I would simply choose wherever our users' experience resides.
When I did my prototype of Walker Library Info Spotlight in Web scale management, particular social media sites, I checked into Nielsen ratings about top-ranked online users' experience.
From that, I came up with a list of web sites to embed a few photo images capturing what our engineering technology students were working during spring 2010.
According to Nielsen report for that period and the need of my research for Web scale management of library resources, the sites that I chose for the small show-and-tell-only collections to be visible were:
PS: the site changed all of my video collections, including subscription, playlists, etc.
The idea was to create a story of library resources embedded into the fabric of users' experience, ready to be discovered in web-scale management using 1) LCSH terms to describe and tag the photos; 2) Freebase to export RDF triples, and readily be integrated with Wikipedia, etc. and 3) universal web search engines such as Google, yahoo, YouTube, etc. in addition to library catalogs.
If we have linking services, this could be created as inbound link, where we put our collection holdings in one repository only, but output them to wherever our user experience is.
But we have to be mindful about contractual agreement, and user policy of each site. Not all sites allowed me to track the usage of embedded collections in Web-scale. In any case, we should have our own space for Web presence. That's my lesson's learned.
For books, my number one choice is Google Scholar and Google Books. This was how I did when I designed discovery layer in fall 2008: I chose academic themes of the semester in fall 2008, and its mixtures of discoverable Web services as the following:
1. topics, e.g. land use, land tax, single tax, curriculum, algebra, electronic data processing, etc.;
2. people, i.e. Henry George as historical character, Charles Wankel as teaching faculty at St. John's Univ.;
3. collection repositories, i.e. My Library in Google Books, OCLC WorldCat Identities, university Website, etc.;
4. conformed dimension using LCC to enable enterprise-wide discovery of resources on university's web site, in integrated library system and bibliographic utilities, etc.;
5. LCSH terms to tag the collections in Web Scale;
6. FocusOn and CategoryMap modules using Voyage Cataloging Client, Web Voyage, etc. as prototype, etc.
If you are interested, I put my findings in Slideshare and here is the URL for my research:
http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/elephantsmith/subject-access-enhancement-focuson-search-and-categorymap-an-integrated-approach-for-discovery-of-university-resources-and-library-on-the-web-7211376
In short, I am glad that you are thinking about exposing library collections into the context and fabric of our users. I just summarized what I learned as how to get there.
Thanks a lot!!!
Amanda Xu
Sent from my iPad
On Dec 1, 2011, at 11:14, Sarah D Tusa <sarah.tusa@LAMAR.EDU> wrote:
If we could ever afford a comprehensive "discovery" tool/service, that would provide another level of visibility for the e
-books. Maybe some day the price will come down out of the stratosphere.
--
Sarah Tusa, Associate Professor
Coordinator of Collection Development
& Acquisitions
Mary & John Gray Library
Lamar University
Ext. 8125
From: "Mary Ann Jones" <MJones@LIBRARY.MSSTATE.EDU>
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Sent: Thursday, December 1, 2011 9:54:51 AM
Subject: [SERIALST] Providing access to e-books
*Please excuse cross posting*
We are currently discussing how to best make e-books discoverable to our patrons and I am seeking information about how other academic libraries are providing access to e-books via their web presence. Are libraries making e-books accessible from anywhere other than the OPAC?
Thanks in advance for providing any feedback from your experience.
Sincerely,
Mary Ann Jones, MLIS
Assistant Professor
Coordinator/Electronic Resources Librarian
(662) 325-4619
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