Virtual shelf-browsing

I've been thinking about the new Library lately, and how having so much of the collection in the storage system will change browsing habits (even though the most-borrowed parts of the collection will still be on the shelves). There is something about the physicality of books that makes browsing shelves - whether in a bookstore or a library - an act of discovery and surprise, of serendipity. It's the same thing that makes second-hand book fairs so addictive: what if you find that one book you never knew you were looking for? When you don't know what, exactly, you're looking for, using the online catalogue becomes an arduous task of filtering results from possible keywords. But what if you don't know the right keywords? What if all you remember is "it was somewhere near the Milton shelves, and it had a cat on the cover"? (This is an actual example - I did find it, eventually, but only by chance!)

That's where I think a "virtual bookshelf" like zoomii could really help. Being able to browse actual book covers side-by-side allows for those serendipitous discoveries and vague recollections, which is why I was excited to see LibraryThing has made improvements to its Shelf Browse application in LibraryThing for Libraries. Its integration in the LibraryThing platform also means user-applied tag clouds and reviews are readily available, supplementing the information you can find in the regular library catalogue.

Of course, the virtual bookshelf can't replace the physical browsing needs of some researchers. But it bridges the divide between OPAC and shelf in a way that is intuitive to use and - better yet - brings the "physical" library shelf to the user, wherever and whenever they are.