#7 The Power of Library Thing

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. 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 a widget to display titles that are in your 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 (BTW: LibraryThing also has group forum for librarian users and with over 4.7 million cataloged books, you're bound to discover something new.)


Find Out More:

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

Try It Out!

1. Take a look around LibraryThing and create an account.
   
2. Add a least 3 books to your library.
3. Do a search for James Patterson's 7th Heaven in our catalog. Scroll down and check out the tag cloud that appears at the bottom of the page. This tag cloud is pulled from tags assigned by everyday people in their LibraryThing account, tapping into the power of folksonomies - using common tags to classify items. The more people that use the same tag for the same item, the larger and more prominent (and most likely more relevant) that tag will appear in the tag cloud. This does not replace traditional subject headings, but does provide an alternative way for users to access and find new content in the catalog. What do you think of this approach?
   
4. Blog about your findings and link to your LibraryThing catalog in your blog posting.

Be sure to visit the staff page to submit this exercise as described in exercise #1. Don't forget to add a link to your blog posting.