bibliocommons

I love the new catalog, and I think we can't make the switch quickly enough.

I love how smart it is. I've tried misspelling things to see what kind of results I get, and only once did the new catalog not outperform the old (it merely tied in that one instance). And I love that the book I'm searching for is almost always one of the top few results found. No more scrolling through pages of seemingly irrelevant results to get to the title I need. What a concept!
I love that patrons can click on "view availability details" and a get the real picture of just how many copies of a popular item we have, and where all of those copies are.
I love how easy it is to keep a list of items I'd like to check out in future. No more little scraps of paper floating around in my life.
I love the feature that allows us to limit a search to items currently available in the building. This will better aid patrons that need information that they can get their hands on immediately.
I love the social aspect. Personal reviews make the library's collection seem more friendly and approachable, less aloof.

Bring it on!

samba, pt. 1

I knew this would happen. I originally planned to save my taiko post for last, holding it before me like a carrot to entice me through all the other drum posts I've had planned. But taiko is done. And I've had precious little desk time to work on new posts. So here is part one of samba to get us all back in the swing of things.

The Coventry School of Samba does an excellent job of identifying the drums that are typically used for this type of music. You can check that out here.

Here's a little audio visual sampler of the individual samba percussion instruments:


And here they are, all happily put together!

Library Feeds

Now that I am feeling totally overwhelmed by all that is out there to read, I share with you three of the library feeds to which I've subscribed:

Awful Library Books

Information Wants to be Free

Librarian by Day