LibraryThing: A Bookworm's Idea of Heaven
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 05.16.07
A couple of years ago we mentioned that Delicious Library was software with which you could catalogue your library, that in turn would make it easier to share your book collection with others. A sort of do-it-yourself Product Service System. Some readers bemoaned that it was only for Macs. Their woes have just evaporated in puff of fairy dust. Enter stage right LibraryThing. It's a web application. Doesn’t require any special barcode scanning devices, or downloading. Just type in a title, or author, or ISBN, or your cats name, and off it goes on its merry way to find all the details of relevant books. It will do the the search via Amazon, the Library of Congress, or any one of 70 libraries the world over. Click a button and you can start building an online index of your personal library, complete with book covers and publisher details and the like. For nix, nada, nothing, you can catalogue 200 titles. or splash out and spend $10 for year or $25 for a lifetime of book nerdery fun. LibraryThing can be asked to show recommendations based on your selected book, or your entire library. It will also indicate how many of the currently 190,000 users have the same book as you. With over 13 million books listed you might be surprised. And if social digital networking is your thing you can also connect with others whose books you like and start swapping. The LibraryThing system doesn’t arrange swaps itself, but does have a links page to all the sites that do. Many of which we’ve featured here in the past. We could go on, but it’s best you try it for yourself. The pic above is of 20, or so, of my own books added in a few minutes. ::LibraryThing.
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Free "Holy Ground" Book To First 20 TreeHuggers
- Is Home Ownership a Good Thing? Part II
- American Media & the Green Movement: Questions for Readers to Ponder
- Green Ergonomic Office (Part 2): Voodoo Ergonomics, Advice from Tony Biafore (a.k.a. The Ergoman)
Illinois State University Approves Renewable Energy Degree Program
|
HauteGREEN 2007 Sneak Peek: Stria Chair by North Forty
|
Maybe not as advanced as LibraryThing, goodreads.com lets you rate books you've read and start lists of books you want to read and then shares the info with your friends. And you can get daily updates of what your friends have rated. (Plus it links to Amazon and other etailers if you're interested in more info or purchasing).
Just to add - whilst it doesn't require barcodes Librarything is capable of using them (and they will even sell you a scanner).
I've been using it for a while and I think it is great
For mac users who haven't tried it yet, Delicious Library doesn't require a barcode scanner, either.
Like this Windows software, it just includes the option.
http://shelfari.com/ does a similar kind of thing as librarything, too.
The article doesn't really make this clear, but LibraryThing is not Windows software, is it a website / webapp.
Thanks Kelly, an oversight on my behalf. I've amended the post for greater clarification. Ta, W.