Library Catalogs Should Be Like WordPress
Library catalogs should be be like WordPress. That is, every entry should support comments, trackbacks, and pingbacks. Every record should have a permalink. Content should be tag-able. The look should be easily customizable with themes. Everything should be available via RSS or Atom. It should be extendable with a rich plugin API. And when that fails, it would be nice if it were all written in a convenient language like PHP so we can hack it ourselves. Beside the part about “written in a convenient language like PHP”, this would make library catalogs much more useful and entertaining. However, it would also add complexity and spam issues. Amazon has recently started a similar approach to their listings including adding a customer wiki. Thanks to Eric Schnell who posted a detailed review of the original thought and some insight into WordPress OPAC or WOPAC. This is already getting some press in library circles.
I would love to see something like this. Libraries and even the whole publishing industry has hurt itself in the last decade by being set in its ways (for the most part). Introducing more new and innovative technology will help lure young people in, and that would be great!