Visiting Library Websites that Use Web 2.0

I'm slowly progressing with the InfoPeople's "Our 23 Things" challenge.
Today I'll share my experiences with Items 6, 7, and 8 :

Number 6: We are asked to visit a number of library websites that employ Web 2.0 tools.

Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenberg County
This busy library site offers a variety of innovative services including Library by Mail for $5.00 per book, and it is free to homebound patrons. Registration and requests are available online. Library card registration as well as paying of fees and fines is also available online. A note about a few other features of their site: A nice "Find it Fast" drop-down menu feature allows visitors to move quickly to a number of options such as book renewal, volunteer application, suggest a purchase, view employment opportunities, search databases, and other options.
Other drop down menus are used to locate their library locations by zipcode or by name, and allow you to set a particular library as your home location. The website also lists its many programs by category and by location, and you can subscribe to an RSS feed of any of the lists.
The library is building a group of services to offer in Teen Second Life, a 3-D online virtual world.

Ann Arbor District Library
InfoPeople described this website as one that has been built around a blog. I enjoyed its attractive, clean look. It is easy to navigate with tabs across the top and down the left column of each page. In addition to their main blog-site, they also have an audio blog, books, blog and video blog. They also highlight the new or hot items in the collection by fiction, non-fiction or media type. RSS feeds are offered for each of these lists. The visual appeal is quite nice, although it could be enhanced by adding the library's full name, Ann Arbor District Library, in the header.


Denver Public Library Podcasts
From the Denver Public Library's home page, select the link on the left entitled "DPL Downloads" to view the variety of audio-visual downloads and special applications.
They describe their podcasting feature as follows: Podcasting allows a sound file, such as an MP3 file, to be played using your web browser or by using an RSS feed to subscribe to the podcast which will automatically download the sound files to a software player like iTunes. You can then hear the podcast whenever you want from your computer or move it easily to a portable media player.

Seattle Public Library
An interesting feature of the Seattle Public Library is the option to sign up online for an hour library visit and tour, or to take an online tour. This is another library offering online library card registration. It also has an extensive calendar of events and classes; you can subscribe to the calendar. You can also sign up for a newsletter by e-mail. And, under the website's "Collections" tab you can select "Podcasts" and subscribe to podcasts of author readings and other library events.

Summary: I find the Ann Arbor District Library's integrated blog/website very nice. While our library has an I/T Department that manages the website, I expect that blogs, RSS feeds and podcasts will be implemented sometime in the future.

Numbers 7 and 8:
I have a Bloglines account and some of the feeds I have subscribed to include quite a number about words and quotes: Quotes of the Day, Word of the Day, Wordsmith, and World Wide Words newsletter. I also subscribe to The Shifted Librarian, BBC News, the Guardian Unlimited, The Official Google Blog, Reuters, Slashdot, Scientific American, and Positive News Network. Washington Post Book Reviews, Dilbert, Comedy Central Videos, Wired Top Stories... among others. And no, I rarely have time to read them! Having a page of feeds, like Bloglines, is good. Having access to the feeds on your blog webpage as a blogroll (list of blog links) or by link to my Bloglines account I think would be most convenient.

OO/Gwen