Monday, March 17, 2008

Week 8, Thing #19

Library Thing
I feel that I've just skimmed the surface of this online tool. As an individual user, I enjoyed reading reviews from other users of books that I consider 5 stars. Looking at lists of other users who have similar tastes can lead you to some books that might be of interest. I'm not sure how "cataloging" functions as a help to librarians at this point. I've gone through the Library Thing tour, and the FAQs. I didn't run across any information on how to catalog a book and then download the information to your library automation software. But exploring tags is fun, and I'm impressed with the variety of ways you can search for and then import titles into your own library. I'd like to explore a bit more how public and school libraries are using Library Thing on their own websites. The widget for my "Library Thing" is at the lower right.

1 comment:

bibliofan said...

I enjoy LibraryThing. I use it in two ways;
1: as my personal reading list.
2: I run a new book list for my library. I have a link on my library web page.

I learned that one from Tom Kuan and really like it, though it is one more thing to get behind on.