InfoSoup: March 2009 Archives

Our contract with the TELL ME MORE (TMM) languages program ends on March 22nd.  For a while we were planning on giving it a try for another year. After additional evaluation, however, we came to the conclusion that renewing TMM may not be our best choice. Usage was pretty low, and both patrons and library staff encountered numerous problems getting the program to work.  Because of these issues, we have decided to try a new language program called Mango Languages.  Mango's main strength is that is is very easy to use. Mango can be used with any relatively recent browser and on any operating system (Mac users could not use TMM).  Users only need adobe flash version 9 or higher, which is very common application.  Mango is not as comprehensive as TMM -- it does not have speech recognition or writing components, but we believe it's usability is more important. Mango focuses more on everyday conversation.  Anyone who has listened to a Pimsleur language tape will recognize the similarity.   With Mango we also gain three new languages, Russian, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese.  We do, however, lose Dutch (although only four people ever tried Dutch on TMM, and I think I was one of those four).  There may also be additional languages added later this year. For ESL students, Mango has three programs for learning English for Spanish, Polish, and Brazilian Portuguese speakers.  More ESL programs are also planned.

Mango will be featured on the InfoSoup home page with a link to our Mango start page at http://info.infosoup.org/mango/

We will leave the TMM link up until the 22nd, with a note about why we are switching to Mango and with a link to Mango.

To use Mango from outside a library one will need a valid library card # and PIN. One nice feature of Mango is that you can use it with our without signing up for an account (although you still need your card # & PIN). If you just want to take a quick look, or don't want to remember yet another password, there is a Skip Login option (once you are on the Mango Languages page, not on the InfoSoup Page) that allows you to use Mango anonymously. If you do sign up for a Mango account, it will keep track of your language lessons.

If you have any questions or if your patrons have any questions, please let me know. I think most users will find Mango a lot easier to use.

Thanks,

Evan

We are going to be switching to a new vendor for book jackets and summaries. The switch should take place this afternoon. Once the change is in place here are the differences you will see.

1. The covers will be a little larger.
2. When you click on the cover (either from the brief record or the full record) a summary page will open in a frame below. On the summary page you might see anything from a brief summary, publishers comments, book club guide, or a lengthy review from BookPage. Just click on "Back to Catalog" to return to the previous screen.
3. On the full record page, the Reviews & Summaries link will be replaced by and Additional Info link. This link will be the same as clicking on the cover.
4. We will no longer have Publishers Weekly or Library Journal reviews through Syndetics. These can usually be found on the Amazon page or by searching EBSCO from the links on the full record page. While we lose some convenience with this, our statistics show that the syndetics reviews were getting limited use.

You can see the new book covers on our development server at http://www.infosoup.org:2082

Here are a couple of examples

http://www.infosoup.org:2082/record=b1703003~S77 (With Review)
http://www.infosoup.org:2082/record=b1446333~S77 (Generic)

We apologize for the short notice. We have been looking at this switch for a while, but we were uncertain until very recently that the new vendor (BookLetters) would have their product ready in time. Our contract with Syndetics has run out so we needed to move quickly.

Why the switch? Two main reasons. One is that we believe BookLetters will provide a faster service. We have had numerous slowdown issues with syndetics over the years. This is something we will keep an eye on with the new service. The second is that we will be saving money which we hope to put toward other catalog enhancements. Please let me know if you have any questions or notice any problems.

Thanks,

Evan