NSLS Blogs

 Home » Blogs » Annotations

Annotations

July 26, 2006

LibraryThing.Com? Have YOU used it?

I was just reading a post that mentioned something called LibraryThing.com. I had heard about this several months ago and meant to find out more about it. Now seemed like a good time, I had to investigate and this is what I found:

*It is basically a self-selected group of individuals adding basic information about books to this entity called Library Thing to create their own online catalog.In the words of the Christian Science Monitor“LibraryThing appears poised to turn the cataloging of books into a form of communal recreation.”
*”Searches Amazon, the Library of Congress and 45 other world libraries.”
*LibraryThing is headquartered off the Eastern Prom in Portland, ME.
*Their blog announced they just released a new”social” feature called Groups (quite an assortment to choose from)

Helping people find books, offering reading recommendations, providing access to rare materials, and providing a place for social groups to network have all been traditional library services. What is it that LibraryThing.com has to offer to indidviduals that makes it so attractive to some and that libraries aren’t providing?

I think it is the feeling of power individuals get by customizing a resource to fit their needs and being able to actively shape and share a tool that serves as a “container” of knowledge. Can libraries invite this kind of participation and involvement from their own members? Probably. Would it be messy? Yes! It would probably send several librarians to rest homes. Would it be more meaningful to the participants? Definitely. Would it be cool? Yes!

I know as a librarian, I tend to think of the library as mine and to take pride in its collections and resources. A public library is not the librarians but the community that it serves. Maybe it is time we remembered that and experimented with loosening up the controls? Just a thought.

posted by Anna at 3:20 pm |

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website