Features That I Love on Next Generation Catalogs

1. The "Google"-like search bar: Making things easier for a quick keyword search, most catalogs have a single search bar that makes the interface easier for librarian and patron alike.

2. Advanced Search option: When you have plenty of information and want stellar results, advanced search is the way to go.

3. Facets: Ahhh, facet navigation is the butter to the catalog's bread. Easily limit your search parameters by location, language, or subject term.

4. "Did you mean...?": For the patron (or librarian!) who is not sure how to spell a specific term or author's name, there is a solution (though sometimes not the best help).

5. Subject Headings: The ability for patrons and librarians to find more resources through the use of subject heading links at the bottom of the individual item records makes subject browsing easier.

Those are just a few qualities that I like regarding Next-Generation Catalogs. What do you like?

Why I chose Twitter for my Book Review

Image from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/

For my book review, I chose Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. Blink is about the brain's ability to 'thin slice', taking meaning from small portions of important information. I chose Twitter to communicate my book review because it is the social media that is a constant stream of thin slices, 140 characters to get your point across, 140 characters in which to get the gist of what someone is trying to communicate. This is thin slicing at it's core and hopefully I will be able to communicate through these thin slices the main idea of this book.

Check out my book review at #blinkreview!!