Thing #12: Libraries using 2.0 tools

I would love to see EPL and/or CCS do more with social tools within our catalog and website. It would be very cool if we could:

1. incorporate patron-generated tags into our catalog records.


2. allow patrons to write reviews and rate books within the catalog.


3. create official library blogs on a variety of topics.

Re. #3: I know that Joomla (our website content management system) allows us to have RSS feeds to the various categories/subcategories of our website and the front page of our website (and the main pages of each main section: Research, Books/Music/Movies, etc.) works kind-of like a blog. The newest items--what Joomla calls "articles"--can be made to show at the top of the page, but they don't automatically. This, and the fact that blogs can (and should) have a more distinct voice is the reason I think that we should have additional, "real" blogs. For example, Brian (sorry to single you out Brian, but I just think your blog idea is so good) could put his picture book reviews on the kids pages of our website -- and there is certainly an argument to be made for including more content like this within our website -- but the voice & feel of "Mr. Brian's Picture Book Picks" is so great, I think something would be lost if that text was simply included in the layout of the official EPL site...