Community through interaction
Tara Calishain posted about a google unsafe search which runs a query with filtering turned on and turned off and then returns the difference. So you can see what is being filtered as 'unsafe'. Pretty neat.
But, even more interesting to me is that any visitor can change the page's banner. You choose the text you want, colors, and background image and your banner is live until someone overwrites it. This is yet another example of how the early solo experience on the internet (which produces so many concerns about the world's deconstruction of a sense of community)is being replace with interactive tools… leading to an even stronger sense of connectedness.
How does this relate to libraries? Well, libraries are about community and collaboration. You go to them for information, of course, but they're distinguished from other information sources because they provide help, guidance… their collections are organized for ease of discovery. They're user-centric instead of content-centric. SO, for an institution that's always been service oriented, including your users in it, even through a simple interactive web app that allows them to change your page- creates a sense of community and buy in. It's a service too!
