Are you book lover or cataloger at heart? Or, do you enjoy shelf surfing for lost and forgotten gems to read? Then LibraryThing may be just the tool for you. Developed for booklovers, this online tool not only allows you to easily create an online catalog of your own it also connects you to other people who have similar libraries and reading tastes. Add a book to your catalog by just entering the title–it’s so easy that you don’t even need MARC record training to do it–-or connect with other users through your similar reading tastes. There are lots of ways to use LibraryThing. You can even view your books on a virtual shelf, add fun tools like widgets to display titles that are in your LibraryThing catalog or install a LT Search box on your blog.
So why not join the ranks and create your own library online? With over 65,000 registered users (BTW: LibraryThing also has group forum for librarians!), and over 4.7 million cataloged books, you’re bound to discover something new.
Discovery Resources:
- About LibraryThing
- Library Thing tour
- LibraryThing blog (updates & news)
Discovery Exercise:
- Take a look around LibraryThing and create an account.
- Add a least 5 books to your library.
- Blog about your findings and be sure to link to your LibraryThing catalog.
I already use an internet cataloguing tool for my books, and I’d rather not start up another list in yet another program. Can I use my goodreads account and still complete the exercize?
Sarah
[...] September 8, 2008 Filed under: Uncategorized — whetstonebranch @ 7:33 pm Thing #11 may be something you already use…LibraryThing. For those of you who’ve never used a [...]
Sarah W
Sure, you can use your goodreads account. It’s about seeing what is available for people to catalog their own library. It’s good to get introduced to a variety of options.
I actually spent way too much time trying to start up and download all my books from my goodreads to the Library Thing account. What is the difference between the two? Perhaps you should pass the word around that we could blog about goodreads or library thing instead of wasting time doing both web-sites. Once again, took over an hour for this exercise…am I doing something wrong?
What is the difference between the GoodReads and LibraryThing?I just spent way too much time on downloading books from my Goodreads, I really wished I knew I could have just blogged about Goodreads, I would have save an hour of my day. Perhaps you should pass the word around that we could blog about goodreads or library thing instead of wasting time doing both web-sites. Once again, took over an hour for this exercise…am I doing something wrong?
Peacherlarue – Thank you for providing this feedback. Your feedback as a participant helps us improve the program. It is sometimes difficult for us to guess all the possible ways instructions for completing a “thing” will be interpreted. We apologize for making you believe you had to move all of your books from Goodreads to Librarything to complete the discovery exercise. You only needed to create an account and add 5 books to your library. However, kudos to you for going above and beyond! It was our hope that the “things” would lead participants to delve further and learn more about these technologies.
We also hope you are given enough time at work to complete each discovery exercise. If you find that the remaining discovery exercises are taking more than an hour; stop and write a post about your experience and what you were able to learn. Its great if you want to explore further at home, but please don’t think it mandatory to get credit for the exercise.
[...] LibraryThing is Short and Mighty’s favorite thing from Learn & Play. Check out her post about how much she loves it. She’s also enjoying Twitter, and posts as queenknitalot. And don’t forget, she is also available to help others who have questions about the program! Thank you, Short and Mighty! [...]
LibraryThing is pretty cool. I can’t wait to begin “talking” to others about the same books.