So this is another one of those tools that I heard about a while ago (I think I even read the Will Richardson blog post), but never thought I’d have any reason to give a hoot about. Darn it all, if I wasn’t wrong (Again. Sigh)
The portal idea is wonderful — I can completely see working up a PageFlake page to pull together lots of bits of information and information leads, and use it as the start page for all the library workstations. My initial go at it is here — I’m going to mess with it over the summer and see where I get. I’d like to customize the theme, maybe with a Paideia image and of course colors, and some things I’m not sure are going to work out (the Page2RSS feed for our school News and Events pages, for instance). Also, the things I want to include or link to have to be in good working order as well.
I haven’t found a way to create a Flake that accepts JavaScript, so the Recommended Websites flakes aren’t how I want them (had to work-around with RSS instead of a linkroll). Also, I wish the Flake titles could be customized (as in ‘made bigger so they’ll stand out more’) — the look of the iGoogle page is a bit cleaner to me — but the PageFlake ‘sharing’ aspect is great. Nobody has to be logged into an account in order to use the page.
I have to announce that I’m also very proud of myself for the little “Catalog Quicksearch” widget/flake on the page. I snagged the code from our main catalog page and edited it into a little box. I’m hoping it can go on the library pages of the official school website soon.