LOLcat! Though, I have to admit, I am not a funny person... so it's not very clever. But. Still. Cute! I liked using that utility to make it: it was so easy! And there are so many options for things you could make with it... if you had access to a really decent printer, for example, printing up some of those calendars with local studies images, or whatever, would be a great thing.

But I am much more interested in some of the other things you can do with this kind of technology, like the London: A Life in Maps, and then Star Viewer. So convenient! I used that kind of thing when I was travelling, a few years back, by placing marks on a map of where I was staying, different museums and shops I wanted to visit, and where all the transport was. It made it much easier to plan my days, because I could see where things were in relation to each other.

In a library-specific context, the first thing I thought of was WebFeat, or any other federated search utility. The idea is that you have one 'search engine', which searches not only your library catalogue, but also any other source you nominate - your online databases, for example, a local bookstore, and so on. This is something we are going to be instituting in my library, and I can't wait: the possibilities are endless! I see more use in this than in a lot of other kinds of mashup. I can see libraries using things like the London: A Life in maps, and the Star Viewer, but not necessarily creating them. That said, local studies could do a lot with this kind of thing - linking to sites of interest, adding in old photos, and so on. But I just can't see them ever having the time to work on that (at least, not in my library).

We have talked, vaguely, about putting together a facebook application that allows people to use our library catalogue from their facebook profile. I'm not really sure how many people would use that kind of thing, though. I mean, the catalogue is already online. Why would you go through facebook, instead of directly through the website? But I may not be the target audience for that.

The point of all of this is that I think mashups are really useful, and that there are definitely going to be ways to use them effectively within a library context (and it won't be because of LOLcats). I think we need to be aware of what is out there, and how it might be useful to us, and to our clients, but I think most of them are better suited to individuals, with individual needs.