Another one of those tools which needs a truckload of extra time to mine the goodies, but even a short trip through it has thrown up some useful stuff. I was trying to work on the Next Reads Romance newsletter today (till the editor stopped working), and have found some sites via del.icio.us that should help out - being able to skim through other people's readers' advisory links gave me at least three review sites, one of which looks particularly good. It has some great mini essays on the appeal of various romance themes such as 'undercover agents', 'time travel', and 'dressing like a male', along with recommended titles for each theme. Should be useful for future Next Reads special features!
I've also found a good resource for graphic novels RA that looks like it's worth a read through.
I agree with catatonia that del.icio.us is not particularly inspiring looking, though. Fairly utilitarian. And maybe could do with some other search features, like being able to sort a tagged list by something other than date? Or maybe this is possible and I just haven't explored enough.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
ideas wiki
Kelly's making an ideas wiki to gather in the ideas people are coming up with as part of the training, great! I see the odd comment in people's blogs about something new they think we can make, provide or do for (or even better, with!) our customers, and that's a big part of what we should be getting from this training. We could start gathering some links together from libraries who are already doing some of this stuff, too, because there are some great examples out there.
I was reading Debra's graphic novel draft report yesterday and thinking that there's a world of stuff we could be doing to make the website more dynamic and involving - make some pages that are great springboards into communities of activity on the web. It's partly going to be a matter of breaking down the old model of our online resources as *just* a portal for our databases. I love the wiki model of combining different 'strands' - reader reviews, both from our staff/customers, and from sites that specialise in reviewing a type of material (such as graphic novels); relevant databases, and any help we can give people to make their use easier; web links, from the smallscale and local (local anime/manga clubs?) to the big, international and communal (Anime News Network, sites for fan art, manga publishers etc.); links to our stock showcasing new titles; links to online comics; rss feeds from publishers, reviewers etc.; galleries of art submitted by our customers - and all decorated with artwork from online artists... We can make something really pretty and vibrant, and, I think, with minimal upkeep from us. Though Kelly's right, and part of the set-up will have to involve doing some work to build or tap into the online community.
I was reading Debra's graphic novel draft report yesterday and thinking that there's a world of stuff we could be doing to make the website more dynamic and involving - make some pages that are great springboards into communities of activity on the web. It's partly going to be a matter of breaking down the old model of our online resources as *just* a portal for our databases. I love the wiki model of combining different 'strands' - reader reviews, both from our staff/customers, and from sites that specialise in reviewing a type of material (such as graphic novels); relevant databases, and any help we can give people to make their use easier; web links, from the smallscale and local (local anime/manga clubs?) to the big, international and communal (Anime News Network, sites for fan art, manga publishers etc.); links to our stock showcasing new titles; links to online comics; rss feeds from publishers, reviewers etc.; galleries of art submitted by our customers - and all decorated with artwork from online artists... We can make something really pretty and vibrant, and, I think, with minimal upkeep from us. Though Kelly's right, and part of the set-up will have to involve doing some work to build or tap into the online community.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
The peace of the senses
Something about this just makes me happy. I wish there was some sun out there somewhere so I could sit in ovine contentment, too. (Ovine? Or is that egg-like?)
The peace of the senses,originally uploaded by My World Gallery.
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