Those little items do make the books more interesting.

The librarian had a great idea – she sold them at a town craft sale. People happily paid money for a card with a loved one’s name on it, often in their own handwriting. Others were cut down and made into bookmarks.

@Oleg: a former Assistant Director here once had the idea to make a “last chance” book display – it would consist entirely of books about to be weeded, with a message on them saying “if no one checks these out, we’re throwing them away.” He wanted to use this picture to emphasize the gloom, but sadly we never put that display together.

Now, how would revealing these stats work from the perspective of a librarian providing reference? I know I don’t typically check circ stats when recommending books neither for education nor pleasure. But all other things being equal, if the circ info was just “out there,” I just might try to give that underdog a little push.

@Stephen: thanks for the links – I like the rating and “people who borrowed this also borrowed…” features. The latter especially seems useful, and should easily be possible and still preserve patron privacy.

@Jeff: when we talk about it, we’re all shocked at the range in pricing different towns (of very similar size) pay for the same database – we’re talking thousands of dollars difference in some cases.

@Deborah: I like that feature too. We just signed up for Novelist Select, so I’m hoping that does the trick until the catalog can handle it on its own.

@laura: totally. I went to a small Catholic school, and occasionally I’d get a book with one of my older cousins names in it, even though they were ten years older than me.

Incidentally, in the library’s archive are the circ logs from about 1900 – notebooks of peoples’ names and the books they checked out. It’s fascinating, but I don’t know at what point it cross from a privacy issue to an object of historical interest.