+ “LibraryThing” : Cool Web Site for Booklovers
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A Web site, “LibraryThing,” (www.librarything.com) is for people who love books, who have books, and who are interested in what books others might have.
LibraryThing is an online service to help people catalog their books easily. You can access your catalog from anywhere — even on your mobile phone.
A free account allows you to catalog up to 200 books. A paid account allows you to catalog any number of books. Paid personal accounts cost $10 a year, or $25 for a lifetime. (Visit the site to learn about organizational accounts.)
You need give up no information. Setting up an account requires only a username and password. You can edit your profile to make yours a “private” account. With a private account, nobody else can see what books you have.
Because everyone catalogs together, LibraryThing also connects people with the same books, comes up with suggestions for what to read next, and much more.
This site is also a full-powered cataloguing application, searching the Library of Congress, all five national Amazon sites, and more than 80 world libraries.
They have just released 33 new data sources from the UK, including two massive and excellent ones — the British Library and the Talis Union Catalogue.
A group of LibraryThing members has finished adding the 4,889 books in Thomas Jefferson’s library to the site.
Members can join the Early Reviewers group and get free advance copies of books provided by publishers in exchange for reviews. There is a mix — literary fiction, fantasy, YA fiction, Christian fiction, memoirs, non-fiction, health, how-to books and more.
LibraryThing is also a social space, if you want it to be. You can check out other people’s libraries (if they have chosen to be public), or see who has the most similar library to your own.
The site uses the collective intelligence of the libraries to make book recommendations.
LibraryThing was created by Tim Spalding, a web developer and web/publisher based in Portland, Maine. He also runs www.isidore-of-seville.com, www.ancientlibrary.com, www.bramblestory.com and www.mothboard.com.
Since becoming a “real” business in May, 2006, LibraryThing now employs a number of talented people.
Visit the site to find out how collectors, authors, publishers, bookstores or libraries can use the riches to be found. Or to get a T-shirt.
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