Thing 16

LibraryThing

LibraryThing seems like a great idea for personal use and, perhaps, library use. Although I'm not going to create an account now, I might do this someday so that I can organize my books. I like the idea of sharing books with others and in the process, hopefully finding some new books to read. At the same time, I don't like the idea of putting all that personal information on the web for everyone to see. I know you can set your account to "private" but it seems like that would defeat the purpose of LibraryThing.

I read the sections on ThingLang, ISBN Check, and MARCThing, but I'm not sure i completely understand them. It looks like ThingLang will determine the language of a book, ISBN Check will convert older numbers to the 10- or 13-digit versions, and MARCThing...well I'm not really sure what that does. My cataloging experience and knowledge needs work!

The groups are a great idea too. I looked at the "I see dead people's books" groups and found that interesting. I like the "local" tab to find events, bookstores, libraries, etc. that are local. I also like the "buy, borrow, or swap" link. After looking around on the site, I'm not sure how much use LibraryThing will have in an actual library, but is a fun site for all book lovers.