Tracking your own library

Will Richardson, (who by the way is coming to speak here on February 6!) shared two great sites for those of you who love books or want a way to keep up with your books.

books.jpg    Library Thing and Shelfari both allow you to easily catalog and share your own book collection, but with the added feature of allowing you to see the network of other users books as well.  

To add books in your collection, it’s easy.  Search the title, isbn, etc., click on the matching book and add it to your collection.  Shelfari displays books visually as though on a shelf.  It also has a nice feature which allows you to track books you’ve checked out to someone. (nice for teachers, especially).

Library Thing allows you to pick which display you like, (arrange your book on a “shelf” or a list, rate and review the book, converse with others about it, and it has a nice recommendation feature like Amazon.com’s.   It looks to have more comprehensive features.

librarything.gif

These sites are social networking at their best–you can share books you like, get ideas for new things to read, make your lists of favorites, make your own list of subject headings(tags), and meet people who share your interests.

(Note to library software developers–Why isn’t library catalog software this simple?  and visual?  It’s improving but it is nowhere near this user friendly! )

Thanks, Will, for a great tip!

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