LibraryThing

At the recent IIUG conference in Sligo, keynote speaker Tim Spalding of LibraryThing gave a fantastic talk about his site, and its development from pet project to global success.

LibraryThing is really two sites in one.

First, it is a tool to catalogue your personal library. Users add books to their catalogue by entering titles, authors, or ISBN numbers. LibraryThing then searches the Library of Congress, all five national Amazon sites, and over 45 world libraries, and returns with precise book data. Users can then edit the books in their catalogue, tag their books with their own subjects, and use the Library of Congress and Dewey Decimal systems to organize their collections.

LibraryThing is also a social space, connecting people with similar libraries. It also makes book recommendations based on the collective intelligence of the other libraries.

Check it out, sort out your book collection, meet people with similar interests, and use the recommendations to broaden your mind!