Service Updates & Blog

Sorry for the Delay in Posting

Leo Klein — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 00:19:57 -0500

Okay, I got through the backlog.

I'd like to apologize for the delay in approving posts for the past couple of days. I was on the road till yesterday and didn't get a chance to go through the submissions until today.

All I can say is that every submission on this site is appreciated -- particularly by me. I try to get them up as quickly as possible and people who submit sites have every right to expect that that's what should happen.

Again, I'm back in 'Sweet Home Chicago', so hopefully there won't be another delay.

Note, if something seems funny, or you'r waiting more than a day for a submission to be cleared, please contact me using the Contact page.

Thanks again,

LEO

LibSite.org (More than) One Year Old

Leo Klein — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:50:53 -0500

I've been involved with so many different things that I completely forgot the one-year anniversary of this site! Shame on me.

Yes, April 10, 2007 is the historic launch of this site. I was reminded of it recently by the number of sites posted -- increasingly -- from all over the world.

Most recently, and most wonderfully, we've had a collection of interesting examples of Web 2.0 à la française.

I'd like to thank everyone who's listed their site here. The experiment continues.

Praise for LibSite.org from ProQuest

Leo Klein — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:57:13 -0500

Both ChicagoLibrarian.com and LibSite.org get a wonderful write-up in a brochure from ProQuest:

"Specific to library-related website design, Chicagolibrarian.com and librarian Leo Robert Klein maintain an excellent "recommendation service" for viewing best practices, innovations, and experiments being tried by your colleagues worldwide. Please take a minute to visit libSite at http://libsite.org and you'll become a frequent visitor."

It's on their "Customer Tools" page under "How-to guide on Marketing Your Library's Online Resources".

LibSite.org to Be Featured in ProQuest Publication

Leo Klein — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 18:01:42 -0500

I just got word from Tina at ProQuest that they're going to use LibSite.org in one of their training publications as "a good example of library-related website design".

Needless to say, I was delighted to hear the news and look forward to receiving a copy of the final product!

Over 100 Library-Related Websites Listed!

Leo Klein — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:43:06 -0500

I kind of missed this because the navigation at the bottom of the page misleadingly stops at '9' but we've reached an important milestone: More than one hundred library-related websites have been listed on LibSite!

I'm particularly proud of the quality and scope of the websites. They've introduced me to resources I might otherwise have never known about.

[read more...]

I also love the fact that we're getting several site listings outside the "Continental 48". Have a look at the LibSite Google Map to get an idea of the spread. We're global, baby!

All I can say after a couple of months of doing this is thanks -- thanks to all who've recommended a site. You've really made this project worthwhile to me -- and to everyone else as well.

Library Websites by Google Map

Leo Klein — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 00:16:20 -0500

The whole purpose of LibSite is not simply to create another list of library websites but to explore different arrangements and combinations that the current state of our technology makes possible.

That's why social mapping for all websites has always been an important goal -- one that I'm happy to say has finally been achieved! You can see the results for yourself by going to LibSite's new Google Map Page...

[read more...]

I've been playing around with this for a couple of weeks but there was a bug in the implementation that kept the links from working.

I got a good suggestion by someone over at the Drupal Site and now the thing works like a charm! Each site listed on LibSite is -- or at least will be -- mapped out by location!

I still have to tweak the work-flow and not all the sites have been listed, but you can get an idea of what I'm aiming at by going here...

Leave the Screenshots to Us

Leo Klein — Wed, 02 May 2007 00:29:30 -0500

From now on screenshots will be added automatically as part of the moderation process! No more need to grab your own shot. We'll be doing this for you based on the URL supplied.

This is one in a number of improvements to the workflow. The aim is to make it as easy as possible to recommend a site -- and that means reducing the number of steps to the bare minimum. (For more info, see the Wiki Page on Recommending a Site...)

Totally Cool : Image Gallery!

Leo Klein — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 16:24:30 -0500

With all the sites coming in, I thought it'd be nice to set up some kind of image gallery. People could see thumbnails of the sites grouped together like on Google Images or some image database.

Well, as it turns out, it was easier putting it together than I thought.

So check it out: "Image Gallery..."

The Best Site to Recommend Is Your Own!

Leo Klein — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 23:15:43 -0500

When I was developing this site, one of the names I came up with (and there were many) was "LibSiteLaunch". I liked it because it suggested coming here and announcing to the world the launch of your own site. I even had a cute little logo put together of a rocket blasting off.

Later on I went with "LibSite" because I wasn't sure how many actual "launches" there'd be in any given amount of time.

In order to broaden the possible universe of choices, I decided on calling it a "recommendation" service instead. That said, I don't want to abandon the earlier concept.

As the title says, the best site to recommend is your own. I know I did!

Do I Delete? You Bet I Delete!

Leo Klein — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 15:06:33 -0500

Now my level of tolerance is pretty high but anyone caught using incendiary language will be swiftly escorted to the digital garbage can.