RSS, Perl, and New Books, OH MY!

This gets me thinking about how we do things in my library - which is, currently, not very well. Our opac (Sirsis/Dynix’s Horizon) does provide reporting for new materials, if patrons dig far enough into the catalog and are willing to wade through six months worth of new items (http://catalog.mvlc.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?profile=mcd&menu=search, click the “popular item lists” tab at the top, select Chelmsford and click go).

In light of this, though, we also use and are looking at third-party software to promote new items. Currently in use (only in the library, not accessible from our website) is Delicious Library, which offers a “face-out” bookshelf view of new items, as well as information and links into our catalog. The database behind this is completely separate from our ILS, other than the link to the item’s record, and cover art is provided by the company.

We’re also looking at other new item/readers advisory software. The three under review are BookLetters, Ebsco’s brand new NextReads, and DearReader.com’s eResource Center. Last week’s PLA conference gave me a chance to see more demos and talk to librarians about their experiences with each. Although not the leader in popularity, it seems that BookLetters has a slight lead over the others because it looks to be equally web- and email-based, where the other two look more like email newsletters. BookLetters’ online component makes it more flexible and useful in serving up information to patrons when they need it, not when we feel inclined to email it to them.

A notable omission from all these options, though, was any availability for RSS/IM/streaming information. This may have been something I just missed, or something that’s coming in the future. It is important, though, as patrons are trending this way. As one of my coworkers said yesterday, “email is only useful for reaching old people - kids today are best reached through RSS or IM” (which might account for IM spam).

[...] Tomorrow morning I’ll go to Denver to the Innovative Users Group conference. I’m learn a bit more about customizing our OPAC interface; meet some people to help me jack it up before I explode it. [...]