We have been working hard on preparing our new BookLetters subscription for public consumption. BookLetters are "annotated lists of new or noteworthy books covering a wide variety of subjects and genres." Most are updated monthly and you can subscribe to them to have them delivered to you via email or RSS feed. Take a look at the BookLetters page to see what is currently available. BookLetters also provides lists of award winning books. We have an adult Award Winners page and an Award Winners for Kids page. We have plans for an Award Winning Books for Teens page as well, but it's not quite ready for prime time. (NOTE: some of the headers/navigation on the BookLetters pages don't match, but we're working on it!)
Prepping the BookLetters info fed into a bigger idea for a Readers' page and a much better version of a Kids page, now called Family Page. We wanted to pull together info from the catalog, BookLetters, InfoSoup booklists and some outside resources to make pages that would be interesting, timely, and helpful for our patrons. Evan spent a good deal of time reviewing relevant sites for these pages based on the guidelines we presented earlier this week, so these pages will show you more tangible examples of what we were describing in the guidelines. Even though a good deal of work has been put into these pages, we are hoping that you will have feedback on what you like, don't like, sites that we could consider adding (or removing), etc. We're very excited about them and are happy to be posting them for your comments.
Headers that have an * by them are looking for good names if anyone has a great idea! And overall site navigation on all of these pages will be tweaked once we know what will stay, go or change.
Also, we are working on a Teens page and hope to create a Movies page, a Music page and possibly an Audiobooks page based on the models above.
We look forward to hearing what you think.
Thanks!
Beth and Evan
Comments (16)
Holy cow! It's wonderful...Terrie
Posted by Terrie | February 15, 2007 3:47 PM
Posted on February 15, 2007 15:47
I love the way the family page works. Would only suggest adding a link to the Read on Wisconsin site, First Lady Jessica Doyle's online reading club. http://readon.wisconsin.gov/
It has a clean fresh look to it. Thanks.
Posted by Sue Abrahamson | February 15, 2007 4:45 PM
Posted on February 15, 2007 16:45
Beth, I like the staff picks section and am looking forward to making some additions. Tell us when you are ready for some input. Will patrons be able to comment on recommended books?
Posted by Sue Abrahamson | February 15, 2007 4:55 PM
Posted on February 15, 2007 16:55
Sue - Evan and I have been going back and forth on using a blog vs. using a BookLetters list. If the Staff Picks were posted on a blog, yes, patrons would be able to comment on the books. If we use a BookLetters list, no, they would not be able to comment. Blog postings require a little more setup and training on how to create a post - not too difficult, but some work. BookLetters would simply require you to send an ISBN for your pick to Evan for the list. How do you all feel about it? How important is allowing patrons to comment vs. ease of posting titles?
Posted by Beth C. OWLS | February 15, 2007 4:59 PM
Posted on February 15, 2007 16:59
WOW - The Family Page is great. I was obsesed with making selections off of the page this morning. I think it's going to go over big.
Posted by Diane R CPL | February 16, 2007 10:35 AM
Posted on February 16, 2007 10:35
These pages look very cool -- exciting stuff! On the blog vs. Bookletters list, I tend to come down on the side of the blog, because I think allowing our patrons' comments would reinforce to community aspect of our service. Any staff members interested in suggesting items could learn the protocols.
Posted by Terry Dawson | February 16, 2007 5:15 PM
Posted on February 16, 2007 17:15
I really like the Bookletters page, as well as the Awards. Not too cluttered and very easy to look at/read. The Family page is also much easier to look at than the Readers' page, although I can't really put my finger on the large differences in organization. I think this could be a great Reader's Advisory tool.
Posted by SaraK@APL | February 17, 2007 2:20 PM
Posted on February 17, 2007 14:20
Blog vs BookLetters. Our vision of InfoSoup development definitely hopes to include patron input in a variety of ways. Doing Staff Picks in a blog format with patron comments, however, would require a greater commitment of participation and also involve additional maintenance. I think we can do it (and if the commitment is there would like to try it) but I’m not sure how quickly we could get that going.
My question is whether it is better to start with simple monthly staff picks list via Bookletters and work toward developing a blog, or just not offer Staff Picks when we go live with these pages and see how long it takes us to build the necessary infrastructure to use a blog format? It is also possible that the two are not mutually exclusive and could be used differently. Any thoughts?
Posted by Evan B. OWLS | February 20, 2007 10:56 AM
Posted on February 20, 2007 10:56
Blog vs BookLetters - continued. I get it. It seems like there are trade-offs in doing something immediately, even if it isn't the longterm solution, and making the change when ready. The other option is to not even start until something like the final product is there. Might depend on the timeframe.
Not knowing what technologies are being considered or who will be involved, its difficult to make a relevant comment. In the context of Staff Picks, can you elaborate on "commitment of participation"? What is the scope? Is there some critical mass of either participants or organizational will?
For my own part, I tend to think the real added value will come with the public participation aspect, and would prefer to see us (and by us, I mean you :) concentrate on getting that working.
Posted by Terry | February 22, 2007 3:40 PM
Posted on February 22, 2007 15:40
Here's the main issues with blog vs. BookLetters. If we start with a BookLetters Staff Picks, all that people would be required to do would be to send in an ISBN for a title they want to recommend. The content for the review would be pulled out of BookLetters' databases, so very little work on your or our end is involved. The list could be as small as 10-15 titles per month, so few people would have to spend much time on it. The same people wouldn't have to contribute every month (or whatever frequency we choose) either, as sending in an ISBN isn't dependent on contributor accounts being set up.
With blogs it becomes more complicated. It is likely that a group of contributors would need to commit to writing at least one post at least biweekly (less often with lots of contributors, more often with less contributors) and the group would stay relatively stable. This is because contributor accounts would need to be set up for them to add entries to the blog, training would need to be given on how to add entries to the blog, and the reviews would have to be written by the contributor for their entries. On our end, once the account set up and training is done, we would be monitoring the comments to post relevant ones and kick out junk/spam. So blogs are just generally more work all around. Personally, I think it's worth it, because the added value of allowing patron comments is ideal.
Just so you know when the blog option might be possible... I need to get Webpac Pro (the next upgrade to InfoSoup) completed this Spring, along with several other projects. It's not likely I could get a blog going until mid-summer due to other obligations.
With that information, is it possible to have an opinion on whether we should start simply to have something up for Staff Picks and use the BookLetters option until a blog is possible? Should we just wait until we have time to deal with the blog format? Is the easier option of BookLetters more ideal because it's less work or are patron comments important?
Posted by Beth C. OWLS | February 23, 2007 9:02 AM
Posted on February 23, 2007 09:02
These pages have some great links--for example Books on the Air and Book TV.
I'm looking forward to the Teen Awards page. Will there also be a Teen Page as well as the Family Page?The bookletters page with Books on the Air and Book TV will also help when people can't remember the title of a book they saw.
Posted by DianaS | February 26, 2007 6:46 PM
Posted on February 26, 2007 18:46
Diana - Yes we are planning on having a Teen Page as well as the Family Page. It's in the works. If you have any sites to recommend or features to include on it, be sure to let us know!
Posted by Beth C. OWLS | February 27, 2007 8:23 AM
Posted on February 27, 2007 08:23
I notice the adult Award Winners page lists Minnesota & Massachusetts, but not Wisconsin. I know things are in draft format, but are we limited to those lists maintained by BookSite?
This would look like a good place to link to the WLA Literary Awards page, but is that covered separately under the "Guidelines for linking to web sites" protocols? Can that mix into a place where everything else goes to InfoSoup hotlinks?
Posted by Terry | February 27, 2007 1:31 PM
Posted on February 27, 2007 13:31
Terry,
We are not limited to what is on the Awards page. Those are just the lists that "came out of the box." For the WLA Literary Awards, we have a couple of choices. We can ask BookLetters to add the Banta Award to their list. We could link to the page. WLA certainly fits into the linking guidelines, although I noticed numerous dead links trying to navigate to the awards page :) Best choice, however, I think would just be to do our own list, which would link right into InfoSoup. This would not take very long and would give us more control. I would be happy to do this, unless someone else wants to volunteer. I think we can have it added by our go live date.
One Question: Do you think WLA would give us permission to use some of the book/author descriptions on their site if we give them credit? Thanks for the suggestion.
Posted by Evan | February 27, 2007 3:31 PM
Posted on February 27, 2007 15:31
Evan wrote:
>One Question: Do you think WLA would give us
>permission to use some of the book/author
>descriptions on their site if we give them
>credit?
Probably -- costs nothing to ask. You're right about the navigation problems on the WLA website. I've sent the webmaster and email & hope this will be corrected. There are two literary awards pages. I like your suggestion of our own list, but would encourage you to include more than the Banta -- at least the Elizabeth Burr/Worzalla Award. And it will leave out the Notable Wisconsin Authors list.
Posted by Terry | February 28, 2007 12:20 PM
Posted on February 28, 2007 12:20
I think we should start with staff picks using the BookLetters option and see how it goes. I like the idea of it being easy to submit staff picks. I'd submit ISBNs, but I'm not likely to spend time writing anything. I'm sure that would be true for others. While a blog would be nice for patron comments, there are likely to be other opportunities for patron comments. For example, I believe that III has a product that allows patrons to post reviews on anything included in the catalog. We've talked in the past about this as a possibility, and I'm hoping that we decide to implement it.
Posted by Rick | March 1, 2007 1:41 PM
Posted on March 1, 2007 13:41