St. Cloud, MN, November 2013: The online catalog at Great River Regional Library just got better.
Every day, more than 2,600 individuals search the catalog from home or other locations outside the library. Catalog entries describe each of the books, DVDs, CDs, audiobooks and magazines in the library system’s collection, and tell the reader which location an item is at, whether it’s on the shelf or checked out, and when it is due to be returned. More than 950,000 items are described and accounted for.
All that essential information is now enhanced by a service called NoveList Select. It makes book searches fun by providing recommendations readers will see as they browse online. For example, readers who look for “Catching Fire” by Suzanne Collins will not only see that the library owns multiple copies, but also that it is the second book in a series: the Hunger Games trilogy. They will also see covers of other series and other books recommended for readers of “Catching Fire.” Additional enhancements include listings for recommended authors, reader ratings and reviews, a link to the NoveList website, and extras from NoveList in the form of award winner listings and booktalk links.
NoveList Select turns a static catalog into a place for book discovery. The recommendations are created by a large team of experts at NoveList including numerous professional librarians.
“Traditionally, readers would speak with their local librarian to get book recommendations,” said Jake Grussing, the library’s associate director for collection development. “That reader’s advisory still takes place, but large numbers of patrons now visit us online, and the addition of NoveList Select makes it possible for us to provide an equivalent kind of service to the online browser.”
GRRL provides library services at 32 public libraries in Benton, Morrison, Sherburne, Stearns, Todd and Wright Counties. It provides Central Minnesota residents with nearly 1 million books, CDs and DVDs, 250 public computers, programming and information services.
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