Repurposing = Awesome!

The Krafty Librarian has presented a very crafty idea, using old unbound journal holders and brightly colored paper labeling to make booklike shapes that sit on the shelf with the print books in a certain subject, highlighting the existence of ebooks on the same subject.

I like it! Partly because we have stacks and stacks of unbound journal holders where I work, too, and I always like to reuse things, so the idea of getting some use out of them now that we have hardly any unbound journals left is appealing.

Also, we are always trying to promote our ebooks.

However, Krafty uses QR codes, with a "scan this code to see ebooks on this topic" message, and I'm not sure about that part. I don't sense a whole lot of excitement around QR codes in our user population. Not that I exactly have my finger on the pulse of what's cool with that population or anything, but the one time someone used a QR code (to promote a workshop), I never saw anyone actually scanning it.

In fact, the main topic of Krafty's post is actually how one generates interest in QR codes, rather than how awesome it is to recycle journal holders.

Given our extremely limited but unpromising experience, I don't really have any advice on how to generate interest in QR codes, hence my focus on the crafts part of the piece. I'm wondering if it might not just be useful to put those up as a reminder that the ebooks are there, because it's true that not everyone thinks to look.

Maybe we could steal the booklike shapes idea, and just put a note on the label to "see our ebooks page for online titles on this subject," with a short URL. (We'd have to actually make short URLs for our ebooks based on subject for this to work, but...I'm supposed to be learning to code, I could figure it out. Or steal it from someone.)

And maybe a QR code too, I'm not opposed to QR codes, I'm just not particularly excited about them, but maybe simply putting them out there would encourage their use. Anyway, they look kind of cool and decorative, so what's the harm?

On the other hand, we're pretty desperate for shelf space right now, so taking up room with this sort of placeholder might not fly.

See, Here's Your Problem

I have identified a glaring flaw in the internet, which is that I can't do other things and surf at the same time.

I mean, I can do some other things, but not to the extent that is possible with other forms of media. For example, I can be listening to music while typing right now, or while otherwise educating and/or entertaining myself on the web, but I cannot be darning a sock.

Which I could be doing if I were watching TV, as long as it wasn't something with subtitles that I had to watch nonstop, or if I were listening to the radio, or having someone read a book out loud to me. (Yes, we used to do that when I was a young'un. One person would read, and the others would sit around and sew, or draw, or knit, while listening. It was heartwarmingly wholesome, I can assure you.)

Don't get me wrong, I love the internet to pieces, but I can't help but notice that there's a hole in the pocket of a pair of trousers that I've been meaning to patch for weeks, and I haven't done it yet, and I think it's partly because I go to the computer for my news and socializing instead of turning on a less interactive information/entertainment machine that would leave my hands free.

Or maybe it's also because patching holes in pockets isn't the most fun I could imagine of a Friday evening after a hard day's work, so I've been avoiding it. Hmmm. 

Nevertheless, for arts-and-crafts type people who like to work with their hands, the internet must be a less appealing option than it is to me, who hasn't handcrafted anything in years. 

All the more reason to hurry up with that internet-directly-into-the-brain thing. Then I could get my mending done and keep up with my blog-reading!