Superpatron

Bookmooch, used book trading site

If you have a pile of (non-library) books filling up your shelves that you have read and are perfectly good but you don't really feel a need to keep forever, you might be interested in Bookmooch. It's a book trading site that gives you points for uploading your inventory of tradeable books, and then lets you swap points for books (you "mooch" a book by requesting it from the site, which in turn notifies the book owner). Successful swaps beget more points, etc etc.

Point-based systems always have some tricky economics going on to make sure that you don't get too many points floating around or too few to match up with and encourage good behaviors. (See "Monetary Theory and the Great Capitol Hill Baby Sitting Co-op Crisis" for theory in action.) Otherwise this is set up very similar to la la (for CDs) in many ways.

On my wishlist for Bookmooch is some level of integration with Amazon or LibraryThing or any of the keep-my-wishlist sites that I know are out there - there's no particular reason to store that stuff twice.

Thanks to Jeff Ubois for pointing this out to me and introducing me to Bookmooch's John Buckman.

Technorati Tags: bookmooch

Dewey Decimal System Helpless to Categorize New Jim Belushi Book

from The Onion, via Robot Wisdom:

DUBLIN, OH—Members of the OCLC Online Computer Library Center’s Editorial Policy Committee, which oversees the Dewey Decimal System library classification system, were no closer Monday to assigning a definitive call number to the recently published Jim Belushi book Real Men Don’t Apologize. "With all due respect to the author, we remain unsure how to categorize this particular work," said committee chair Leslie Buncombe, who, despite repeated readings, still wasn’t sure if Real Men was "an actual book." "What is it? Autobiography? Self-help? We can’t even tell if it’s fiction or nonfiction," Added Buncombe: "Too bad it can’t be shelved by its ISBN number. Maybe it’s Fantasy Biography? I don’t even think there’s a code for that." If no decision is reached within the week, librarians may be forced to shelve it in the "phantom zone" between Jenny McCarthy’s book of marriage tips and novels in which a cat helps solve a mystery.

(this belongs in the as of yet uncreated categorization, classification, or shelving categories)

Technorati Tags: belushi, categorization, classification, granholm, onion, shelving, theonion

Amazon Library Services - delivering MARC records and pre-barcoded books

Fred Zimmerman from Nimble Books writes:

This + patron-driven purchasing would be reallly compelling. I'd love to be able to "vote" titles in without (much) intervention from a librarian... maybe a piece of software that created a "funny money" budget for the libirary's discretionary book spending, that could be allocated among patrons by a faux market...

as seen on Business Wire via finanzen.net:

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced it has launchedLibrary Processing, enabling its thousands of library customers toreceive Machine-Readable Cataloging (MARC) records and have books andother media they order from Amazon.com fitted with Mylar jackets,barcodes, and other essential preparation services. This end-to-end processing service will significantly reduce library overhead costs and decrease the time from "box to shelf" so that library patrons will have faster access to newly ordered media titles.

"Libraries already use Amazon.com when they need fast and reliable delivery of products at competitive prices, but our library customers have told us they would like Library Processing in order to better serve their patrons," said Greg Greeley, vice president of books,magazines and corporate accounts. "Amazon.com is proud to offer libraries this seamless, end-to-end processing service which will make it even easier for libraries to shop with us."

When library customers order products from Amazon.com, they will have the option of including MARC records, labels and barcodes as part of their order. Amazon.com library customers will also have the option of having hardcover books delivered with Mylar jacketing - a protective covering used by most libraries - taped over the jackets. Each of these services can be tailored to meet the needs of each library, and each library will be able to manage their processing profile online.

More details at the Amazon Library Services page.

Technorati Tags: amazon

Patron driven selection and the universal library

Tom Peters on ALA Techsource has a post on Libraries and the Long Tail:

I still wonder if more libraries should experiment with patron-driven selection—point our users to millions of available books, perhaps through a mash up of information cobbled from WorldCat, Amazon, publishers, book jobbers, etc., then a user could actually purchase (or libraries could even lease access to) an item only when a user expresses the interest or need to use the full text. While we're at it, let's let them decide what format they prefer: p-book, e-book, audiobook, etc.

Looking around for what this curious phrase means, I came across this from OCLC's NetLibrary dlgital collections program:

Patron-Driven Acquisition lets your patrons participate in the selection of new content. Through the patron-driven acquisition model, you gain access to all NetLibrary eBooks and eContent that match your predetermined profile. Once a title is viewed more than once, your library (or library group) automatically purchases it and adds it to your collection. You provide exposure to a very large title list and you know the content you've purchased is being used.

What would it mean to have a local library that could deliver (almost) everything? You'd submit a request, and the library would fill it either from its local collection, from some local interlibrary lending group, traditional ILL, buying the materials on the new or used market, or printing up some facsimile from a digital copy. The only thing you'd notice as a patron was how long it took to get things, and the library would choose how to deliver things not based on what form you filled out (ILL vs. purchase request) but what the efficient way to get the materials was.

Georgia library board sacks public library director

Atlanta suburban library cutbacks on Spanish language materials:

The Gwinnett County library board has put the brakes on purchases of Spanish-language fiction four months after the books hit library shelves.

The board approved the 2007 budget last Monday minus $3,000 that would have paid for new adult fiction in Spanish, signaling a change in direction for the library system serving Georgia's largest Hispanic population.

The decision comes amid intense national debate about immigration and a shake-up in the Gwinnett library system that last week claimed the director (Jo Ann Pinder).

Libraries already struggle to buy all the English-language books patrons want, let alone those in Spanish, board Chairman Lloyd Breck said. "Basically, what we're saying is don't expand that program," Breck said. "As long as we're telling people we can't purchase books in English, we don't need to be expanding in other languages."

There's a particular nasty streak to the self-appointed citizen library group
Gwinnett County Public Library Watch, starting from page one of their site:

Gwinnett County is fortunate to have an excellent library system. We need to work together now to keep it that way. This website is dedicated to providing taxpayers with the facts. Our objective is to harmonize the library with the conservative values of Gwinnett County families. That means parents should not fear what harmful things their children might encounter in the library. It also means fiscal responsiblity with taxpayers money. We are not trying to dictate some fundamentalist religious agenda, we do not want to establish a fascist theocracy, and we don't burn books or witches!

methinks they protest too much.

Also seen on the net commenting on this - Jessamyn West, the Annoyed Librarian, Daily Kos, and the Gwinett Daily Post.

7 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do at the Library (via Pop Goes the Library)

7 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do at the Library - MSN Encarta, from superpatron Martha Brockenbrough. Here's thing two:

Even if my local branch doesn't have the book or movie, it's no problem. I just have it sent where I want it--free of charge. This is the second amazing library secret: They're happy to move things from one library in the system to another if it makes it easier for you to get what you want.

Thanks to Pop Goes the Library for the link.

That blog has some great ideas about DVD discussion groups (using a special collection to make sure everyone in the group can see the movie without fear of late fees), tips for libraries who want to circulate comics (hint: clear tape reinforcement), and a pointer to Mother Reader's 48 Hour Book Challenge.

Rereadings: City Comforts, David Sucher

Tonight's chapter one was David Sucher's City Comforts. It's a lavishly illustrated, terrific little book on design patterns that make up a livable city - an "urban village" in the author's terms. Many of the photos show Seattle, WA.

It turns out I have a little urban planning and urban design corner of my bookshelves, and I was happy when wandering through LibraryThing figuring out how to cluster the books and which others to check out from the library to come across the urban design collection from SimPenguin (Melissa in Wisconsin), who has a lovely list of 52 volumes on that topic.

Collection development using Amazon wish lists (via Books to Burn)

Following up on an earlier post via Kevin Yezbick on collection development, John Klima writes:

Books to Burn:

Well, I can't speak for everyone, but I know that the Princeton Public Library uses an Amazon wish list to maintain a list of books that the library would like to add to its collection. It wouldn't be difficult to also have these books put on hold for the person who buys them.

It looks like the Fairfax County Public Library has a similar effort going, which has been running since 2003. (They're currently on the hunt for horse books, among others). I also see in a short search the Melrose Public Library (Melrose, MA), the Champaign Public Library, and the Scandinavia (Wisconsin) Public Library who says

We are a rural Wisconsin library open 20 hours a week. As you can imagine, each book received is a treasure! Thank you!

and who currently is on the lookout for a skateboarding book and the kids book Trout, Trout, Trout.

Visual wall of books "what's new" display

UPDATE: See Jenny Levine's review of the virtual new bookshelf at the Allen County, Indiana public library.

I wrote a half dozen lines of not very pretty code and turned the Ann Arbor District Library's new holding lists into a wall of books display for non-fiction and for fiction.  (I would have done DVDs and CDs too but the catalog doesn't have enough images to make it worthwhile.)

It was relatively easy to do because the catalog has an RSS feed.  The code is fragile - it will break on the slightest change to the catalog formatting - though I have a sneaking suspicion we can fix that with some relatively simple microformat coding.   The same principle should work with any catalog search, or with any other AADL feed (patron checkouts, holds, checkout history).

Technorati Tags: books, aadl, library, library2.0, remix, rss,