So several people have noticed the LibraryThing widget on the sidebar of our blog. I had seen it before on Libby's Notesgirl blog, but never thought much about it. Then it was introduced to my one of our reference librarians. She had become very excited about all the possibilities and her enthusiasm is infectious. The day after she gave a little half-hour presentation to the librarians (and archivist), I signed up.
What's really neat about it, from my standpoint, is I'm finally able to see what kind of books I've kept and collected over the years. Since we moved to this house, I've probably weeded out over 200 books and given them to Half-Price Books. In fact, I gave them ALL of my hardcover 1990s era Star Wars fiction, and many of the mass markets about a week before I discovered LibraryThing. But now I will have a complete listing of all my books for insurance purposes, which is always a good thing in hurricane territory. Of course, it leads to Bryan being able to tell me that I have too many books, and he has the numbers to back it up.
Registration on LibraryThing is free, and allows you to enter up to 250 books, or you can pay $25 for a lifetime membership and input an unlimited number. You simply input the ISBN from the back or inside publisher info page of the book and select the cataloging information. You can select the cover, or scan the cover and upload the .jpg if they don't have your cover. You can tell how many people using LibraryThing also have a copy of your book. You can review books or talk with others about books.
When you put your books into LibraryThing you can "tag" them. That is, assign them a label that can be used later for sorting. For example, my most common tags are "children" meaning one of my childhood books, "history" because that's what a I collect and read the most, and "Texas" reflecting that aspect of history. By tagging the books I can easily sort all my signed copies (as long as I tag it "signed", or books which list me in the acknowledgements "assist", and I've been surprised to discover I have more "biography" books than I previously suspected. And Bryan has a great many "baseball" and "firefighting" books. I've also started putting in a few tagged "read but do not own" to keep track of books that made an impact on me. I try hard not to buy new books, but read them in the library. There are a few select novels that I might purchase one day, and The Lost German Slave Girl is currrently at the top of my list.
It's addictive. Once I started I mentioned this to Mom, who immediately began entering books, and she mentioned it to Lisa - who is doing the same. Lisa took it one step further and created a free account for her children, to be able to track their books. Naturally, I've done the same for my Kelly girls. (Don't go looking, I haven't entered any books there yet.) I'm up to about 450 books, but have only input about half. I've finished one bookshelf in the family room, some loose books next to my bed, and one of two large bookcases in the formal living. I still have one bookcase, the bedroom bookcase, the guest room bookcase, and boxes in the garage to do. I'm guessing my final number will be just shy of 1000.
What's really neat about it, from my standpoint, is I'm finally able to see what kind of books I've kept and collected over the years. Since we moved to this house, I've probably weeded out over 200 books and given them to Half-Price Books. In fact, I gave them ALL of my hardcover 1990s era Star Wars fiction, and many of the mass markets about a week before I discovered LibraryThing. But now I will have a complete listing of all my books for insurance purposes, which is always a good thing in hurricane territory. Of course, it leads to Bryan being able to tell me that I have too many books, and he has the numbers to back it up.
Registration on LibraryThing is free, and allows you to enter up to 250 books, or you can pay $25 for a lifetime membership and input an unlimited number. You simply input the ISBN from the back or inside publisher info page of the book and select the cataloging information. You can select the cover, or scan the cover and upload the .jpg if they don't have your cover. You can tell how many people using LibraryThing also have a copy of your book. You can review books or talk with others about books.
When you put your books into LibraryThing you can "tag" them. That is, assign them a label that can be used later for sorting. For example, my most common tags are "children" meaning one of my childhood books, "history" because that's what a I collect and read the most, and "Texas" reflecting that aspect of history. By tagging the books I can easily sort all my signed copies (as long as I tag it "signed", or books which list me in the acknowledgements "assist", and I've been surprised to discover I have more "biography" books than I previously suspected. And Bryan has a great many "baseball" and "firefighting" books. I've also started putting in a few tagged "read but do not own" to keep track of books that made an impact on me. I try hard not to buy new books, but read them in the library. There are a few select novels that I might purchase one day, and The Lost German Slave Girl is currrently at the top of my list.
It's addictive. Once I started I mentioned this to Mom, who immediately began entering books, and she mentioned it to Lisa - who is doing the same. Lisa took it one step further and created a free account for her children, to be able to track their books. Naturally, I've done the same for my Kelly girls. (Don't go looking, I haven't entered any books there yet.) I'm up to about 450 books, but have only input about half. I've finished one bookshelf in the family room, some loose books next to my bed, and one of two large bookcases in the formal living. I still have one bookcase, the bedroom bookcase, the guest room bookcase, and boxes in the garage to do. I'm guessing my final number will be just shy of 1000.
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