Library as Community: reviews, ratings, feeds and the future

Dinah Sanders,Product Manager

The Physical Library

Library as collection

Shared materials for a community

Shared physical space for using the collection, sometimes including a space for lectures, classes, meetings

Shared quiet space for contemplation

Library as content provider

Knowledge management for a community

Known location for lectures & classes

SDI (strategic dissemination of information) and other outreach efforts

The Digital Library

The Library Online

Collection represented descriptively in the catalog

Sometimes enhanced with guides to study or resource use

Occasionally hosting special displays of seasonal or otherwise topical art or info

Enhanced content by subscription

Book jackets Tables of contents Professional reviews …

Vendors like Syndetics and Baker & Taylor Content Cafe

Electronic Resources

Journal and other indexes

Online requesting of Inter-Library Loans

Full-text databases

End-to-end fulfillment services online

Feeds

Incoming Local news Information of interest to sub-communities

Outgoing News about the collection News about the library

Web-based subject guides

Easy to make with a combination of incoming feeds pre-configured search links to the catalog pre-configured search links to MetaFind links to external resources tips on using these tools “Get more help from a librarian” contact info or

live chat …

The Virtual Library

Library as meeting place

Communication between members about the shared materials within their community

Online environment offers opportunities for inter-patron communication - normally hard to combine with the goal of providing a quiet space

Participation creates a sense of ownership

Symposia

The Library as home for and expert on an instituition or community’s knowledge.

Locally-produced materials archived and shared in an easily-searched interface for ongoing use.

Direct access for authorized community members to add materials themselves

Accommodates multiple subcommunities with different access permissions

Patron Ratings

Free feature, first available in Release 2005.

Ability for patrons to express their overall opinion about catalog materials

Does not require staff moderation

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (LZW) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Community Reviews

New product with Release 2006 (requires WebPAC Pro)

Public component Viewing reviews on record display Writing reviews My Reviews area in patron record display with (library

optional) ability to delete past reviews

Staff component Approving or deleting new reviews Searching existing reviews by record, patron or

review number

Community Reviews

Community Manager - Reviews

Tagging

Added by users (may or may not be moderated)

“Folksonomy”

Emergent classification - very low entry cost

Augments, not replaces, controlled vocabularies Highly responsive to change Supports unlimited paths of access Supports disagreement over “aboutness”

Want to try out tagging?

Flickr.com - photo sharing

Del.icio.us and BlinkList.com - bookmark sharing

Technorati.com - leverages tags in blogs for “live web” searches of the current online conversation

Gmail.com - email with tags instead of folders

LibraryThing.com - catalog your personal library with tags

PennTags - an experiment with data extraction from library catalog

What tagging can do for library interfaces

Enables new finding tools

Bridges between formal and informal vocabularies

Invests community directly in the collection

Millennium Encore

Innovative’s new discovery services platform now in development. Real-time Millennium integration Simultaneous import of Research Pro and WebBridge

search results Faceted results display RightResult relevance ranking Community tagging, ratings, reviews Visual shelf browse Apache-based technology

Questions?

dsanders@iii.com