I think I will second Jill Stover’s nomination of Ken Varnum for the title of “great guy”. In response to some comments on his blog regarding library marketing, Ken created WOMBLINK, a way for libraries to easily spread the word about their services (and for bloggers to easily spread the word for them).

From Ken’s blog, RSS4Lib:

The concept is straightforward. A WOMBLINK is a link provided by a library web site directly back to a specific web page. It is designed to be included in weblogs and is meant to be drop-dead easy for the librarian and patron to use, requiring nothing more than copying and pasting for the site publisher or the blogger.

So what is it? A WOMBLINK is two lines of HTML that, when included on a web page, display the words “Blog This”. A prospective blogger can click on this link and receive a second short snippet of HTML that includes a link directly to the original web page as well as a small logo provided by the site owner.

What a great way to make it so easy for people to blog about your library’s services and programs! Nice work, Ken!

Here’s another reason that Ken is great: he’s a fellow fan of wombats. I’ve had a weird fascination with them ever since I had to do a report on wombats in fourth grade. There’s just something about ’em!