A librarian in Maine recently posted to MELIBS-L that one of their local patrons was a finalist for the 2008 StoryTubes contest. I had never heard of this contest, but I like projects where patrons get involved, so I checked it out. I loved it.
Kids make a video of themselves reviewing a book on a particular theme (that week's was "Facts, Fads and Phenoms") and submit it to StoryTubes. Finalists get posted on the website (via YouTube), website visitors vote, and four winner win $500 in books (and their sponsoring school or library receives $1,000 in books).
This year's contest is winding down, and I'm sorry I missed it. It's sponsored by publishers and libraries, and the finalist videos are great (my two favorite are below, and more here).
But even outside this contest, I think this would be a fun thing to do in the library. All it would take is a basic digital camera and a YouTube account, and I can see parents, kids and librarians getting really into it. It gives kids an opportunity to create, and in a public way. You always hear the phrase, "it'll be something to tell your grandkids about." This gives kids something to be proud of and tell their grandparents about.
Your Chickens: A Kids Guide to Raising and Showing
I know I've mentioned this before, but it's still fun: the authors of Weird Massachusetts found some photos I uploaded to flickr and asked if they could include them in the book.
I bring this up again because my complimentary copy of the book arrived - complete with my name in the photo credits. I suppose me being excited about this shows just how uncool I really am, but come on, it's neat.
This type of social networking is one of the great things about using Web 2.0 tools. But also, it illustrates the reason to share what you upload via a Creative Commons license, instead of the default All Rights Reserved (when possible, of course).
Another funny thing about this: during my ego-search of the photo credits page, I noticed two other librarypeople listed (congratulations guys). I wonder if this is because librarians use tools like flickr more than regular people, or if we're more just inclined to share because of our profession.
Oh, and if you live in Massachusetts, this book is worth looking at. I've been here about three years, and at least half of the book was completely new to me. I'm looking forward to exploring some of these weird places this summer.
Hot on the heels of its announcement of mp3-based and iPod-compatible audiobooks, Overdrive is introducing a new product line: Large Print Audiobooks.
Designed to cater to the elderly and vision-impaired library patrons (just like our print large print collections), OverDrive has contracted with various large print book vendors to convert their catalogs into large print audio versions.
I think it is great that vendors aren't always trying to cast wide nets to scoop up as much profit as possible, but instead are providing products based on the needs of our smaller patron groups.
The only catch is that, like large print books, the audiobook files will be larger than their normal versions. Also, larger headphones are required, too, to accommodate the extra sound.
Still, it's great. You can keep up with more announcements on the OverDrive News page.
I know I said I wasn’t going to post anything this weekend, but I’ve heard a lot of talk about this and wanted to help disseminate:
Libraries get solicitations and purchase suggestions all the time. A few times a week I’ll get emails from authors or publishers, asking us to buy their books, or from patrons, asking us to buy a book they want to read or that would be a good addition to our collection.
But this week, I (and many other librarians, it turns out) got a cross-over: a message from someone apparently posing as a patron.
I am not providing links out of sheer irritation, and I won’t publish the person’s “name” for privacy reasons, but the email came from someone with the initials M.T., and the text of the message read:
Hi there -
I was searching in the library and trying to find the book [title] by [author], ISBN [isbn] and did not find it.
I heard about it on NPR, BBC America and saw it on Amazon and the author's website at narcissism.ca.
Will you be getting a copy in soon?
With requests like this, I always check our catalog to see if the book is available from another library in my consortium, and I look up the patron to place them hold for it. But this time, I found neither the book nor anyone by this name in our system. But I did read about it on Amazon, so I replied:
Hello-
This does look like and interesting book, so I'd be happy to order it for our collection. I searched for your name in our catalog to place you on reserve for it when it arrives, but did not find a [patron name] listed.
If you can email back your library card number, I'll be sure you are first on the list when the book arrives. Thanks for the suggestion, and take care.
Brian Herzog
Head of Reference
Chelmsford Public Library
I then got a message back saying "Hi Brian - I just moved. I'll be down soon to get my card."
That's when I started seeing other libraries asking about this strange request. I wrote back saying that when they came to get a card, to come to the reference desk and I'll order the book then. I haven't heard anything back.
So, any library getting a similar request can probably safely ignore it, as it is a dishonest sales pitch. It sounds like most library book vendors don't have it, anyway.
It's been a busy week. This is vacation week for the schools, and a lot of kids have been in the library working on their projects. During their vacation. Imagine.
I feel bad that my postings lately have just been repeating things I've seen elsewhere, but it's just been that kind of a week. However, this is neat:
A friend of mine forwarded me a link to a "library staircase" built into a London apartment. I want to build a second floor on my house just so I can have one of these (more photos.
And here's a few more interesting book-related oddities, from growabrain:
The New Jersey Repertory Company has a new musical called Bookends, about the bookish friendship and partnership of rare book dealers Leona Rostenberg (1908-2005) and Madeleine B. Stern. (From Fade Theory)
Liz's comment on the post was a good one, and I thought it warranted a bit of research and a full post devoted to answering it. She said:
There are a few websites which allow you to enter some of your favorite bands and it pops out suggestions of similar bands you might like - wouldn’t it be awesome if they had a site like that for books?...
Here are some resources I found that let you search for a book/author you like, and then link from it to similar books:
reader2.com - search for a book to see recommendations; also shows tags associated with each book
AllReaders.com - search for a title or author, and similar books are listed at the end of each book description; also allows searching by plot, setting, or character
StoryCode.com - lets you search for a title or author and suggests similar stories (based on user data); also has other features
LibraryThing.com - offers book suggestions based on user-entered tags; you can also browse tags for books on a certain subject, or use their unsuggester to find books unlike a particular book
GoodReads.com - seems a lot like LibraryThing, but puts more emphasis on recommendations of people in your friends network rather than cumulative data
NoveList - the old standby, but you probably need to go through your local library for it
Amazon.com - it is Amazon, so it's primary focus is to sell book, not recommend them, but it does offer suggestions based on what people purchase and search by topic (as it were)
There are lots of other sites devoted to book suggestions. A few others I found that didn't fit above but that are also useful are:
Listal.com Books - search (hidden in upper right corner) for books and link to others via tags (seems to focus more on social connections)
FictionFinder from OCLC - offers Subject cloud (like tag cloud) to find similar books; also allows searching, and each book has links to see other books with the same subjects, genres, characters or setting
Find a Good Book from Hennepin County Library - search for an author to find recommended reading lists where that author's books appear (plus links to other listings and resources)
Staff Recommendations from the Skokie Public Library - search for a subject to find books their staff has reviewed and recommends
And here's a few resources that are list-based - you click the subject you like, and you browse the list of books in that subject:
If You Like... by the Christchurch City Libraries, New Zealand - read-a-likes lists by book, author, or subject
Oprah Read-A-Likes by the Wakefield Library - lists Oprah's Picks books, and books similar to them
What do I read Next? by the Manchester Library - click on the topic or genre to see a list of books
Themed Booklists by Overbooked.com - has a short listing of books and authors with links to similar books, but also has many other resources in their booklists and readers advisory sections
StopYoureKillingMe.com - just mystery books, browse by author or category to find similar books
GenreFluent.com - lists of books by subject or genre (use links on the left)
I'm sure there are tons of others - even my library also has a readers advisory webpage. If I missed one of your favorites, please share it with a comment below.
A librarian in Maine recently posted to MELIBS-L that one of their local patrons was a finalist for the 2008 StoryTubes contest. I had never heard of this contest, but I like projects where patrons get involved, so I checked it out. I loved it. 
