I DO love LibraryThing!

Assignment #11 A Thing About LibraryThing

Well, I now see that I should have read ahead and seen that we would be covering LibraryThing--if I had I would have held off making my July 3 post showing off a LibraryThing widget designed for blogs. And I probably would have waited on creating my own library in LibraryThing. Previously the library I was working with was that of the OU Women's Center. Kiffany, Whitney, Char, and I worked on setting it up. Now Marlene at the Women's Center enters the donated books as she gets them in.

Last week, prior to seeing the assignment, I set up a library for myself. I hadn't done it previously because I don't keep books, except for a few reference works. I borrow from friends and libraries, or if I do buy a book, I pass it on after reading it (usually to a library).

However, lately I've taken to reading a lot of escapist fiction works that are parts of series, and I'm having trouble keeping track of which books in the series I've already read, and which I want to read next. So that is the purpose of my LibraryThing library.

This one is a tag cloud....



This one shows random book covers....



Go to http://www.librarything.com/thingology/2007/07/my-library-of-congress-talk.php to see a Library of Congress talk by the LibraryThing Guy.

LibraryThing Widget

Scroll down in this post for a LibraryThing widget showing three random books in the Ohio University Women's Center library. LibraryThing is a very cool and powerful database for free (up to 200 books, after that a very small fee). Just create an account, then start adding your books. The easiest way is just keying in the ISBN--the database finds the other metadata and a cover image if available. There are also social networking aspects to try too. Check it out!

In the widget the book covers link to Amazon; the titles link to the book record in LibraryThing; and the authors link to the author record in LibraryThing.



And in this widget, you can search the library from here!

eBay Widgets

Assignment #7 Blog About Technology

This is an eBay widget--it is very easy to create one to keep track of specific items or searches. This one is from my off-work life and shows the current sale items that I have on eBay for the Great Dane Rescue. On the work side of things, many archivists and special collections librarians use eBay as a means to procure new acquisitions in their collecting areas.

The eBay To Go page has a simple wizard to create one. Mouse over to see basic info, click for more details.