# 11 It's a Library Thing

Well, I checked out Library Thing and set up an account. I was frustrated that I had to upload books by the same author one by one instead of being able to check the ones I wanted on the list and upload them all at the same time. Also, it was irksome determining different editions of the same book so all could be represented--it meant checking various sources and changing view on the display back and forth. If you want all your books to have pictures then you need to also check various sources or upload your own. And most of the other sources are academic libraries which narrows the choices for fiction readers considerably. Overall, while it was quicker than doing original cataloging it was still fiddly to enter all those subject headings and I didn't even want to get into writing reviews at this point. (Interesting that they make those reviews available other places on the web if you don't opt out.)

It's very clever all the things they do with the information up-loaded like those clouds, and very reassuring that there's such a booky site on the Web that's supposedly the death of book reading.

I found I had an author page on this site by virtue of having my books in the libraries of other people, so I uploaded a personal photo to it. I was amazed at how many people had my books in their libraries and how many were talking about them on the chat boards. I'm not sure if I want to announce myself as a Library Thing author and make all my books available for public scrutiny but it certainly is another venue for authors to network and promote their work, and maybe even give some insight into the reference materials that they use.

I think that the discussion groups could be very useful to libraries who want to have on-line discussions without having to set up their own software. The fact that you can create your own discussions group and limit the membership in various ways is very useful.

I found it very interesting how many public libraries are already using it as a supplement to their catalog. If this is the wave of the future, however, by importing information from the same sources, I see the potential for one mistake in cataloging to be perpetuated all over the universe forever. It's a good job one can edit the results once one has uploaded them.

I've added a Library Thing widget to the right, below my profile. It show the books in my library so far. Very self-centered aren't I?