Lists of lists
Sometimes when someone asks for a recommendation, you know just what to suggest. Like, if you ask me what the best single science fiction book ever is, I'll say, "Dune," without a pause. If you've already read that, I might suggest one of the other novels of Frank Herbert. That's a list, sure. But it's pretty specific.
Other times... well, people just want to narrow their options down from the millions of things in the pile to something, well... less universal. And, thankfully, there are all kinds of folks out there who put together all kinds of lists.
For example... If somebody asks, "Can you recommend some good kids' books?" you can put together your own list, sure. Or, if you want a nice, safe, high-quality and (let's face it) easier answer... point to the classic ALA lists of Newbery and Caldecott winners. Somebody else has done the hard work. You just need to have a way to list the lists.
Clearly, this is another plug for the list making function in WorldCat.org. In this case, lists that already exist... somewhere. My point here is that it's really handy to have a single URL that can point people to content that's already passed through a screen like the ALA or the Mystery Writers of America, who provide The Edgars, a list of great mystery novels.
See... when we say, "there's this great list..." we mean that there's the list itself... but then there needs to be a place to put it. In the past, we might have arranged recent Caldecott books on one shelf in the library for a display, or handed out a flyer with the list printed out.
Now, once we've put the lists into WorldCat.org, we can share lists of lists with very little effort. And because the click-path is so easy (open the email, click on a list link, click on a link to the material), it shortens the distance between all the effort that when into reviewing, editing and recommending materials, and the end of a search.
Other times... well, people just want to narrow their options down from the millions of things in the pile to something, well... less universal. And, thankfully, there are all kinds of folks out there who put together all kinds of lists.
For example... If somebody asks, "Can you recommend some good kids' books?" you can put together your own list, sure. Or, if you want a nice, safe, high-quality and (let's face it) easier answer... point to the classic ALA lists of Newbery and Caldecott winners. Somebody else has done the hard work. You just need to have a way to list the lists.
Clearly, this is another plug for the list making function in WorldCat.org. In this case, lists that already exist... somewhere. My point here is that it's really handy to have a single URL that can point people to content that's already passed through a screen like the ALA or the Mystery Writers of America, who provide The Edgars, a list of great mystery novels.
See... when we say, "there's this great list..." we mean that there's the list itself... but then there needs to be a place to put it. In the past, we might have arranged recent Caldecott books on one shelf in the library for a display, or handed out a flyer with the list printed out.
Now, once we've put the lists into WorldCat.org, we can share lists of lists with very little effort. And because the click-path is so easy (open the email, click on a list link, click on a link to the material), it shortens the distance between all the effort that when into reviewing, editing and recommending materials, and the end of a search.
