Thang #13 - LibraryThing

YAY! Here's a "thing" that I had previously explored. LibraryThing is always helpful in jogging my memory on what books I've recently (and not so recently) read. When I first opened my LibraryThing account, I had fun creating tags for my entries although my "twitchiness" in creating the most appropriate, correct tag sometimes got in the way. I must confess that I'm not too faithful about keeping up the information.

Here's my LibraryThing book list:

New and pretty interesting was the library/librarian-related blog, which I enjoyed lurking. I think LibraryThing is a great personal resource for avid readers and readers interested in expanding their reading. I like the user-created content. I think our ILS is implementing a number of LibraryThing's popular features (reviews, reading lists, etc.) Therefore, LibraryThing may duplicate what the ILS is already doing. I think, though, that it's a great site to introduce to library users who may not already be familiar with it.

Thang #10 - del.icio.us

Okay, I added tags (labels) to the rest of my 23 Things blog posts (I had previously done some but not all). I see the value of user-created tags; however, the inconsistency of them makes me "twitch" just a little (singular v. plural, misspelled words, etc.)

Question (because I don't know) - Is del.icio.us utilized as much now as it was? As I was clicking on links and looking at other libraries, it seemed that many had not been updated in quite some time.

I see the advantage of being able to create a bookmark list that is accessible from any computer, and that can be shared with others (students, patrons, others with similar interests). I think my library might utilize this technology in reader's technology to link readers with themes of interest. Our ILS and its overlay do implement tag clouds and personalize information for readers.

Finally, I didn't find del.icio.us particularly easy to navigate and wasn't really interested enough to spend a lot of time on following through to use it .