Denver, CO July 9, 2008 – Medialab, creator of the leading search and discovery platform AquaBrowser, announced the general release of My Discoveries with functionality for users to create reviews and ratings and view personal tags. These features boost the existing AquaBrowser social networking experience to create a true global community for library users worldwide.
My Discoveries was introduced in 2007 and initially allowed users to tag items, search and refine on user tags, plus create, share and search on user lists. My Discoveries with LibraryThing content has been seeding library catalogs with 21 million tags created by users of LibraryThing.com. Now with the latest release of MyDiscoveries, users can review and rate items and view personal tag clouds. The User Interface was also enhanced to be more intuitive based on patron comments and customer feedback.
"Our customers are now enjoying complete social library bliss: a smoothly integrated social library platform, pre-populated with the richest social library content in the world. My Discoveries is a great example of when modern, component-based web 2.0 platforms are mixed and mashed together, without waiting for integrated systems to catch up. It's here, right now," stated Taco Ekkel, Director of Development at Medialab Solutions.
Ratings are easily created using the star system employed at other popular sites such as Netflix. Individuals see not only the rating they’ve attached to an item, but the averaged global community rating based on all user input across all My Discoveries libraries worldwide. And the user functionality to create tags, lists, reviews and ratings is now accessible at both the results list and title level.
Blacklisting support for tags has been expanded and is also available for reviews. Although libraries are embracing library 2.0 technology, there is still a desire to monitor language that appears in the library’s website and catalog. Library staff may also monitor their statistics for how many tags, lists, ratings and reviews are being created in their local system as well as globally.
"It’s important for libraries to offer a modern social networking experience to their patrons, and we’re pleased that AquaBrowser My Discoveries has matured to fulfill this need. Patron feedback, librarian requests, and functionality in other social websites have been vital in growing My Discoveries to become the leading library social networking site" explained Bas Zwaan, CEO of Medialab Solutions BV.
About Medialab Solutions BV and AquaBrowser North America
AquaBrowser is the world leader in ILS vendor-neutral, visual faceted search that connects to any number and type of data sources. Medialab Solutions focuses all efforts toward creating successful discovery solutions so libraries are viewed as superior sources of information and knowledge. AquaBrowser can be found in libraries around the world, including over 250 libraries in the U.S. as well as libraries in the UK, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Italy and 100% of all libraries in the Netherlands. Nearly 2,500 library locations are serving over 60 million citizens worldwide with the visual AquaBrowser search and discovery experience.
AquaBrowser Library provides unique benefits and quick implementation to libraries. Medialab Solutions BV is dba AquaBrowser North America in the U.S. and is a business unit of R. R. Bowker. For more information about AquaBrowser, visit http://www.aquabrowser.com or call 1-800-546-9816.
About R.R. Bowker
Bowker is the world's leading source for bibliographic information. The company provides searching, analytical, promotional, and ordering services to publishers, booksellers, libraries, and patrons through national and international brands, including: Books In Print, Global Books In Print, Syndetic Solutions, Pubnet, PubEasy, PubTrack and more. In the U.S., Australia and Puerto Rico, Bowker is also the exclusive ISBN and SAN Agency and a DOI registration agency for the publishing industry. Bowker is headquartered in New Providence, New Jersey, with operations in East Grinstead, England, and Port Melbourne, Australia. R.R. Bowker acquired Medialab Solutions in 2007. For information about Bowker, visit http://www.Bowker.com.
