more with Pinterest

One of my newer LibGuides supports a freshman level phonics class. The professor developed an introductory scavenger hunt, highlighted with an embedded Glog in the LibGuide, which requires her students to visit the library, become familiar with the IRC physical space and collections as well as online resources.  During the term, an assignment activity requires students to locate pattern books, also known as cumulative tales, in the juvenile collection. Subsequently, the LibGuide includes a Pattern Book tab providing additional information (reference resources, catalog links, and samples). While revising the guide, I decided to develop a Cumulative Tales board on Pinterest; the board presents examples of cumulative tales currently in the juvenile collection.

I work primarily with Amazon and Barnes and Noble for pinning book covers as Pinterest does not recognize book cover images (size)in our library catalog. After pinning the image, I provide a catalog link in pin descriptions with the call number and book location. However, when electing to pin larger images, they were often watermarked with a copyright statement. Discussions with our campus copyright advisor helped me refine use of these resources with attribution. Changes to Pinterest over the last few months, including updated guidelines and a code snippet that protects images (users see "This site doesn't allow pinning to Pinterest. Please contact the owner with any questions. Thanks for visiting!").

An increasing number of sites are providing 'pin it' buttons with their share buttons (like LibGuides). Today when working with the Cumulative Tales board I noticed both Amazon and Barnes and Noble have added Pinterest to their share options for books.

Amazon's share button details book title and a persistent link in the pin description. If electing to not use their text, attribution is noted on the pin and the link directs users to the title. In my opinion, the best reason to use their pin button is the image promoted is NOT the 'click to look inside' image.

Barnes and Noble's share button works in a similar manner, I did note some of the older titles pinned smaller images with an abundance of white space around the image. There was not an option to select a different image on the page when using their 'pin it' button. In both instances, if using the Pinterest book-marklet, a number of book image options display. Pinterest continues to refine their product and it seems more sites are facilitating it as a 'share' choice along with Facebook and Twitter.