The LibraryThing. Well, I've certainly never heard of it but it sounds like a good idea. So much, in fact, that AbeBooks got involved and provided Mr Spalding with his first employees and even with "an actual librarian". Well if this isn't a selling point then I don't know what is.
In terms of its usefulness for libraries, I absolutely agree with Helen (the Library Wanderer). I would not use it as a catalogue for a larger library, not so much because of a possible loss of authority, but rather because it would be difficult to connect this LibraryThing 'catalogue' to a network such as Voyager or other systems. Unless all other libraries of the relevant network are also using LibraryThing it may be necessary to run two separate catalogues ... and who has the funds or nerves for that? I also agree with the observation that users - and in our case mostly students - may feel that a catalogue hosted on Library Thing may be lacking the professional flair they would expect.
In terms of its usefulness for libraries, I absolutely agree with Helen (the Library Wanderer). I would not use it as a catalogue for a larger library, not so much because of a possible loss of authority, but rather because it would be difficult to connect this LibraryThing 'catalogue' to a network such as Voyager or other systems. Unless all other libraries of the relevant network are also using LibraryThing it may be necessary to run two separate catalogues ... and who has the funds or nerves for that? I also agree with the observation that users - and in our case mostly students - may feel that a catalogue hosted on Library Thing may be lacking the professional flair they would expect.
But let's peer into the depths of Library Thing. It does not take much to open an account; in fact, just an original name and a password. Compared to other tools that link all available details with who knows what (yes, I'm looking at you google, facebook, etc) this feels rather friendly and this feeling continues all the way through. I catalogued some of my own books, set up a collection andgot to grips with the search tool. It's great to be able to connect to so many catalogues worldwide to retrieve bibliographic information. I also liked the edit function which allows you to actually change entries so that they fully match the edition in hand. In my opinion, this is great for private collections, though I think the limit of 200 books is a bit too strict. It means that users really have to think twice about what book they are going to add or end up having to delete books when adding new ones once they've reached the limit. Overall, though, I think this is quite useful - maybe not for academic libraries, but definitely for private collections.
One point to add to your interesting post - I think you can add more than 200 titles to your collection but you have to pay to do so.
ReplyDeleteI love the picture of cleaning the library books! It makes me think of our summer book-check ... Things don't change much! Except that our book-checkers work in pairs without the supervision of a man in a natty suit with ribbon dowm the side of his trousers. No crew-cuts to be seen among the library staff either!!
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