Jul 27 2009
Thing 16 Library Thing Musings
As a librarian I found Library Thing fun to explore. It was very addictive, so I had to set a time limit. If I had more time, I could see getting really hooked on spending time on Library Thing, inputting my collection at home, and interacting with other library members. What I find is that each of these Web 2.0 activities we have been learning about, such as social bookmarking, reading one’s RSS Feed, blogging, etc. can be very time consuming! I already found several library groups on the Library Thing that I would join-the one for librarians, the one for mystery readers, and the one for readers of YA. I could see spending time in the YA group, learning about new titles that we can buy for our middle school library, since we are trying to buy new, fun titles for our middle school students. I also found some chatting going on in the mystery group about YA mysteries, which is something that we are looking for right now at the Epstein School. So, I can see how the Library Thing would be useful for collection develpment at school and also for my own reading enjoyment at home.
One has to remember, though, that the book reviews are written by people reading for their own enjoyment, and I would probably follow up the reviews I find here with reviews from some of my professional library journals. I am not sure I would have my students use it, since many of the titles that would be recommended might not be appropriate for a middle school reader. The one drawback I see to this for me is that most of the books that I read I do not own, but rather take out of the library. So, I guess I could use Library Thing more as a book log, to record and rate books I have read, be they ones that I own, or ones that I borrow from the library.
I did set myself up with a Library Thing account and put in my first 10 books today. It definitely is easy to add books. It will be interesting to see if I can find the time and will continue to add to my Library Thing collection. It might be interesting to track the books that I read, and start to catalog my at home book collection.
