Once again, here we have a site where regular people are cataloging in their own time, for fun, while at the same time cataloging as a profession continues to be viewed as tedious work!I enjoyed looking at Library Thing but I don't see making personal use of the tool. I don't really get why people want to share their book collections with the world. And anyway, I like to borrow from the library so I don't own most of the books I read. It also makes me a bit uncomfortable to share my reading list so publicly.
I'm intrigued, though, by the possibilities of collaboration of libraries with Library Thing. The LT documentation has sprinklings of library friendly language, for example, the tour touts the use of "library-quality data" in the LT database. LC metadata is supported along with Amazon's. If you judge the web 2.0 world by looking at the LT site, libraries appear to still be very much in the information game!
I also like the fact that LT is non-commercial. I subscribed to the Thingology Blog and am intrigued by the recent release of book covers for use in OPACs as well as the Open Shelves Classification project. Not having read much about the latter, I haven't formed an opinion about it yet. But the book covers interest me because there's both no cost (unlike commerical services like Syndetic Solutions) and no requirement for a link back to the site (unlike Amazon). Our library has so far rejected the display of book covers because of these limitations.
The idea of using LT for new book lists is interesting. Our Systems Librarian generates new materials lists once/month, but along with books these include videos, sound recordings, and music scores. I haven't investigated LT enough to know if books typically added to academic libraries are commonly found there. I wonder if generating new book lists from LT might work better for public libraries than for academic.
I would love to be able to go into Library Thing and see, for each book, whether or not any of my local libraries hold a copy. Or at least a "search your local library for this title" button. What a great way that would be to promote the use of libraries!
As a cataloger I could say lots about the quality of the metadata, the search mechanism, and the search results. I don't think any of it is as marvelous as LT advertises and I don't get why they tout the interface as superior to the library OPAC. (Please don't misunderstand; I'm not a fan of the typical OPAC either!)
Although it feels a bit invasive, I've included a widget on my blog's sidebar showing what I'm currently reading. I had trouble getting the widget working the way I wanted and I'm not thrilled with the result. And - yikes - there's also a link to my LT page that lists some books I've read over the years.
2 comments:
Oh, you're reading Audacity of Hope -- I'm interested to hear what you think of it. It's on my list to read.
It may be on my current reading list for awhile, because I keep getting distracted by more fun books. But I do like it. I might have to take it off my current reading list if it gets to the point where I'm embarrassed that I haven't finished it!
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