As a reader, there are certain things I'd love to be able to easily get from
my library. This is a public library context.
For the series I read, and am now eagerly waiting for each new volume, I
don't want to have to search and re-search the library catalog for new
titles in the series. I want to be able to set options so that when the new
Kathy Reichs, Lisa Scottoline, or MaryJanice Davidson novel* is ordered by
the library, I am AUTOMATICALLY put in the holds queue for it.
When I discover a new author, I'd like to be able to generate lists of her
works, in publication order. (Yes, I'm a little funny that way.) And don't
tell me the catalog already does this, because it doesn't. The paperback and
other media reprints and later editions muck up the list and make the
sequence less clear. Yes, I'm a librarian and I know how to filter. But when
I'm flying past the library on a Saturday in the midst of a series of
errands, I don't WANT to construct a Boolean, format-specific, date-sorted,
branch-divided list. I want to search, pick up, and go! And if I can skip
the search step, so much the better.
Has a series "jumped the shark?" Give me a quick thumbs-up/thumbs down
option; maybe I will cancel all future holds on Rita Mae Brown's cat
mysteries* once I see several dozen people think the new one is a dud.
Yes, there are days when I want to browse, meditiate, and consider cover art
and jacket flaps. And there are times I just need my fix. My "home" library
is a great place for the former... not so hot for the latter.
Now -- do these things exist, and I don't know about them? Or are they
twinkles in a developer's eye?
Naomi
*No comments on my reading taste... thanks.
--
Naomi Young amethystmenace_at_gmail.com
"My strength returns to me with my morning cup of coffee and reading of the
Psalms." -- Dorothy Day
Received on Wed Jun 30 2010 - 14:24:47 EDT