Over on the Fiction-L list of librarians and others, there’s been discussion lately about how and why to use LibraryThing professionally as well as personally. Among the clever ideas:
- Keep track of what readers are reading and talking about, using the group forum topics as a guide.
- Keep up with library uses of LibraryThing via the group “Librarians who LibraryThing.”
- Download covers, tags, etc., to enhance your library’s catalog. Search the catalog at Seattle Public Library for an example. Under ‘Item Information’ there’s a section titled ‘View LibraryThing Content,’ which shows user tags, other editions and translations, similar books, and LibraryThing reviews if there are any. Learn more at LibraryThing for Libraries.
- Read review copies, both to learn what publishers are pushing and to enter a drawing to win books. Even if you don’t want to actually read the ARCs, just skim the list to see what’s coming.
- Use the book tags to create Readers’ Advisory lists, or search for readalikes using the LT Suggester.
- Check out the LibraryThing Tools page for other great ideas.
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