infobong.com the absurd courts the vulgar

Techdirt has a post ridiculing a service that adds a social-networking component to taking a cab to the airport. I agree that this service is probably “niche within niche” – it’s unlikely to find someone with similar interests who’s going from your neighborhood to the airport at around the same time. While TechDirt takes a dim view of adding social networking to everything, I do think there are some services that could benefit from a little Web 2.0 mojo.

The UT library system – like many other university libraries – gives graduate students and faculty semester loans for books. Grad students can hang onto books a semester or longer (with online renewals) until another student recalls the book. Then the borrower has two weeks to return the book. I’m sure my department is not atypical when our grad student listserv propogates “who recalled my book” messages, where students try to coordinate sharing the book. It’s unfortunate the library doesn’t acknowledge this fact of grad student life, but I think this is an opportunity for a Web 2.0 startup. Here’s the pitch:

Forget Facebook, MySpace, and Orkut, Recallr will match people on what really matters, the books you want from the library. When you recall a book, the borrower gets a link to your Recallr profile and the option to contact you in hopes of learning, levity, and love. How else will you meet that special someone that shares your obsession with post-Marxist analyses of 80s console games or psychoanalytic readings of gender roles on “The Greatest American Hero”?

Obviously, I’m being a bit silly, but it would be nice if the general libraries could integrate some social networking features and perhaps tagging in the library catalog. I suspect many universities would be reluctant to develop a formal relationship with Facebook, but they seem to be the outfit that could develop this kind of service for schools.