Along with the wonderful video of all the paintings in the MoMA, The Centered Librarian also directed me towards an interesting book recommendation tool, The Book Seer. I was initially drawn to the site because of its striking design, but became curious about the method used to obtain these suggested titles. Apparently, The Book Seer draws its recommendations from both Amazon and LibraryThing. A search for books similar to Margaret Atwood’s, The Handmaid’s Tale, led to a number of recommendations from Amazon, but none from LibraryThing. Their connection to LibraryThing seems to be problematic, producting only a couple suggestions for some titles, but more often, no recommendations. However, going directly to LibraryThing yields a large number of recommendations by LibraryThing and other members. Amazon’s suggestions for books similar to The Handmaid’s Tale, highlights the limitation of recommendations based on other items purchased by a buyer. If I liked The Handmaid’s Tale, Amazon suggested that I might also like The Handmaid’s Tale Cliff Notes or York Notes on Margaret Atwood’s ‘Handmaid’s Tale’. While there were a couple of other options available, this was not helpful to me in determining what to read next.
So instead I turned to What Should I Read Next. This site lets users enter books by either title, author, or ISBN number. Recommendations are centered around users registering what books they like. As people begin to add to their book lists, associations are created based upon the number of times a book appears on the same list with other books, supposedly leading to valid recommendations. The database is enhanced as more and more people add to it, but without a strong reason to do so, will readers really participate? And if they do not participate, then the database is rendered rather ineffective. In my example of The Handmaid’s Tale, the books recommended to me ranged from Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K Rowling to Judy Blume’s Blubber to Anderson Cooper’s Dispatches from the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival. I had the most hope for this recommendation tool, but it looks like it is not quite there yet.
Finally, I decided to explore Whichbook. (It should be noted that all three of these book recommendation tools are U.K. based. I’m not sure why that is. Perhaps all of the U.S. computer engineers are busy creating similar tools within commercial sites such as Amazon, LibraryThing, Goodreads, etc.? But for sites set up solely as book recommendation portals, the U.K. seems to have us beat.) Whichbook is quite different from the others. Instead of entering a title or author, Whichbook bases recommendations off of a book’s characteristics or qualities. Users are allowed to choose four characteristics and find books that most relate based upon patron ratings from libraries in the U.K. Next to each book listing is a “borrow” tab that allows users to link up with their local library to check for book availability. Though the site seems to have some slight technical issues, the premise is an interesting twist on a book recommendation site.
Librarians often pride themselves as being masters of reader’s advisory, but compiling a comprehensive list of recommended books takes time and resources–something that is rapidly dwindling in public libraries today. Additionally, most suggested reading lists created by libraries tend to be just, well…lists. Lists are created for the “best” or “most popular” books along with specific lists for children, teens, or adults. There are also a number of lists that focus on specific subjects such as mystery, historical fiction, or humorous paranormal fiction. Lists can be very helpful in determining what to read, they just lack the preciseness of recommendations based off a user’s interest in a particular book. Although “further reading” suggestions similar to those found on Amazon or LibraryThing are showing up more and more within library OPACs, many libraries currently do not have the capability to provide these focused recommendations. Yes, libraries will sometimes work with patrons to help develop specific recommendations based on their preferences. While these personalized recommendations are certainly better than anything a database could provide, with depleted resources, they have become less feasible than ever before. But the better question is: do our users really want to invest their time and a librarian’s time developing these personalized recommendations? Do the benefits of this service outweigh the convenience of instant recommendations from Amazon, LibraryThing, or some of these other book recommendation databases? With focused recommendations proliferating across the web, library patrons may come to expect these type of services from our libraries. I hope, eventually, libraries can meet them there.
Alliance International Virtual Library–I was very impressed with the Alliance Library. They are obviously one of the biggest and best know library systems in Second Life–for good reason. They provide an abundance of information through various buildings and rooms dedicated to a variety of subjects. I jumped around to check out information on fashion, sports, and library science. From the library science room I was able to find information on libraries in Second Life, Library jobs, and Library 2.0. It took me awhile to find a librarian. On one of the evenings I was in Second Life, the librarian that was supposed to be on duty was not there, but another librarian was hanging out and was willing to answer my questions. She has been volunteering at the Alliance Library Reference desk for 1 1/2 years now for 2 hours per week. She said not a lot has changed in relation to the types of questions she receives while at the reference desk, but did say that there seemed to be less people asking how to make money in Second Life than there used to be. The number one question these days is how to stop dancing. This, of course, prompted me to ask “how do you start dancing?” I was quickly given a dance bracelet from another avatar and began to move. It was nice.
Mythica Library–On Imagination Island I wandered around the Mythica Library. Specializing in information on mythology, fairy tales, fables, etc., Mythica library is created to look like a medieval town. The library itself was mostly comprised of mythical images instead of a lot of content, but they did provide some books with links to information on monsters and creatures, a terminal on the paranormal, information on ufos, and a room dedicated to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The Tir na n’Og library is nearby (providing information on mythology and folklore from the British Isles and Ireland), as well as a Secret Garden surrounded by links to children’s books.
Kean University Library–their space was supposedly still under construction, but they had a few welcoming features including a free t-shirt and librarybot to welcome you when a live person was not available. They had three terminals that connected visitors to the Kean University library website, but also had a rotating globe with information on universal human rights and a banner that connected visitors to Kean University Library 2.0 information. It looks like Kean library will soon offer podcasts in iTunes. To offer more information on the upcoming podcasts, they provided a floating ipod that visitors could click on to get more information. Finally, there was a billboard near the library information desk that gave instructions on how users could activate their Kean library privileges.
Cleveland Public Library–Cleveland Public Library has a large presence on Second Life, so I thought I would explore their area a little more. I ended up being a little disappointed with what I found. One of the biggest buildings (pictured here) only contained displays of chess pieces–not a lot to interact with and not a lot of information given. In fact, most of the Cleveland Public Library space seemed focused on chess. I did stumble upon a building that showed pictures of old sheet music from Ohio, but there was not a lot of background information on the pictures or the sheet music.
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