Linkability Fertilizes Online Communities

It’s hard to know how Fuzzyfruit found the WPopac catalog page for A Baby Sister for Frances (though it is ranked fifth in a Google search for the title), but what matters is that she did find it, and she was able to link to it by simply copying the URL from her browser’s location bar.

The link appears among her comments in the discussion about her post on an early letter she’d written to her mom. Fuzzyfruit’s comment spawned more comments about the book from Sarahq and Coffeechica.

We talk here and there about how “libraries build community,” but how does that work in the online world? How do our systems support or inhibit community discussions online?

book discussions, book talk, community, durable link, findability, google economy, lib20, libraries, library, library 2.0, library systems, linkability, online community, permalink, social software

6 Comments

  1. [...] Linkability Fertilizes Online CommunitiesI really don’t know how linkability will build communities. But we really need to work on building support platforms for the public to interact with the library and promote social discussions, whether offline or online. Currently, the only way for such interactions is through the High Browse Online blog, but even then, there are not much discussion going on. Maybe librarians need to go in more often to post useful comments. And we might need to read this to find out how to solicit more comments on the blog.(via MaisonBisson.com) [...]

  2. [...] I argue that libraries are rich with the stuff people would like to link to, but the architecture of our systems often fails us on the other aspects. [...]

  3. [...] I like her sound all right – bit bubblegummy- but what really excited me was the story. First, the video was linkable allowing this casual exchange – enriching a remote friendship , my iPod, AND this enterprising young musician’s career. Our catalogs, for the most part, are not linkable meaning that we, as libraries might be missing out on this kind of organic, grassroots movement. [...]

  4. [...] Anyway, I recently posted a couple stories at MaisonBisson about what happens when you build a library catalog with readable, reliable, and hackable URLs. The answer, in short, is that you open the catalog to discovery in web search engines, and you provide the framework for online discussions and community. [...]

  5. [...] Details of a Maisson Brisson presentation “I argue that libraries are rich with the stuff people would like to link to, but the architecture of our systems often fails us on the other aspects.”… [...]

  6. [...] I certainly don’t mean this to be as snarky as it’s about to come out, but I love the fact that Isaak questions my claim that linkability is essential to online discussions (and thus, communities) with a link: [...]


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