[WEB4LIB] Re: library marketing was RE: Google Mail

[K.G. Schneider]

> >Why is it that sites with ISBNs have links to Amazon or Barnes and
> >Noble and Powell's, but never to your public library?
> 
> Most websites tend to have a larger audience than those situated
> geographically close to the local library, so it makes sense to link to
> sites that are perceived to be global like Amazon. Though certainly it
> would be nice if people started linking to National Library holdings,
> that would be a start. And libraries could have a great opportunity to
> widen their profile in the local community if they developed ways to
> link to catalogue items on the websites of local radio stations,
> newspapers, and other organisations.

Well, a coupla things perhaps relevant to this discussion...

To start with, Amazon, among other things, has made it ridiculously easy for
sites to link to them. It took me only part of an evening and two free
Movable Type plugins (plus signing up for the free Amazon developer's id) to
add a feature to Free Range Librarian that enables me to search Amazon, tag
whether a book links to Amazon, whether it is read, unread, or in process,
etc., display a cute icon, etc. etc. 

Then there's the problem that as Fiona points out, most blogs are global in
nature. Perhaps in the future I could connect to LibraryLand to libraries
through my blog through, I don't know, some currently nonexistent Open
Worldcat plugin or whatnot that would allow the reader to put in a zip code
or something that simple. 

Karen G. Schneider
kgs at bluehighways.com