Facebook Librarian
Ok, so this is the first project to roll out of www.hawidu.com . Basically, it’s not a big deal at first glance. There are a few lists of links, and some other junk to busy up the page. But the real functionality comes from the “Ask a Librarian” section. The app stuff in the background senses who the user is — and selects the Librarian of best fit to answer the question! It works for all of a user’s networks, plus the cities they claim to be in/from.
Instead of saying, “it’s really unimpressive,” think “it’s got potential.” Part of the strategy for making fbLibrarian into a widespread tool is getting Librarians involved in the process. The email reference accounts from any given Network (School, Company, or Major City) need to start a facebook account, then register with the app to start serving their patron population (click here to find out how). Any City public library can also join the system, and get the patron questions for users who don’t associate with a network. Once they see the function that this provides, this will hopefully inspire a swarm of brilliant developer/librarians to volunteer to write functional additions to the app.
In the mean time, click over to the other pages in this section to find out how to suggest changes (such as the particular resources in the link lists, or even the quantity of links per section), use the services most effectively, and get the most from your local librar(y/ies).
Thanks for stopping by.