WANTED: Your Experiences with Rosetta Stone

Hi, everyone,
This post is a departure from the "Recommended Websites" dialogue. I am writing an article intended for the Loudoun Employee newsletter, the LENS, about how our patrons are using Rosetta Stone. I will share a few anecdotes from the PUR library, but I could use input from all the branches. Please email me at vhoover@loudoun.gov if you have any stories to share about this language program.
Thanks a lot,
Valarie Hoover, PUR

Librarians' Internet Index

It sounds like we've got a contingent who use and like the recommended websites. So here's a thought. Instead of keeping the page as is, let's include a link to the Librarians' Internet Index on our electronic resources page after the redesign. We'll still have direct links in some areas, but I think LII would adequately replace our chosen sites in others. If there's anything they miss -- for example, something that keeps coming up for homework assignments -- we could set up an account on del.icio.us for all the branches to use.

What do you think?

Julie

Recommended Websites

First of all, I hope everyone will respond to Marcie's poll. We can get some usage data elsewhere on which sections of the RW are used most often, but your input is important.

And now, I want everyone to pay attention very carefully -- the Recommended Websites page will not exist in its current form after the redesign. Keeping it as it is was never an option. (Sorry Marty, but it is broke. It's too big, its structure is unwieldy, and it is not worth the effort to keep it tidy and up to date.)

We will continue to have librarian-selected links, but they will be fewer in number and in fewer categories, and they will be integrated with other electronic resources.

I could seriously use your input on which categories and individual sites are most important and useful. For categories, I'm thinking: government, taxes, Loudoun County and Virginia, travel. But that shouldn't be the final list. I've said it before, but it bears repeating -- you guys know the patrons, the questions they ask, the resources that help answer them -- so help us out here.
Thanks.

Julie

Informal poll

I debated whether to start a new post or just leave a comment, so I left a comment. But I did also want to start a new subject because what that comment really leads me to is a question that's been perking for quite a while: How many reference staff use the recommended sites on something approaching a regular basis? Whether "regular" means every day or once every couple of months, I'd be interested to know.

Something else I'm curious about: Are the recommended sites more for staff or more for patrons? The answer doesn't have to be mutually exclusive, but just who is the target audience? If it's staff, then do we really need them? If it's patrons, then do we really need them (the sites, not the patrons)? I find myself much less dependent on them as a librarian than I was several years ago. I think web searching is one tool among many that we can - and do - teach, and I guess I'm just not sure how big a part lists play anymore.

(I'm also curious to know if anyone reads this blog besides Julie, Marty, and me. I guess I'll find out if anyone leaves comments.) ;)