CFLC Chronicles: Friday Fun Things

For an interesting exploration of a little-advertised librarian sub-culture, check out The Bellydancing Librarian (and her gallery of photos). Give a broader read to the wonderful list on her page of Web sites belonging to "other fabulous, stereotype-smashing librarians."

SUBJECTS: CFLC CHRONICLES

OCLC Oddments: Resource Sharing Request Searching Enhancements

From the OCLC Resource Sharing List:

OCLC is pleased to announce that enhancements to request searching were installed on Sunday, October 9. Searching requests in Request Manager can now be accomplished more efficiently using a variety of methods:
* Keyword
* Phrase
* Truncation
* Exact Match

The searching process varies for different search types. These procedures are outlined in full in the online Help files and in online documentation at
http://www.oclc.org/support/documentation/resourcesharing/
using/searchrequests/default.htm.

Please note: this enhancement does not include searching of archived requests as previously announced. Archived request searching will be installed at a later date to be announced as soon as that information becomes available.

SUBJECTS: OCLC ODDMENTS

Terrific Tips: Web Pages that Attract

In various workshops (particularly the Technology Updates and the Boomers & Gamers sessions), attendees have been discussing ways to make library Web sites more active, interactive, and changing to make it worth the users' while to return regularly.

Here is a good example from one library, the Greene County (OH) Public Library, that has done just that. Go here to see their monthly triva contest, which encourages patrons to use their subscription reference databases to find the answers.

Another example is for those of you having trouble attracting teens to your Web sites -- but only if you want to be jaw-droppingly jealous. Check out the AXIS blog for teens from the Ann Arbor District Library. You don't have to go very far back into the blog to discover individual posts that have *hundreds* of comments!

SU BJECTS: TERRIFIC TIPS