Thing #11

I LOVE LibraryThing. Since I already have LT accounts, I figured I'd go ahead and use one of them for this post. Hope that's all right. :-)

I don't use Library Thing to catalog my home library. I'm always weeding and adding and am too lazy to keep up with it. I use LT to keep track of what I read. When I finish a book, I enter it into my LT with tags that include genre, year finished, whether it was good or not, part of a series or a single title, and sometimes some motif and theme information. I usually recommend LT to patrons who are upset or puzzled as to why we can't tell them what they checked out three years ago.

LT's book suggester is also a really good readers' advisory tool. It works similarly to What Do I Read Next's Help Me Find a Book tool, only the results come from titles that have been cataloged and tagged by LT users. It addresses WDIRN's limitations as the criteria used to tag and catalog the books include the subjective like tone and voice as well as the objective like genre and setting.

LT's strength is in its users. But that is its limitation as well. WDIRN has the power of library professionals behind it, where LT's power comes from housewives and plumbers, physicists and writers, factory workers and psychology professors. We can use the two tools in concert for the best results.

My 05/06 Library Thing has the most books and tags on it.