InfoSoup Development Blog

Okay everyone, think back, waaaaay back to the brainstorming meeting we had last November. We talked about creating a blog to feed into the 3 InfoSoup homepages. Here's the bit from the meeting summary:

"We discussed starting an InfoSoup Blog which would be fed into the homepage (the 3 homepages, actually). It would replace the column on the left of the homepage and would include similar items as are in that column at present: new booklist highlights, contest news, database highlights, search tips, etc. This will not only make it easier for me to update the 3 homepages more seamlessly, but would allow us to test how/if patrons will use a blog. An added advantage is that the blog could easily be fed into any OWLSnet library web site for live content about InfoSoup. I will create the posts as I already do on the homepage and will moderate comments, making it obvious that I am responding as "InfoSoup" rather than a particular library. If comments are obviously from a particular library's patron and requires specific follow-up, I will contact that library to have them respond. This will be a test and can be shut down if needed."

Now think back, not quite as far, to the blog naming contest we had last March. Elizabeth Timmins came up with the winning name, "What's Simmering?"

Now stop straining your memory and come back to the present. I'm happy to announce that I have a draft of an InfoSoup blog named "What's Simmering?" ready for you to look at! You can visit the blog at http://info.infosoup.org/simmer/. It will be fed into the 3 homepages, and you can see how that will look in Staging at http://www.infosoup.org:2082/.

Please take a look and let me know what you think. Post your comments and questions here on the blog by Wednesday, June 25th, and we'll go from there.

Thanks! Beth

InfoSoup has a rating feature that we've had turned off, but I took some time today to explore how it would work if we wanted to give it a try. It's really easy to use and to implement in the catalog, so I enabled it in Staging so you could take a look and see what you think.

Go to Staging, do a search for anything and go to the full record. On the full record page, you'll see a "rating" link with stars next to it on the left below "description" and about the location and/or holds information. Clicking on the rating link will take you to a help page that describes how to use the rating feature. Clicking on the stars will provide your rating of the item (if you're already logged into your patron account) or will prompt you to log in so you can rate the item. Give it a try and see what you think.

I think it would be nice to provide this feature along with Community Reviews, as it provides another way for people to interact with the catalog. Some people might prefer to rate items vs. add a review and vice versa. What do you think? Post your thoughts in the comments by Wednesday, June 25th.

Thanks!
Beth

It looks like we can successfully access submitted community reviews at long last. Woohoo!

I have Community Reviews enabled in Staging, so you can take a look at it and remind yourself how it works. (Let me know if you have any questions.) If all looks well, I'd like to take a few days to create screencasts on how to use it and the ratings feature (if we decide to enable that, too).

If all looks well with "What's Simmering" then I could announce both new services in the blog, including screencasts on how to use them, and enable the blog feed on the live InfoSoup homepages late next week. It would be a nice way to get the blog off to a good start, as well as the new interactive features.

Sound good? Let me know what you think!

Thanks, Beth

Greetings!

We're interested in making a few minor changes to the InfoSoup library scopes. Right now, when you limit by library, your search results only include items physically located in that library. This is a bit misleading, since online materials are also available in the library. So, we'd like to change the scope for each library to include all online resources.

These changes need to be done by Innovative, so I can't provide you with an exact date, but we're hoping to make the changes in July. If you have comments, please respond to me or to this blog by Monday, June 30th.

Thanks!

-Gerri