One of the topics in my current class is the online library catalog and how easy various types of catalogs are to navigate for novice users. We've looked at examples from all over the nation, including the Aquabrowser catalog as it's being used in the Santa Cruz Public Library system. Many of the online catalogs out there have their strong and weak points. The biggest concern of course is if it makes sense to the user and organizes information in a way that the user can 1) easily understand what information is being presented and 2) find the information that he/she was trying to locate. The Aquabrowser reminded me in some respects of Amazon.com in the look of the results (minus the word cloud, a feature I find distracting and useless) and the refine search options that the user is given. While this familiar look to the results would help the novice user, I feel like there should be another even more "friendly" option.
And so I posed the making of a new type of online catalog to my instructor and classmates. This catalog would read (pardon the pun) much like Facebook does--which would lend to user comfort and familiarity since so many people are using Facebook nowadays. Each item, be it book, movie, CD, or other type, would have its own page. The "profile" would include the bibliographic information of each item, including its physical location--or a link if it's an e-source--in the library. Each item would then be "friended" to other items that are related by title, author, subject, genre, or any other way the library deems appropriate to make a connection. Library patrons would be able to "like" items, and even post on each item's "wall" (maybe providing additional information about the item, for example a review). Tags would be initially set by library catalogers, but patrons would be able to then add their own tags, which may end up helping those users who are unfamiliar with formal catalog searching keywords.
My instructor seems to love the idea, even going so far as to suggest I talk about this with someone to make it a reality. The only problem is that I don't know who to talk to. So if anyone with experience in searching programs and online catalogs would like to flesh out this idea, please leave me a comment! Better yet, if anyone from Facebook decides to use this idea to create a program that libraries can subscribe to (for a REASONABLE fee!!!), then please contact me so we can talk about me selling you my idea.
Now for this week's recipe. This is a recipe that Scooter and I came up with. We had only a little help from a pasta sauce we saw on the back of a package of lobster raviolis. We took down the ingredients needed, added some, took some away, changed around the amounts, and came up with the following pasta sauce:
What you'll need:
2 shallots, diced
5 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 sausages, precooked
1 1/2 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 c. white wine (Chardonnay preferably)
1 lemon, juiced
2 Tbs. flour
1 1/2 c. cream
1/2 milk
1 lb. fettuccine pasta, cooked
What you'll need to do:
1. Cut the sausages up into small chunks. You can also substitute 1/4 lb. cooked loose sausage meat.
2. In a large sausepan over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Add the garlic and shallots and cook until the shallots are soft, stirring occasionally.
3. Add the sausage and cook until sausage is heated through, about 2-3 minutes.
4. Add the flour and stir until completely mixed in.
5. Add the white wine and lemon juice and cook until liquid is reduced, about 5-7 minutes.
6. Add the cream and milk and cook until the sauce is slightly thickened.
7. Remove from heat and serve over fettuccine pasta or another pasta of your choice.
You should be able to get 4-6 servings out of this recipe, and I would highly recommend having a slice of french bread on hand to catch any extra sauce still left in your plate. Also, a disclaimer: this is NOT by any means a low-fat food. However, I can almost guarantee that you will enjoy it!
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