Bibliomysteries are mysteries that have settings, plots, or substantial characters in them related to the world of books, writers, archives, and libraries.
topI love books, and I love mysteries. I also happen to be a librarian, although I don't work in a library - I'm the Lead Information Architect for Mass.Gov.
When I first contacted David Lawrence about taking over bibliomysteries.com, I didn't really think through what it would mean to adopt this website. Bibliomysteries.com has been in my bookmarks or favorites since I enrolled in the in Graduate School of Library & Information Science at Simmons - and I thought it was an honor, and an opportunity.
Once my initial euphoria subsided, I had to think about what value I could add to this labor of love. As a huge proponent of what is sometimes called "Web 2.0", I worried that managing a static website was not terribly cutting edge, or very efficient, given my limited free time.
When I talk about "Web 2.0" I am referring to the web as a conversation - as a place where, as Clay Shirky says, "there is no shelf" - your definition will vary. Using LibraryThing, I plan to use the descriptive labels assigned by Marsha McCurley, Candy Schwartz, and Seth Bartner - and more will be added over time to draw upon the power of folksonomies and social bookmarks.
As of July 1, 2006, there are over 200 books cataloged in LibraryThing, with many more to go. I've set a personal deadline of September 1st to complete adding all the original books from bibliomysteries.com, and get totally (or as close as humanly possible) up to date. Wish me luck!
topBibliomysteries was created by academic librarian Marsha McCurley, using her own collection of bibliomysteries as the starting point. Her other website was Virtual Portmeirion, a site with hundreds of photographs of an unusual coastal village in North Wales where she and her husband David regularly vacationed. After Marsha's death in 2004, David sought out someone to maintain the site. In 2006 I contacted David, and I feel lucky to have the honor of following in Marsha's footsteps with this website. Marsha's collection of bibliomysteries was donated to the library collection of the Graduate School of Library & Information Science, Simmons College, 300 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115-5898.