Thing 14 Library Thing

I first heard about Library Thing from a colleague at Hennepin County Library in 2004. She used it as a reader's advisory tool at work and demonstrated it at a Readers' Advisory Roundtable meeting. When I checked today, I discovered that she has almost 900 books in her library, an impressive total. And she has published three reviews as an Early Reviewer.

I set up a very small (ten titles) library as a starting point, explored the various groups, read reviews, and checked out the FAQ for Library Thing Early Reviewers. The concept of bidding to review a book intrigued me although I noticed that the number of people who want to review titles vastly outnumbers the number of titles available.

Library Thing is an ideal tool for libraries to use in sharing book news with customers. Categorizing titles by format, audience, appeal factors, classics, accelerated readers, the list is endless. On a personal level, I will use Library Thing as the 'next gen' version of my trusty reading journal which superseded boxes of scrap catalog cards I used to use as my reading record.