LibraryThing is an online service that makes it easy to catalog books for your personal use or to share your list with others. As most social software LibraryThing can be accessed from any computer or PDA, not only from your personal PC. The service allows you cataloging up to 200 titles for free. After that you'll have to pay a modest annual fee.
The site is visually modest, but has a lot of useful features and is well-organized. You can input title, author, ISBN, or LC card number, and the system will add all other information, with cover images and links to Google Books and Amazon reviews. You can tag each book and share these tags with others and see their recommendations. This makes it easy to find users with similar interests. You can also organize your collection using LC or Dewey system.
The site could be used by librarians as one of the sources of Reader's advisory. I'm not so sure about its usefulness as addition to libraries' sites. I need to look at similar services before I can make my mind.
Blogs are not as informative as you can expect. On the bright side, the advertising and promotion are subdued and gentle.
2 comments:
Nice review! I would use librarything, but the 200 title limit (for free) could become a problem eventually.
I would use LibraryThing based on this review. I like the concept of it being simple visually speaking while still having a lot of content. Also, I hadn't thought of trying to use it for readers advisory, but that's a good idea.
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