Squidoo

Have you heard about Squidoo? At www.squidoo.com you can create what they call "lenses." Lenses are, essentially, web pages about the topic of your choice. A while ago, I created a few lenses to be used as subject guides to link to from SSLDL's web site. Here are the pro's and cons:

Pros:
1. They look beautiful when they are done
2. You can actually earn money for your library from ad space and referrals to places like Amazon and eBay.
3. You can find some great information on lenses other people have made.

Cons:
1. They require HTML knowledge to create.
2. You have to go to some effort to put them out there so that people will look at your lens. A link on SSLDL is a start, but just a start.
3. You can't trust information you find on Squidoo without some further research, since lenses can be made by anyone about anything. Authority must be verified!

While I probably won't go to great lengths to create lots of lenses for my library to link our patrons to, I do like the idea of creating a few here and there on popular subjects. Right now I have lenses on subjects like Doing Online Research, Genealogy, Consumer Information, and Health Information. I also made one on Michigan for the annual Michigan reports that come around to the library. It might be nice to link to these special lenses as time and popularity warrant, but they require just too much time and effort to create (and to keep current) to make very many of them.

My current lenses:
http://www.squidoo.com/michiganreports

http://www.squidoo.com/consumerinfo

http://www.squidoo.com/researchonline

http://www.squidoo.com/careerinfo

http://www.squidoo.com/healthinfo2

http://www.squidoo.com/genealogyinfo