Here’s a simple tip for managing your library lists: try Amazon Wishlists. If you’re a researcher or a heavy reader, you know the problem with your library lists: they grow constantly, they spread out over multiple post-its/notebooks, you lose them, and when you actually get to the library you can’t find them.
Amazon Wishlists solves this problem – you keep a single list, which is always accessible, and you get the value-add of Amazon’s recommendations. It is Amazon’s recommendations that make this sustainable for me: it is extra work to look up books in Amazon and add them to my wish list, but the product page is so rich with information that I often find one or two other interesting books. This is virtual equivalent of stacks-browsing you just don’t get in most OPAC’s.
A couple of quick notes: If you already use wish lists for your actual wishes, you will want to create a separate list. I named mine “Reading List” and include a warning that I don’t want these books purchased for me by some kind soul. If you don’t do this, you may find an obscure $200 stats book under the Christmas tree instead of the iPod Touch. You can also make your list private, which solves the problem. To simplify the Amazon-to-OPAC lookup, I’ve created a bookmarklet that does an OPAC lookup from the Amazon product page. My bookmarklet is configured for UNC but if you want to hack it for your school, feel free.
Note: For the times you actually have to buy books, I’ve been working on some software that profiles your wish list and predicts the best time for you to buy a book (based on historical pricing data). Watch this space for more details.
Fred Stutzman is a doctoral student, researcher and teaching fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Information and Library Science. He studies how people use social media.
