Pageflakes - Dublin City Public Libraries

Pageflakes - Dublin City Public Libraries. This is a great example of what can be achieved using the Pageflakes Pagecast service. Library links, searching the catalogue, news, web mail, press releases, bookmarks, new books for Christmas, DCPL lectures, Twitter and a whole host more. If you're wondering what a library can do with a start page this is a perfect example.

Comments

[pollyalida]

That's a terrific example of a library using Pageflakes. Thanks for pointing it out.

[Peter]

I love the concept, but I feel that there's too much on here that doesn't belong directly to the library. The podcast, photos and catalogue are all rather diluted by including elements (e.g.news) that can provided elsewhere more easily. Consequently, I think it loses a cohesive feel. Like the idea though!

[broke]

Thanks for the link, but I confess I'm not keen on this as a page. It looks much too busy for my taste. I was looking at Pageflakes yesterday, and wondering whether to try it myself. I think it would work well as a personal home page but not for this sort of site.

[Eddie Byrne]

Fair comment. I am addressing that, information overload is always a danger when a librarian is let loose! You will soon see a revised portal, making use of the tabs option, moving content to different pages. Must keep sight though of user behaviour when they use a public access PC in a library, they WANT to check their mail, their myspace page, search for jobs, book that flight. So we want to facilitate those objects while pushing our content to the fore. Getting the optimum mix is not so easy as it sounds!

I will be seeking feedback from users over the next couple of months, that should be interesting. It hasn't been rolled out yet on our PCs, a work in progress. I put it out there early to get feedback from my peers, which I have got aplenty! So thanks for the above.
Ed