Week 8 - Answer Boards and Social Searching

Is there a place for "slamming the boards" in my library? It would be worth a try, although I think only a small number of our patrons would become involved. For a bigger library with a high percentage of younger patrons who would be more keen to get involved in online communicating it would be a great thing. I can certainly see the benefit in patrons rating books and reviewing things they've read. As there is only so much reading librarians can do it would benefit us to see what others think of some of our collection. We could then make recommendations on books we might not have read ourselves by telling patrons, "This is a book a couple of other people liked." Also it would be great to have patrons rate library services and especially the personal service they get from staff. That would certainly keep us all on our toes going out of our way to help.

The "exemplary answers" site was interesting - some great questions that I was interested in, and then some very particular questions with limited appeal. It's all friendly and makes you feel welcome, like your questions are important. And of course, the answers that were rated best really covered the topic thoroughly. They went into a lot of detail without getting away from the point, and it showed what extensive knowledge the librarian/author had of the subject. Good public relations for librarians. I put this site on my delicious tags. It worked. I'm having a much better day today.