libraries using web 2.0
I've finally sat myself down to write down my thoughts on the libraries profiled in thing 6:
Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, Personally I don't like the rotating banner. I find it too distracting. Everything is clearly repeated below under New and Notable. They do offer a number of exciting services. One can subscribe to a variety of feeds of library programs and events, by topic or location. They offer online reference via instant messengers and email.
Seattle Public Library: Nice clean home page. Library news is clearly presented with appealing graphics.
Ann Arbor District Library: Their blog is nicely integrated with their home page and catalog. I do like Ann Arbor's very rich blog with its ability to subscribe to just those topics (tags) you are interested in. I'm assuming that the tags and book reviews within the catalog were submitted by patrons, not staff. Tagging and reviews must be a relatively new feature as there aren't many yet.
The tag cloud is very interesting, http://www.aadl.org/sopac/tagcloud based on the most popular tags, I'd guess those that tag are young adult males who are into graphic novels.
Denver Public Library I don't like Denver's home page with Live News Feeds pulled from Yahoo! News, NY Times, etc. It just doesn't seem to fit. I'm all for creating RSS feeds for patrons to subscribe to for library created content. I'm not so sure about putting news feeds from outside sources on library web pages. Should the library website be a one-stop everything you might ever think you might need to know about your library, community, state, country and world? If I want to keep abreast of breaking news I wouldn't (nor should I?) think of getting it from my local public library.
Denver Public Library podcasts: The podcast page is nice, clean, and appealing. It has very clear podcasting help. Electronic story time for kids, what a great idea. The image of the book cover is linked to the catalog record. I'd have liked to seen a recommendation to check out the book and then listen along. It's not too obvious that you don't have to sit your kid in front of the computer to just listen to a blank screen talking, that you can check out the book and read along. Getting to the podcast page from the homepage required one to click on the DPL Download link. Pretty much straight forward but not obvious.
Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, Personally I don't like the rotating banner. I find it too distracting. Everything is clearly repeated below under New and Notable. They do offer a number of exciting services. One can subscribe to a variety of feeds of library programs and events, by topic or location. They offer online reference via instant messengers and email.
Seattle Public Library: Nice clean home page. Library news is clearly presented with appealing graphics.
Ann Arbor District Library: Their blog is nicely integrated with their home page and catalog. I do like Ann Arbor's very rich blog with its ability to subscribe to just those topics (tags) you are interested in. I'm assuming that the tags and book reviews within the catalog were submitted by patrons, not staff. Tagging and reviews must be a relatively new feature as there aren't many yet.
The tag cloud is very interesting, http://www.aadl.org/sopac/tagcloud based on the most popular tags, I'd guess those that tag are young adult males who are into graphic novels.
Denver Public Library I don't like Denver's home page with Live News Feeds pulled from Yahoo! News, NY Times, etc. It just doesn't seem to fit. I'm all for creating RSS feeds for patrons to subscribe to for library created content. I'm not so sure about putting news feeds from outside sources on library web pages. Should the library website be a one-stop everything you might ever think you might need to know about your library, community, state, country and world? If I want to keep abreast of breaking news I wouldn't (nor should I?) think of getting it from my local public library.
Denver Public Library podcasts: The podcast page is nice, clean, and appealing. It has very clear podcasting help. Electronic story time for kids, what a great idea. The image of the book cover is linked to the catalog record. I'd have liked to seen a recommendation to check out the book and then listen along. It's not too obvious that you don't have to sit your kid in front of the computer to just listen to a blank screen talking, that you can check out the book and read along. Getting to the podcast page from the homepage required one to click on the DPL Download link. Pretty much straight forward but not obvious.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Friends and contacts
What is the etiquette of inviting and accepting invitations to be "friends" I see the value of adding contacts or friends at some web 2.0 sites but not others.
Twitter, to have any useful context to ones personal life, requires finding and adding friends that share a common interest or profession or whatever so that one can see and share what is going on with each other.
On Flickr and some other sites it is useful to have contacts just as a quick link to their photos or blog pages.
When one is invited to be a friend is it OK to decline? I declined one request on a social networking site and the next day the same individual sent another request. I chose not to "friend" this individual because they are not a librarian nor a personal friend. I will just ignore the request this time but am I ruffling any web 2.0 and library 2.0 feathers?
Myspace users seem to be big on gathering lots of friends. On some of the library myspace pages I noticed that most of the "friends" are authors trying to get free advertising. Is this a good thing?
I guess I'm just anti-social, but I do value my real friends and colleagues and the new ones I am making in web 2.0.
Twitter, to have any useful context to ones personal life, requires finding and adding friends that share a common interest or profession or whatever so that one can see and share what is going on with each other.
On Flickr and some other sites it is useful to have contacts just as a quick link to their photos or blog pages.
When one is invited to be a friend is it OK to decline? I declined one request on a social networking site and the next day the same individual sent another request. I chose not to "friend" this individual because they are not a librarian nor a personal friend. I will just ignore the request this time but am I ruffling any web 2.0 and library 2.0 feathers?
Myspace users seem to be big on gathering lots of friends. On some of the library myspace pages I noticed that most of the "friends" are authors trying to get free advertising. Is this a good thing?
I guess I'm just anti-social, but I do value my real friends and colleagues and the new ones I am making in web 2.0.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
More on Thing 9, Twitter
I've been having difficulty updating on Twitter. Each time I try it seems that their servers are having issues. Is it getting too popular and will the whole venture implode? How do they make money to maintain their equipment and Internet connection? There are no ads.
The June 2007 issue of Wired magazine has a short article about Evan Williams, the creator of Twitter. http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/15-06/st_williams Here's a quote that I find telling about some of these free Web 2.0 services: "He's so confident, he recently spun Twitter into its own company, even though the software has yet to earn him a dime."
I'm still trying to find some value in Twitter. It seems very ephemeral.
The June 2007 issue of Wired magazine has a short article about Evan Williams, the creator of Twitter. http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/15-06/st_williams Here's a quote that I find telling about some of these free Web 2.0 services: "He's so confident, he recently spun Twitter into its own company, even though the software has yet to earn him a dime."
I'm still trying to find some value in Twitter. It seems very ephemeral.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Rental books via the web
Today's Sacramento Bee had a little announcement of a new web service. Rachel Leibrock, an entertainment writer had this to say:
"Doing 'what Netflix has done for movies', Bookswim.com offers book junkies a new way to indulge. With monthly plans starting at $23.99, users can 'rent' several books per month ... with free shipping, no late fees and the option to purchase"
I should hope this business model is doomed to failure.
"Doing 'what Netflix has done for movies', Bookswim.com offers book junkies a new way to indulge. With monthly plans starting at $23.99, users can 'rent' several books per month ... with free shipping, no late fees and the option to purchase"
I should hope this business model is doomed to failure.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Thing 9 - Twitter
I signed up for a Twitter account. If you are reading this post and have a Twitter account, go ahead and Friend me at http://twitter.com/jsiegel For those of you like me new to Twitter, on the right side of the page is a box labeled Actions with a link to Add jsiegel. Once clicked you've added me as a friend.
Oh, now Twitter is down. I've read the FAQ and don't really get the why people use it. It seems to be a merger of IM and blogging. Skeptical me thinks it must be supported by wireless phone companies as it encourages more text messaging. My cell phone is usually turned off and I never text message because I have no use for it and don't want to pay the added costs.
Oh, now Twitter is down. I've read the FAQ and don't really get the why people use it. It seems to be a merger of IM and blogging. Skeptical me thinks it must be supported by wireless phone companies as it encourages more text messaging. My cell phone is usually turned off and I never text message because I have no use for it and don't want to pay the added costs.
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