After posting about the WCCLS website I decided to take a look at the Multnomah County Library Website to see what was going on there. They have 67 really nice pictures that randomly display on the homepage. No, I didn’t keep hitting refresh to find the exact number. I got curious and found their /images directory to be open for browsing.

Reading the staff picks is always fun and they do a good job keeping the content fresh. What I’d really like to see are the staff behind these staff picks. It is nice to know that these books are liked by a librarian, but it would be even nicer to know who exactly is doing the recommending. The choice to keep these selectors anonymous keeps the issue of the librarians’ privacy and level of exposure at bay. Devoting some effort to working this out could take their already very pretty site to the next level. I have no idea if they’ve had these discussions, but it might be as easy as asking people if their willing to put themselves out there. There isn’t much information about them, but I like seeing pictures of (what I assume to be) the librarians behind the Hennepin County librarians’ blog on some of their subject guides.

I wonder if we’ll see “Feels comfortable being a personality on the web” in a library job description anytime soon.