August 10, 2007
A few months back, Julie posted about LibraryThing’s new service, LibraryThing for Libraries: www.librarything.com/forlibraries/. With this service (not free, but not exorbinant either) a library will be able to provide tag browsing, user reviews and ratings, and book recommendations via their online catalog.
Now Richland County Public Library is doing a test of LibraryThing for Libraries in their catalog. I would love to know if any other library in the state is also trying out this service.
Not all materials have added content (notably CDs and movies) and this is still a test, but the results look great so far!
Here are some screenshots from The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Notice the similar books feature right on the front page of the catalog record. Now you as a librarian don’t have to know -anything- about a book to come up with at least a few Reader’s Advisory suggestions. The tag cloud is also a great way to find out something about the book. Now we know it is about friendship in the Middle East, likely in Afghanistan, focusing on the Taliban War.
But the best part may be when you click on a tag. Here is what happens when you click on friendship. Now you get books that are in the RCPL catalog that are tagged friendship as well. You also get a list of tags again from The Kite Runner and a list of tags that are similar to friendship (such as coming of age, family, and young adult).
Notice also the search box where you can search for tags right in this screen. Now when someone comes looking for “something semi-biographical set in Paris in World War I about loyalty and orphans”, I’ll know where to search.
