Banksy
Originally uploaded by Simon Crubellier
Visited the 2.0 award winners list and found a listing for start pages.
iGoogle lets you set up a customizable start page. I outfitted mine with search boxes for wikipedia and google maps; plus, a little gadget that automatically pulls all the movie listings from theaters nearby. There are also one-click RSS subscriptions and, just like that, you have your feeds on the page.
You have the option to create tabs for new pages within your iGoogle start page. I created a new page with media RSS feeds; so I have headlines from NPR, Metacritic and DCist all in one place.
The coolest thing about this tool is the ease-of-use. A drag-and-drop feature lets you arrange things on the page and then remembers your settings.
The implication for libraries would be the creation of a library home page that shares the same level of interactivity and is as customizable as iGoogle.
People won't visit your library site, they'll visit their library site.
After logging in with their card, their library start page would pop up--with feeds for new titles and book reviews in the genres they designate, programming news from the library branches closest to their home, quick searching of the catalog (and the ability to create tags within the same), a box for chatting with a librarian in real-time, the most recent posts from the Director's/Friends of the Library/County Commissioners blog, a wiki with local information, etc.
The interesting thing is that all of the technology exists to create library websites like this today. I'm surprised more libraries haven't already started to use it.
I'm sure libraries will incorporate these features into their webpages eventually. Just once though, I'd like to see us be the creators of something cool and really useful--instead of always being two steps behind.
Sometimes it feels like the neighbors have a DVD player; meanwhile, we're getting really excited and patting each other on the back for our just-out-of-the-box Betamax.
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