Cataloging Your Personal Library on LibraryThing

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 your blog or Web page to display titles that are in your catalog, or install a LT Search box on your blog. You can also create a group where members share the books in their catalogs and can have discussions about reading. Be sure to check out the Librarians who LibraryThing group.

So why not join the ranks and create your own library online. With over 65,000 registered (BTW: LibraryThing also has group forum for librarians users and over 4.7 million cataloged books, you're bound to discover something new.

LibraryThing for Libraries is a service that incorporates LibraryThing tags and recommendations into your online catalog. It is being used by the Danbury Library in Danbury, CT and the GMILCS consortium in Hooksett, NH.

There are many other sites that allow people to share ratings and reviews of the books they are reading. GoodReads is one of these sites. You can rate books, track books you've read as well as ones you want to read, and see what your friends are reading. Several libraries have also created groups where they can host book discussions and give patrons the opportunity to share books they are reading.

Exercise:

1. For this exercise, you will explore LibaryThing. However, if you've looked at both sites and prefer Good Reads, you may create you account there instead of LibraryThing.
   
2. Create an account at the site of your choice and add at least three books to your account.
   
3. Be sure to add me as a friend. For LibraryThing: http://www.librarything.com/profile/kmlussier. For Good Reads: http://www.goodreads.com/profile/kmlussier.
   Note: you can remove me as a friend later on if you don't want me to stalk your reading habits. I just want you to add me as a friend now to verify that you have done the assignment.