There is a good amount of discussion in the library world that revolve around how and if we want to make library services more like Google or Amazon.com. The belief is that library users today want information to be available very quickly and without much effort, and that recommendations such as those used in Amazon.com might help patrons. Well Primo®, created by Ex Libris seems to have made these thoughts in to reality.

The North Carolina State University Libraries have already implemented this system. The search page on their OPAC is very simple, giving you the option to search for words, or a phrase, and then qualify these searches. A search for “Garcia Marquez”, “Anywhere” will give you an amazing amount of information. It gives you specific titles both by and about Garcia Marquez. It shows you the different call number ranges under which you can find material mentioning Garcia Marquez as author or subject; it gives you results by genre, format, region, time period, and languages, all on the same page. The possibilities seem to be endless.