For what it’s worth, I’m doing a little presentation today at the IOLUG (Indiana Online Users Group) Fall Program called “Reaching Digital Natives and Immigrants: Library 2.0.” They’re having a Science-Fair-style session where different people are “exhibiting” different programs and I get to do LibraryThing! Below is most of what I’ve got in a handout (and will also be in the Proceedings booklets):
http://www.librarything.com
What can I do with LibraryThing?
- Catalog your books online
- Find other people who own the same books you do
- Check out what other people have in their libraries
- Get recommendations for new books to read
- Social Networking in all its forms
- Discuss books in online groups
- Display my library in customizable sort views including a Virtual Bookshelf, which displays the covers
- Access my virtual library from my cell phone while standing in a bookshop (point cell phone’s browser to http://www.librarything.com/m)
Why should I use LibraryThing?
- It uses the Z39.50 protocol to standardize information.
- Fully web based
- You can search Amazon, the Library of Congress, and almost 100 other collections to add the exact volume you own.
- Who better to recommend a new book to you than someone who owns a similar collection to yours?
Cool Features
- Zeitgeist
- Groups
- RSS feeds for recent books added by your friends or groups
- Tag clouds, author clouds, widgets
How Libraries can use LibraryThing
- Collection Development
- “People who own this book also own…”
- Search or browse tags
- Find foreign-language books
- Book Reviews
- Zeitgeist – http://www.librarything.com/zeitgeist
- LibraryThing For Libraries – add tag-based browsing, book recommendations, ratings, reviews and more to your OPAC – http://www.librarything.com/forlibraries/
- Widgets to display new or featured books on your library website
Presented at the “Blinded Me with Library Science” Fair by Scott Pfitzinger
My LibraryThing profile: http://www.librarything.com/profile/spfitzinger
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Sounds like a great presentation! Online searchable book catalogues seem to be getting more and more intelligent – I came across another site that offers book recommendations based on your reading profile and allows you to recommend books to others. Like LibraryThing it’s also in its beta phase and is still being developed, but has some really interesting features available already, including loads of video content and a great forum.
I prefer bookarmy to library thing, though the only social networking site I really use at length is gurgle for mums which has similar people to me I guess…I can’t deal with facespace and mybook and all that rubbish!