Social OPACs

I started out searching the Univ. of Pennsylvania online catalog for the author, Jane Austen, but the only feature I noticed that fits with the theme of social tagging is the "More Like This" option which suggests additional items by the author or within the same series or on the same subject. As a dual librarian and library user, I know the value of suggestions for like items. Patrons commonly ask for something along the same lines as what has initially caught their interest. I then tried the Hennepin County Library's Bookspace site and clicked on the fiction category, Minnesota Book Awards. I like the being able to see images of the book covers as well as posted comments. It's amazing how much comments can sway the decision to explore material further or move on to something new! The overall layout of this site is quite impressive. It's clean but yet there's a good deal of information presented as well as links to related items. I found myself getting side-tracked for a good 10 minutes or more exploring what else is available! I moved on to the Ann Arbor District Library Catalog Tag Cloud. I noticed the tag, "Scotalnd" which is likely meant to be Scotland and see the potential for possibly more errors and less preciseness with folksonomies. I clicked on sisters and four results popped up showing the title and author as well as other tags. The other tags provide just enough information to get a sense of the theme of each result without needing to go further for a summary or abstract. Like Amazon.com, other titles checked out (or in Amazon's case, purchased) by users who borrowed the particular item of interest are displayed. I think the addition of comments and suggestions definitely makes the catalog more friendly and interesting!