Understand the Title Record
The new title record in Bibliocommons is designed to draw readers in – into the title, into the library, into more like this title, into discovering things they’d never thought of looking for!
Above is the top of the title record. Under title, author and pub date, you can see how other readers have rated it, and rate it yourself. You can also see how many comments it’s received, formats available, and whether different editions are also in the catalog. To the right, you can see brief information about copies of the book printed in 2016. You can place a hold from here, or you can add it to your ”For Later” shelf, or a different shelf.
Just below the first section, there are three tabs to choose from. The first, details, is the default and the briefest. The full record tab contains the full title record you’re used to seeing in other catalogs. (This is where you will find the Accelerated Reader information. (Yes, Virginia, at the bottom of that full record you can click and see the Marc record!) The Additional Info tab, when available, contains notes about the author and illustrator. In this record, there’s also a preview of the book in Google Books.
No fake news in Bibliocommons. Just under the facts about the title, you’ll see the Opinion from review journals. Below that, there is a section for Community Activity, covered in more detail below. Briefly, the first tab, Comments, includes comments made directly in the title record as well as comments made about the titles in the Lists feature.
To the right of the comments, there are several ways readers can explore further. If the title were nonfiction, they could see what other books might be shelved nearby by browsing by call number. (Note that the call number browse will not be limited to your library.) NoveList offers two recommendations for books readers of Roll of Thunder might like. Subject headings are also repeated here where they’ll catch the reader’s eye.
Below the subject headings, you’ll see a list of lists containing this title. Note that Staff Lists are at the top, and that lists created by Bibliocommons users around the country appear below staff lists.
You’ll learn more about naming lists later, but do read through them and see which lists draw you in, and which don’t. Lists in both the staff and community sections appear in chronological order, newest at the top.
IndyPL includes Online Resources related to the titles where applicable. In the case of Roll of Thunder, readers are referred to the African American Experience database.
Tags, not used much for this title, are sorted by the number of times they’re selected for the title.
Similar titles can be added by users.
Community Activity has four tabs. The first, Comments, includes comments made directly in the title record as well as comments made about the titles in the Lists feature. The Age tab allows users to suggest what ages are best suited for the title. Notice that in this example, the ages were added by readers under the age of 13, as indicated by their user names (color, animal, number). Notice, too, that violet_dog_11276 also ranked the book four and a half stars.
The Summary tab might be useful if not much other information is available about the book. It might also be used as an assignment. This would be a great way to turn a routine classroom task into a useful tool that students could show off to their families.
The fourth tab in the Community section is More. Here readers can add a favorite quote, link to a video about the book, or maybe a preview of the movie if the record is for a movie. The last option is to add a notice.
Readers can highlight areas of concern (or interest!). They can just check the box, or they can include a brief explanation.
Note that community-contributed content, from comments to notices, is not centrally reviewed or approved before publication. Instead, if three users flag it for review, Bibliocommons will evaluate it against their appropriate use standards.