LibraryThing

So a couple of months ago, I was having trouble remembering which books I'd already read, and my library doesn't track check-outs, so I looked for something to use online. I saw LibraryThing, but I didn't like the interface, and I didn't like that there was a limit on how many books you could add for free.

I started using Shelfari instead. I like the interface better, and I already have over 200 books on my shelf. I don't know if LibraryThing has this feature, but I'm able to sort my books by the ones I've already read, what I'm reading now, and what I plan to read. I can see what others are reading, see reviews, make my own recommendations, and Shelfari has book clubs for everything you could think of.

Now I just need to start using it again...

Can you Digg it?

Digg is dangerous, at least for me. I'm not sure how long I've sat here reading articles and following links, but I can see myself getting sucked into the vortex. I found a picture of Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint from 2000, an article on games you can play to train your brain, an article about Starbucks selling beer and when I searched "library" an article about a woman from Killeen with an arrest warrant for an overdue library book (she has to show up in court and pay a $340 fine, which seems like a lot, but I've seen bigger, and it's a misdemeanor even in my city) and the same for another woman in Iowa, who was charged with fifth-degree theft.

The funny thing is, even though I looked at a lot of different categories, I saw articles that have shown up in my Google Reader. I think if I'm bored or procrastinating, Digg is great, but there's so much on there that I'll probably stick to my feeds.

Thing 14: Delicious

I knew what Delicious was in a vague sense, but I didn't realize how much better it would be to use, especially with being able to use your bookmarks from any computer. It won points when it imported my bookmarks from Firefox, and it won more points that it automatically made my bookmarks private. I can see how sharing bookmarks would be beneficial (thanks Common Craft!) but since I'm using this for my personal searches, I'm glad I didn't have to go through all of them to change the security settings.

Also, I don't know why anyone wouldn't want to add the buttons to their browser. If you're doing this for convenience, it's not convenient to go the web site every time you want to look through your bookmarks. Not only does clicking on the bookmark button show the actual bookmarked items, but it also shows how you've tagged them, so it's super easy finding the thing you want.

Thing 13: Tagging

YES. YES to tagging. My library just recently switched to Encore, which includes a tag cloud on the results page to help you narrow your search and YES, I've never had it as easy to find things. It didn't replace subject headings. We still have those. But it narrowed our headings to a degree that you can enter the broadest search term and narrow it down to EXACTLY the one object you want.

Case in point: I had a student come up to the reference desk and ask for a book about two sisters. And she thinks one was a vampire. She didn't remember the title or the author, but she knew she'd recognize the cover when she saw it. In our old system, I would have gone through hundreds of books trying the find the right one, but when I searched "vampire" in the "youth collection" I was able to narrow the results to "sisters" using the tag cloud, and I found the exact book she was looking for. And that's my story for why tagging is awesome and helpful and why everyone should do it.