Are you a booklover or cataloger at heart? 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 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.Not just for personal collections, classrooms and libraries have started using LibraryThing as well. “Small libraries are using LibraryThing to catalog their collections. Libraries are using the LibraryThing widget on their web pages to recommend books and list new titles.”
So why not join the ranks and create your own library online. With over 1,000,000 registered users, you’re bound to discover something new. Be sure to explore LibraryThing, Shelfari, and Visual Bookshelf -- all are a little different.
Discovery Exercises:
- Take a look around LibraryThing and create an account.
- Add a least 5 books to your library.
- Blog about your findings and be sure to link to your LibraryThing catalog. How popular were your books? Did you find any discussions about your favorites?
- About LibraryThing
- Library Thing tour
- LibraryThing blog (updates & news)
- Thingology blog (“LibraryThing's ideas blog, on the philosophy and methods of tags, libraries and suchnot.”)
- Shelfari -- a similar program
- Visual Bookshelf -- A Facebook application
- Idea #1: Have your students count all the books in their house (see Curriculum Connection idea for THING #18), then create a LibraryThing catalog of at least 25 books.
- Idea #2: Students could create a LibraryThing catalog of your classroom library. This is also a great way to teach organization skills, sorting, cataloging, etc. You can have the students decide how to best organize those materials. Have your school teacher-librarian help explain why libraries catalog using the Dewey System. Create alternative systems and see how they work. This assignment can work at all grade levels; just create your lesson around the skill and ‘big idea’ level you’d like to work with. This lesson could also be used with CD titles. [In the old days, we used records for this assignment!]
