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I've just started fiddling with the new catalog for the Boston Public Library. It lets you have "shelves" like on Goodreads, and you can share ratings, comments and lists of books. You can "follow" other users and get recommendations based on their ratings.
All intriguing certainly. I created a list of the books read at this year's PJ party at Arisia to test functionality.
So far, the interface leaves much to be desired. When searching for books to add, it does not let you see further details on the list of returned items. I figured out how to add books from my account (i.e. books currently checked out), but there wasn't a link for that kind of option from the list-creation page. Also, the options of types of lists was very limited - I chose "other" because the only close option was "k-12 study guide."
My mind is swimming with ideas of how to use this well from a librarian perspective (and indeed one type of list is "staff picks" - which I obviously can't access as a choice). But now that I'm just a "regular patron," I'm wondering how I fit in to things, if I wanted to do so.
Currently, there doesn't appear to be a link to this catalog off of BPL's website. But then, nothing is *ever* easy to find on that website, so who knows? I'm guessing they haven't officially rolled it out yet, but is available to play with if you are interested: http://bostonpl.bibliocommons.com/.
All intriguing certainly. I created a list of the books read at this year's PJ party at Arisia to test functionality.
So far, the interface leaves much to be desired. When searching for books to add, it does not let you see further details on the list of returned items. I figured out how to add books from my account (i.e. books currently checked out), but there wasn't a link for that kind of option from the list-creation page. Also, the options of types of lists was very limited - I chose "other" because the only close option was "k-12 study guide."
My mind is swimming with ideas of how to use this well from a librarian perspective (and indeed one type of list is "staff picks" - which I obviously can't access as a choice). But now that I'm just a "regular patron," I'm wondering how I fit in to things, if I wanted to do so.
Currently, there doesn't appear to be a link to this catalog off of BPL's website. But then, nothing is *ever* easy to find on that website, so who knows? I'm guessing they haven't officially rolled it out yet, but is available to play with if you are interested: http://bostonpl.bibliocommons.com/.