[Publib] Library 2.0?!

[K.G. Schneider]

> Reinforcing my suspicion that a lot of 2.0-ness (tagging,, blogging,
> video, audio, social whatever) appeals far, far more to librarians than
> patrons!

Your patron is making an important observation: this service is "outside the
flow" (the patron's workflow for discovery and patron interaction). Why
WOULD they use it? 

But let's set aside the whole 2.0 issue for a moment-it's a phrase that can
be distracting. What if your catalog could seamlessly leverage social
information, such as what a wide swath of the public thought of books-sort
of like Novelist, but leveraging a large user community instead of a
company's say-so? 

This actually is in work at Danbury Public Library, which has incorporated
"Librarything for Libraries" into its catalog. 

Incidentally, for web searchers, the library's data is outside the flow,
too; it's stuck inside a library database (the OPAC). Just an observation. 

Karen G. Schneider
kgs at freerangelibrarian.com