Superpatron: Technology Advisory Board & Book Covers

Via Jenny, John Blyberg and Jessamyn:

Superpatron is a blog by Edward Vielmetti – check it out! I have followed his blog and discussions about his home library in Ann Arbor for some time. Now, as a library patron he starts a blog! This is a milestone and we should watch closely as this blog grows. Librarians – how would you feel if you had a blogging patron discussing your library and services? And that patron was using all the available tools to share their library experiences with the world: current checkouts, holds, etc. Wow!

http://vielmetti.typepad.com/superpatron/2005/12/welcome_to_supe.html

The post that caught my eye first was about the Technology Advisory Board at AADL. This makes so much sense if we are talking involving users in every aspect of planning. Think of it as the Emerging Technology Committee meets the user focus group. Some might say that’s what library boards are for. Forgive me, but how many library boards are made up of tech-savvy folks? I see a definite role for this type of committee in many libraries. Let’s pull our users in to plan and let’s make it official!

Then, I come across this:: “I wrote a tiny bit of code to turn the RSS feed that the Ann Arbor District Library puts out for new non-fiction books and turned it into an images-only new books display.” Wowza – great proof of concept… and shouldn’r our users be able to visuaully browse the new book shelves from wherever they are?

Click here to see a screenshot of books with the most holds at AADL. This is good stuff!

Welcome to the Biblioblogosphere Ed!