Stu asked if I could provide a heads-up on what I’m reading, because we librarians have access to the good books first.
It’s a very good question, and once upon a time I had such a feature on FRL; I even displayed books, with a link to Amazon’s entry. I had to kill the review feature because I was having technical problems that threatened lo the very existence of FRL, but I could reintroduce it.
However, I must fess up about my library. I manage a digital library. No books. When I walk through exhibits at library conferences, invariably I have the following discussion with vendors:
Vendor (eyeing badge): So, where do you work?
Me: I manage a digital library. We have no books. Or facility, for that matter. We all work from home.
The vendor’s eyes then begin to roam, seeking real customers. Clearly I’m either lying or simply “out there.” In any event, they aren’t going to sell me books/chairs/easy-clean keyboards/buildings/tables/etc.
I have worked in traditional libraries. The flavors of librarian I’ve experienced include children’s, technology, director (twice: rural public, and gummint), and general reference, which is my weakest area since I’ve done it the least. (Don’t you love library job ads that add a reference requirement on top of maintaining all the hardware and software for the library and developing new services? Makes me want to develop a position that is 95% children’s work and 5% server maintenance.)
But alas, in my present job I have no super-wonderful advance notice of what people are reading. I get it the way everyone else does, from book reviews, book blogs, hints from the publishing industry, and the news.
Even worse, in the MFA program I’ve been working my way through since the summer of 2004, we read very little that’s new, and we re-read stuff to death. You can get a feeling for our assignments from my take-off on MFA reading lists. It’s all very, very good reading–well, I’m still in recovery from Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn–but beyond the latest Joan Didion, it’s nothing new. Still, I’d be happy to resume sharing my lastest reading, if there’s interest.
Incidentally, I felt conflicted about my review feature. To encourage library use, I wanted to point to Open WorldCat entries, but no such blog plugin exists. If librarians want to encourage people to use libraries, the people with the big research bucks should invest in some of the basic social software needed to make that happen.
Posted on this day, other years:
- Between an ebook and a hard place - 2012
- Heading to Code4Lib, Prepping for Evergreen 2009 - 2009
- Think Good Thoughts For Feel-Good Librarian - 2007
- My Code4Lib Keynote - 2007
- Media Bloggers Association to the Rescue - 2005
- Blogging at PLA: Any Insights? - 2004
Just because you are not necessarily reading the latest, hottest stuff does not mean folks are not interested in what you are reading. I DO work in a bricks-&-mortar public library and have access to the latest stuff, but that does not mean that is what I am currently reading. Reading blogs has certainly pointed me to some important reading – recommendations from colleagues, etc. For example, I am currently reading “Naked Ladies” by Alma Luz Villanueva (1994)and no, my library did not even own it – I interloaned it. Perhaps folks are just interested in what you’re reading because you’re famous! imp
Karen, I agree that I’d like some Open WorldCat blogging widget from natively within TypePad, but I have no problem using OWC links by going through the Open WorldCat Lookup at http://faculty.washington.edu/murata/worldcat/
I just use the sometimes ugly URLS that generates and they seem to be good several months later. I saw something recently, on Lorcan’s blog I think, that OCLC is working on getting better “stable” URLS but that these should continue to work. What I am unsure of is display depending on which URL I use. Here’s one that seems to go to the libraries search by zip page: http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0890511659
So does this “uglier”
http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/top3mset/f983f0f9c6a8295ca19afeb4da09e526.html
Or did I completely misunderstand what you would like? And even if this works at the moment, I do agree that OCLC should be making this easier–it kills me to see library folks linking to Amazon.