Loryn's notes 2.18.09

(copied/pasted in by Jessica)
From Loryn:
Hi Ladies-

I'm not sure how to post a new blog on the Blogger Website. I was going to go in and post the links that I had found.These are the links to the ones that I thought would be helpful to look at:

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/2070.genre_X
This one is a book club for 20-30 year olds which is run by the Oak Park Public Library. It seems that Goodreads is used in order to facilitate extra information to the members as well as another place to chat about the books.

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/2096.San_Antonio_Public_Library
This next one is from the San Antonio Public Library. Their approach isn't specifically for a book club, but also to let members know what their librarians are reading. I think is a really interesting point. A lot patrons ask the question, "Have you read anything good lately?". Goodreads helps to answer that question.

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/10224.Teen_Library_Club_TCPL_This last one is from the Tippecanoe County Public Library's teen book club. They use Goodreads to go over the book club books as well as help one another stay connected by what they are reading. One thing that I found about most of the Goodreads sites I looked at was that they aren't directly connected to the libraries website. Moreover, they are run only through Goodreads. This must mean that librarians know about goodreads and are spreading the word to patrons and bookclub members. I think that Goodreads is really great for libraries, but a lot of libraries don't know how to easily integrate it for the public to easily use. I had the YA librarian ask me today how our research was going. She wants to start using Goodreads for our Teen book club, but isn't sure if it will translate what she needs. The San Leandro Public Library is part of a Galley book program, we get new unreleased books from the publishers and the teens get to read them and then review them. Kelly was hoping that if she started a group on Goodreads, and was able to add the galley books, her members would be able to review the books right on there and rate them. This way, memebers could also see the books that are getting good ratings. I think this is a GREAT idea! I'm hoping it will work out for her, and maybe we can see about getting a link set up on our website or even a Wiki tool that shows what the popular books are. Her only worry is that teens aren't ready for this kind of social networking site, places like myspace and facebook revolve around the social aspects and Goodreads is a little more on the practical side.