Library recommenders systems
Have you ever experienced a situation when you've borrowed a book from a library and a week later got an email saying that someone requested that book and you have to return it in a few days? It just happened to me a couple of weeks ago when i was required to return two books of Manuel Castells without even getting a chance to read them well. And i personally got curious about who is that person requesting the same books i am interested in. What else does s/he read?
And this is where i though about Amazon.com and wondered wouldn't it be cool if there was a recommender's system embedded in a library website? For example you search for a book and you see what else people searching for the same book looked at. People could post reviews and comments on particular items, reflecting for example on how useful the book or an article were for a particular course. Moreover, once a new book, supposedly relevant to your interests, would arrive to the library, you could get a notice about that. Etc.
Wouldn't all that and more (take a look at Amazon for example), make the entire library search richer and more engaging? Wouldn't it make the life easier when you start searching for literature on a subject you have no clue about? Wouldn't it get students more involved in the library, thus contributing both to their learning experience and community building? Where is potential flaw in this idea?
What do you think? I have a sense that if such a system is not already implemented somewhere, it is soon going to be...
