Seattle Public Library's Patron Reviews

Every summer at the BPL we not only ask our patrons to write down what they have read but we also ask them to leave us a comment on at least one out of every three titles they read.  We use these comments to build a Fall display of patron's picks.  Scroll down here to see last year's example.

Betty is compiling this year's list right now, and I will post it when it is ready.  But we are just one small library serving about 54,000 people.  We do what we can to serve our community.

Now imagine you provide Readers' Services for the library of a major US city.  How would you share the wealth of information you gathered all summer?  Well, I have been following the answer over on the Seattle Public Library's RA blog Shelf Talk.

For the past few weeks, they have been releasing "Patron Reviews," branch by branch.  They have collected the same local summer reading information we do, but on a larger scale.  By releasing it branch by branch, they have kept the local flavor of the patron suggestions while still presenting an overall picture of what everyone is reading.

Use this link to access all of the lists and see what I mean.

This is a great use of a blog by a library to bridge the physical-virtual divide. They are using the blog to disseminate what people came into the building to check out and read.  The blog lets everyone share in the community's reading while still supporting the physical building and its shelves of books just waiting to be read.

With the large number of useless blogs out there, it is nice to see someone (or in this case and entire city library department) working to use their blog for one perfect reason...to enhance their patrons' library experience.