While Hennepin County Library’s (HCL) innovative Bookspace site doesn’t incorporate the use of tags per se, I’ve included a review of it because the overview here of interactive library catalogues – with LibraryThing, Scriblio, and SOPAC – wouldn’t be complete without mentioning this fantastic site.
According to the Missouri River Regional Library’s conference blog, which gives some background information about the service, Bookspace was created to “bring together all the resources for readers that they had scattered throughout the site into one place and allow both librarians and patrons to contribute even more content to the site than they already had”. The site, launched in February 2007, allows users to comment or write brief reviews on items in the catalogue, as well as create booklists and share them with other users. Much like SOPAC, an account is required to contribute to the site, but access is not restricted to users that have a HCL library card.
Bookspace, however, goes one step further than LibraryThing, Scriblio, and SOPAC, with its interactive homepage. In addition to the “My Bookspace” area for keeping track of your profile, booklists, and comments, the site acts as a sort of “hub” for readers’ resources. The site features booklists created by readers, librarians, and automatically generated from the catalogue; links to book-related events in the library; resources for book clubs; links to audio books; and “Find a Good Book” pages that allow users to browse subjects, genres, lists, and websites to find good books. Users can also receive email or RSS alerts about new books published by a favourite author, or daily excerpts from books.
The use of descriptive headings and related links on almost every page make this site very easy and intuitive to navigate. Users’ comments and reviews are also incorporated into the individual item catalogue records, and so are also useful for book selection by patrons that don’t otherwise participate in Bookspace.
Other tools used by the library are also somewhat integrated into Bookspace. On the site there are links to the library’s blog where books are reviewed weekly, as well as a link to the e-newsletter that also contains useful reader information. In an article about the launch of Bookspace, Library Journal talks about HCL’s invitation for readers to send in a photo of them reading in a favourite space. These photos are posted on Flickr, and now rotate on the Bookspace homepage.
Bookspace was smart to create the easy-to-remember domain name of bookspace.org. This allows for easier access for patrons that regularly use the site. As The Librarian in Black mentions in her blog posting about the service, many libraries keep the library domain name for a new site, and “ask users to remember something like:www.co.library.state.us/books/homepage.html“. For new users, a link to Bookspace is also prominently displayed on the library’s homepage.
Being “The Tagging Librarian” it almost goes without saying that I would very much like to see the option for user tagging in Bookspace. Much like tags used in other OPAC enhancements mentioned previously, I believe they would enhance users’ ability to search for books of certain genres or characteristics. In addition it would allow individual users to track the tags they’ve applied to books they’ve read. However, tagging aside, Bookspace does in fact seem to be the “ultimate” interactive environment for recreational readers. In fact, this may be the site I return to to create my Christmas reading list!
While Hennepin County Library’s (HCL) innovative Bookspace site doesn’t incorporate the use of tags per se, I’ve included a review of it because the overview here of interactive library catalogues – with LibraryThing, Scriblio, and SOPAC – wouldn’t be complete without mentioning this fantastic site.
According to the Missouri River Regional Library’s conference blog, which gives some background information about the service, Bookspace was created to “bring together all the resources for readers that they had scattered throughout the site into one place and allow both librarians and patrons to contribute even more content to the site than they already had”. The site, launched in February 2007, allows users to comment or write brief reviews on items in the catalogue, as well as create booklists and share them with other users. Much like SOPAC, an account is required to contribute to the site, but access is not restricted to users that have a HCL library card.
(image source: http://www.hclib.org/pub/bookspace/Login.cfm – the author’s personal account)
Bookspace, however, goes one step further than LibraryThing, Scriblio, and SOPAC, with its interactive homepage. In addition to the “My Bookspace” area for keeping track of your profile, booklists, and comments, the site acts as a sort of “hub” for readers’ resources. The site features booklists created by readers, librarians, and automatically generated from the catalogue; links to book-related events in the library; resources for book clubs; links to audio books; and “Find a Good Book” pages that allow users to browse subjects, genres, lists, and websites to find good books. Users can also receive email or RSS alerts about new books published by a favourite author, or daily excerpts from books.
(image source: http://www.hclib.org/pub/bookspace/)
The use of descriptive headings and related links on almost every page make this site very easy and intuitive to navigate. Users’ comments and reviews are also incorporated into the individual item catalogue records, and so are also useful for book selection by patrons that don’t otherwise participate in Bookspace.
Other tools used by the library are also somewhat integrated into Bookspace. On the site there are links to the library’s blog where books are reviewed weekly, as well as a link to the e-newsletter that also contains useful reader information. In an article about the launch of Bookspace, Library Journal talks about HCL’s invitation for readers to send in a photo of them reading in a favourite space. These photos are posted on Flickr, and now rotate on the Bookspace homepage.
Bookspace was smart to create the easy-to-remember domain name of bookspace.org. This allows for easier access for patrons that regularly use the site. As The Librarian in Black mentions in her blog posting about the service, many libraries keep the library domain name for a new site, and “ask users to remember something like: www.co.library.state.us/books/homepage.html“. For new users, a link to Bookspace is also prominently displayed on the library’s homepage.
Being “The Tagging Librarian” it almost goes without saying that I would very much like to see the option for user tagging in Bookspace. Much like tags used in other OPAC enhancements mentioned previously, I believe they would enhance users’ ability to search for books of certain genres or characteristics. In addition it would allow individual users to track the tags they’ve applied to books they’ve read. However, tagging aside, Bookspace does in fact seem to be the “ultimate” interactive environment for recreational readers. In fact, this may be the site I return to to create my Christmas reading list!
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: blogs, BookRecommendations, Bookspace, Flickr, HennepinCountyLibrary, OPACenhancements, UserComments, WebsiteRecommendations