WHOA - this "Thing" was very involved and sort of overwhelming! Nevertheless, I plowed into it because it has tons of applications to my job.
I think the future of reading is very bright. I know our library's circulation has increased, due in part to the challenging financial climate. Perhaps I'm naive, but I don't feel threatened by the Book 2.0 technologies. I think anything that encourages reading is a good thing. Whatever the delivery method, the important thing is that readers are consuming the product. Libraries will continue to do what they've done all along; that is, evolve as much as possible to meet the needs of users.
Because I don't have an Internet-enabled phone, I signed up to have book excerpts delivered to my e-mail account from DailyLit. It was a fun site with an easy interface - tag clouds from which to select genres or interests and easy sign-up.
I spent less time on the Readers' Advisors sites because I am more familiar with this area. We have several of these sites bookmarked on the staff circ computers, and staffers do make frequent use of them to assist patrons.
I think the concept of online book groups is very compelling - joining genre groups of personal interest, having a couple months to interact with others about a book, reading/reacting at odd times that are convenient for the user. I might be interested in joining one of these communities myself after I finish this course work =)
I did like BookBrowse.com as an additional selection aid to add to my existing arsenal. I've bookmarked it and will make it a point to explore its value-added features.
In all honesty, I didn't investigate all the categories of info listed in Thing #20. As I mentioned in a previous "Thang" post, one can become consumed with some of these 2.0 tools. IMHO, it's all about balance (at least for me personally).
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