Along these same lines, this just came to my attention:
http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/tburke1/perma12004.html. While I've run
into the same attitude that Eric has (librarians hardly trust each other to
make comments, much less patrons), it seems as though a rich (dare I say
Web?) of comments and links about and between records might be very helpful
to many.

--Th

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Eric Lease Morgan [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Monday, January 26, 2004 2:26 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] ILS component for book reviews?
>
>
> On 1/26/04 2:08 PM, Kenneth R. Irwin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > That's a good idea Ben; why don't you do that? I know of no
> such thing, and I
> > don't think I've even heard speculation about it, but I dig
> the idea.
> >
> > Quoth Ben Ostrowsky <[log in to unmask]>:
> >
> >> Is anyone aware of software that has been developed for
> allowing people to
> >> make comments about a book? I imagine it would have user
> accounts and
> >> anonymous participation, moderation/administration against
> trolls, etc. And
> >> if it's designed anywhere near properly, it would be
> pretty easy to add as
> >> part of a web-based catalog. (I use Dynix's HIP, but my
> dream software would
> >> be vendor-neutral.)
>
> I've given the implementation of such service some thought.
> Here's how I
> might do it:
>
> 1. Determine key for particular book, say field 001 of MARC.
>
> 2. Add this sort of text display of a book in a catalog such as
>
> <a href='/?id=DCN0003'>Read/write reviews of this item</a>
>
> 3. The script reads the ID number and uses it as a foreign key
> to a separate relational database from the catalog.
>
> 4. The resulting HTML output displays reviews and gives the
> user the opportunity to create their own reviews.
>
> 5. Features may include logging in or the ability of librarians
> to edit reviews, as Ben mentions above.
>
> When I mentioned this to peers a few months ago I was told
> that our users
> aren't qualified to write reviews.
>
> I plan to implement reviewing features in our redesigned website using
> MyLibrary. We hope to go a bit further and implement a sort
> of "people like
> you also used" service.
>
> --
> Eric Lease Morgan
> Head, Digital Access and Information Architecture Department
> University Libraries of Notre Dame
>
> (574) 631-8604
>