Week 3: Library Thing, You Make My Heart Sing!

Are you book lover or cataloger at heart? Or do you enjoy finding lost and forgotten gems on the shelf to read? Then LibraryThing may be just the tool for you. Read a very short introduction to this popular cataloging and tagging tool.

Developed for book lovers, this online tool not only allows you to easily create an online catalog of your own. LibraryThing is also an amazing social space, often described as "MySpace for books" or "Facebook for books." You can check out other people's libraries, see who has the most similar library to yours, swap reading suggestions, and LibraryThing also makes book recommendations based on the collective intelligence of the other libraries.

You can join the ranks and create your own library catalog online. With over 65,000 registered (BTW: LibraryThing also has a group forum for librarian users) and over 4.7 million cataloged books, you may discover something new.

Some Libraries Using Library Thing:
Hampshire College new book lists
Southwestern Community College
Washington State Library

Activities:
1. Explore LibraryThing:

• About LibraryThing
• Library Thing tour
• LibraryThing blog (updates & news)

2. Take a look at Barbara Polowy's virtual bookshelf and visit the SC Libraries on LibraryThing to read about a group of titles the Friends purchased to honor graduating student assistants in 2007.

3. Create your own account and add a least 5 books to your own virtual bookshelf.

4. Click on a book cover in your collection to explore "Social Info" for the title, including tagging, recommendations, ratings, and links to other LibraryThing users who share your interests.

5. Blog about your findings and be sure to link to your LibraryThing catalog.

[Flickr photo by way opening]