LibraryThing

I first joined LibraryThing when I moved away for a year and all my stuff was in storage.
I wanted to know what I owned, so I created a spreadsheet as I would not have Internet access - then I discovered LibraryThing so I bulk imported the spreadsheet to create my library http://www.librarything.com/catalog/brucie995.

I've also created accounts using that spreadsheet with alternative LibraryThing sites
http://www.bookjetty.com/brucie995
http://www.shelfari.com/brucie995

Not having Internet, I've never really utilised LibraryThing (or the other sites) to it's full potential but it's been useful in solving arguments with my brother.

I know some of our customers use social book club sites and I would definitely like to explore options - eg: LibraryThing Local to increase exposure to our programs and events.

Mandurah Libraries already has it's catalogue accessible via z39.50 to Shelfari (i think), Bookjetty and LibraryThing - this means that when users are searching LibraryThing they can check to see if it's held by us. This unfortunately uses ISBN so the hit rate is lower than it should be but I'm hoping these site will broaden their search parameters to include title information.

All we need now is something just as good for Music and DVDs!!!

Social Bookmarking

I love the idea of social bookmarking. Keeping bookmarks synchronised between my three main computers is impossible, let alone sharing these where appropriate among new and existing staff. While there are software tools to synchronise bookmarks across PCs, work IT policies prevent these from being installed.

Another aspect is how quickly web pages can disappear - if your bookmark is out-of-date you can quickly find other sites that have been bookmarked without having to wade through as much dross.

Because others can add to these and you can share/import it you can develop a list of websites collaboratively that can be utilised for reference enquiries and to give new staff access to resources easily. And because it's collaborative it takes the burden off of a single person to maintain and is hopefully "self" correcting.

My Delicious bookmark page is http://www.delicious.com/libsmorethanbooks .

Wikis

I do like the collaborative aspect of wiki's. It's always a problem when working on a project with others to keep track of all the emails, versions of documents, revisions etc. And then when someone else gets involved or you want to share then information with others later it can be a real problem compiling all that data.
The nice thing about Wiki's (and blogs) is that you post it once and then people can edit or comment - and it's all laid out sequentially so you can trace the development or progression of ideas. When others come later it's already there and laid out for them & they too can add their contribution.

RSS Feeds

I love my iGoogle homepage - I forget to check google reader, but I like having all my RSS feeds displayed on my browser when I start it as all I need to do is a quick scan across the page for anything interesting. And it has the the google search right there !

I added some of the regular blogs I view to the right of my blog. A particular favourite is "Musings about librarianship" as I generally find the topics reflect things that I am thinking about or know I should be thinking about.

Mobile Devices

I found this image on Flickr from Robert Dumas on WorldCat's mobile app. I wonder how this instant access to library holdings will affect customer expectations ?
Will customers still be willing to wait (possibly) weeks for their reservations to be satisfied or will they start demanding faster response times ?
If they email a request for information how quickly do they expect a response ?
Does it matter ? Is it a case of user education ? or if we meet their expectations will they find other sources or even just stop asking altogether?