NSW Public Libraries - Week 8

I think that answerboards and social searching are a great idea, it allows public input so they gain some ownership over the information and they can get help from Librarians even though they are not at a library.

Allowing customers to rate and review items in a libraries collection is now being incorporated into many Library Management Software packages.
The software allows library staff to allow or disallow a review if it is not suitable for posting, but any library member that can log into the OPAC will soon be able to place a review on an item.
Our library has not yet upgraded to the next level of our LMS, but by the end of the year we expect to have this functionality.

No doubt there will be some teething problems while staff and library patrons get used to it, but I think that it will be a great tool that library readers may come to depend on. How many times do staff get asked - what's a good book to read?

Maybe soon we will be able to give them a list of the most highly rated book - will that be a good thing or a bad thing? Only time will tell.

I answered a question on Yahoo7 by providing some websites that contained information that would help answer the question.