Yeah! LibraryThing!

When I first got my Computers in Libraries program in the mail several months ago, the first program that jumped out at me was the "Cutting-Edge Tech Leaders" program with LibraryThing founder Tim Spaulding. I love how LibraryThing has build up a community around books, and I was excited to hear how we could apply this in the library world. Tim actually spoke during two programs at this conference. In this program, he mainly focused on the development of LibraryThing and introduced a new project in which LibraryThing tags and other content can be incorporated in the catalog.

LibraryThing - www.librarything.com - Tim Spaulding

Spaulding described LibraryThing as a site for book lovers. It currently has 180,000 members.

Registration only requires a user name and password. You do not have to provide a name or even an e-mail address. "This is about privacy," Spaulding said. ""Library Thing does everything it can to not know about you."

With LibraryThing, you can find people who have the same books as you, and read/write reviews on books

"LibraryThing is trying to explore who you are through the books you have."

Users can upload their own covers for a book. Wow – look at this example from Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - http://www.librarything.com/work/1133624. You need to scroll down to the bottom of the screen to see the user-provided covers. They come from all over the world.

Spaulding says LibraryThing could be called an example of a growing field of niche social networking sites.

"Social networking is not just for friends," he said. "If I share 40 books with you…, I have a real connection with you."

LibraryThing has also proven that "Amazon is not the best book site forever." Google's book search will not be the end. There will still be opportunities for new sites with new ideas to make an impact.

Some intersting things LibraryThing has found through the data its readers has provided. People who like Dilbert books often recommend programming books. People who have read Our Bodies Ourselves often recommend books on Wicca.

He also noted that LibraryThing, like library catalogs, will actually contain more titles than a site like Amazon because there are many books people own that can not no longer be bought. "The Long Tail " was mentioned quite a bit at this conference, and Spaulding mentioned it as well. "The long tail of ownership is nothing like the long tail of buying. It's a lot longer."

A big distinction between LibraryThing and sites like Amazon is that LibraryThing is just about books, not about selling books.

"Books are not just items of commerce...Books are conversations...Books are objects of obsession."

Through LibraryThing, he was able to see a chronological timeline of when he bought different books. "If I had this for my whole life, it would be so amazing," he said, adding that reading books were such milestones in his life.

He showed the LibraryThing Helpers Log - http://www.librarything.com/blog/2007/02/introducing-helpers-log.php - where people are combining works and Improving the catalog.

thingISBN tool - http://www.librarything.com/thingology/2006/06/introducing-thingisbn_14.php - You can send LibraryThing an ISBN and that will get all related editions of an ISBN.

"Isn't it amazing that regular people in their off-hours are creating library-related data that rivals the efforts of OCLC?"

Tagging - Tagging is LibraryThing's way of allowing users to describe their content by giving them tags as opposed to using Library of Congress Subject Headings.

Pointing to one tag, he said, "chick lit is something you can't get from the Library of Congress."

One example of where tags provide more information about a book than LC subject headings is for the book Darwin's black box: the biochemical challenge to evolution, one of the top books in among people who advocate for "intelligent design." The LC Subject Heads are Evolution and Molecular Evolution, providing no hint on what the book is really about. On the LibraryThing pag, you can see immediately something else is going on by looking at the tags, which include"intelligent design" and "creationism."

Spaulding also introduced a new service LibraryThing will be offering for libraries.

"This is our answer to what OPACs need to do." Libraries will be able to send a list of ISBN's and LibraryThing will offer content as enhancements in the catalog. Tags will be available through the catalog as well as related works. He noted some users will want to add their own tags, which I don't think would be available through this service. Tagging would not work in a single institution. "If you had a single library adding tags, you would never get data that is significant."

"There needs to be an OCLC for user-generated data," he added.

LibraryThing will assign user ratings for tags too, so it won't show tags that are inappropriate for children.

People say one problem with OPACs is searchability. LibraryThing has proven it wrong because it has bad search. LibraryThing wants to get better at it. "We're allowing you to have tag searching, but not doing anything more than that."

The service went into beta testing as of Monday. He expects it to be in production in the next two to three weeks.