Social Catalog (2.0 implied)

Integrating Libraries & Communities Online
Glenn Peterson, Web Administrator Hennepin County Library
Marilyn Turner, Manager, Web Services & Training, Hennepin County Library
John Blyberg, Head, Technology & Digital Initiatives, Darien Public Library

As soon as I find the chocolatey Wonka stream that shot Mike Teevee through a cathode ray, I'm going to go live in Bookspace.org and be the happiest librarian in the land. It's a magical place. They make it extremely easy and attractive for patrons to share content with other readers. And in a move that will make many of my privacy-obsessed colleagues completely nuts, patrons can self-select to have their profile include a list of all the books they currently have checked out!

I had to keep reminding myself that they have over 30 librarians working on Bookspace and librarians are required to contribute at least one new blog per month. I asked about monitoring comments and learned that they employed a "dirty word filter." Blocked messages are sent to Glenn to approve for post or delete. Other comments are posted live, but every four hours a batch of the newest posts are sent to librarians on a rotating basis for the chance to review and "hide" any that might need to be reevaluated. Not as cumbersome a process as I imagined, and certainly not an excuse not to try opportunities like this.

And if that isn't cool enough, look at what else they're doing?

John Blyberg talked more technically about social catalogs and had a cool triangle v. circle graphic that added experience/contribution to the goods/services dynamic. (According to my notes, I may have drawn it with my pen between my teeth. I will not replicate it here.) He explained the difference between pseudosocial catalogs like Encore (the tag clouds look 2.0 but don't allow patron customization), syndicated social catalogs like LibraryThing for Libraries, and individually social catalogs like those used in Hennepin County and Ann Arbor.

I look forward to the evolution of social catalog and hope to see a session on Unapologetically Promiscuous Catalogs at next year's conference.