library tools

[deborah]

There are two tools I really wish libraries had, and would pay for as services. Somebody needs to build them. Are you listening, OCLC or LibraryThing?

• NetFlix for ILL. I'd like to be able to queue up a list of books (like my list of books I need to read at worldcat) and have a system where one of them would be ordered for me through interlibrary loan, and each time I returned the book, it would automatically order the next thing on the book for me from interlibrary loan, no more effort from the required.


• I'd like to have a system where other people could add books to that list. In fact, I'd like to have a system where I could subscribe to certain people who recommend books, and everything they recommend would automatically get pushed onto my queue. That way I wouldn't have the system where I leave the tabs open for months and finally add all of the recommended books, slowly and painstakingly, to my queue.

Come on, future. Make up for being a sketchy, racist place full of dying corals and failed drug wars by giving me convenient tools for checking out books from the library.

... When I put it that way, I am clearly an extremely shallow person.

Comments

[sanguinity]

Zotero automates nothing beyond storing/listing recommended books, but it saves me from the twenty opened tabs. (To be accurate, it only partially automates: it won't automate storing blogged/journaled recs, but will automate if you look up the rec at a library or places like Amazon.)


:: I'd like to have a system where I could subscribe to certain people who recommend books, and everything they recommend would automatically get pushed onto my queue. ::

...I had a physical reaction to that, I craved that offered power so badly. Just gimme your library card, gimme. I'll tell you what you want to read next. Gimme gimme.

Of course, I would want to skip that step where people "choose" to subscribe to me. Choice, pfah! I want ALL the library card power. POWERRRR!

[deborah]

I should give zotero another try. When I first tried it, it was just in beta, and had real accessibility problems. But since then, Firefox and NaturallySpeaking have gotten much better, and there's no reason to think that Zotero hasn't as well. Thanks for reminding me.

And seriously, how much of my list do you think comes from you? SO MUCH

Of course, I would want to skip that step where people "choose" to subscribe to me.

YOU ARE A MAD GENIUS I TELL YOU.

[sanguinity]

:: YOU ARE A MAD GENIUS I TELL YOU. ::

You say the sweetest things!