Thing 22: The End of the Beginning

Most of the things I learned and did for 23 Things were things I always intended to learn more about, but never did (and might never have!) until 23 Things.  Some of my new skills that I’m most excited about: podcasting, making videos, wiki-ing, and blogging.  New tools that I use regularly include Delicious and start pages (I go back and forth between iGoogle and MyYahoo).

I definitely plan to keep blogging.  Now that I don’t have a deadline, I’d like to go back explore some of the tools we learned about more thoroughly.  From now on, I vow to investigate new tools and services as I learn about them, instead of bookmarking them for later, and I’ll always be thinking about how they can be used to enhance library service.

I already take advantage of the free training NEFLIN provides and plan to continue to do so.  I also subscribe to a billion library and technology blogs and am always on the lookout for more.  I hope some of my fellow 23 Thingsers will keep learning and writing about it; I’ve enjoyed reading their blogs and look forward to hearing more from them.

I’d like to thank NEFLIN, Jennifer O’Neill, and Stephanie Race for coordinating this.  It’s definitely made a difference in my life, and I think such training and education will help libraries better serve the public.

Thing 21: Student 2.0

The Assignment Calculator just distributes its twelve steps over the period of time specified for the assignment.  The steps are supported by guides created by various universities and links to University of Minnesota resources such as reference assistance contact information, the library catalog, the computer lab webpage, and online resources such as indexes, databases, and e-journals.  Students can sign-up for email reminders.  University of Minnesota has created a new Assignment Calculator that can be customized by instructors and students; only U of Minn students and instructors can use it, but they created a video highlighting its features that you can watch here.  As is, the Assignment Calculator provides a good outline and access to useful resources for those learning how to write a research paper.

The Research Project Calculator, which is based on the Assignment Calculator and designed for secondary school students, seems like it would be a good educational tool.  In addition to a timeline and guides, it includes links to online resources (search engines, databases, citation tools) and library catalogs.  I think all of the supporting materials would be appropriate for the library to distribute, especially “Boolean Basics”, “Improve Your Google Search Tip Sheet”, “10 Questions for Evaluating Web Sites”, and “Copyright and Fair Use Tip Sheet”.  I’d like for our library website to have such a calculator, customized to the specific resources we offer.

Thing 20: The Future of the Book

This is an interesting topic, and extremely relevant to libraries, so it should be discussed.  I’m not sure 23 Things is the appropriate forum for such a discussion.  That said, I want my shot at the prizes, so I’ll do the best I can in the limited time I have.

Among all the hand-wringing about grades and standardized test scores in the NYT article, I found what the teens had to say about why they prefer the internet to books heartening.  They expressed a desire to interact with content, rather than just passively receive it; they’re engaged with the material.  Instead of lamenting the results of outdated assessments, parents, schools, and libraries need to prepare today’s youth for the increasingly digital world, they world in which they’re going to be living and working.  People are still reading, they’re just reading differently.

Lee Rainie’s presentation on libraries in the “new media ecosystem” outlines the new skills required to navigate the “hypermedia environment”.  These are skills in which librarians, as information professionals, should be proficient.

Toys

I already follow TwitterLit and KidderLit on Twitter.  You can also subscribe to them via RSS or email, follow them on Identi.ca, add a gadget to your Google homepage or Gmail, or add a bookmarklet to your browser.

Reading Trails is like Amazon’s Listmania meets Shelfari.  Users create booklists (trails); when you explore a particular book, you’ll see all of the trails it is on (intersections).  Organize your books and trails by tags and add descriptions and reviews; when you tag other users’ books and trails, they get added to your profile.  Three tags have special icons: “read”, “unread”, and “reading”.  If you don’t tag a book “read” or “reading”, it’s automatically tagged as “unread”.  Some professors and authors have been invited by Reading Trails to create trails; these users are distinguished as “experts”.  Finally, Reading Trails provides links to online retailers, Bookswim (a book rental service that works like Netflix; more on it below), and WorldCat.  Libraries can create profiles and use the special tags “Our librarians” (for trails), “Featured books”, and “New acquisitions” to enhance service to patrons.  According to their website, Reading Trails plans to offer more integration between Reading Trails and library catalogs, as well as letting libraries add event announcements to their profiles.

BookGlutton is basically social reading.  You read a book in their Unbound Reader, which includes live chat and commenting features which enable you to discuss the book as you read, or just scribble notes in the margins for other readers to find and respond to.  You can upload your own work to BookGlutton, too.

ReadingGroupGuides provides discussion guides for over 2500 books, as well as tips on starting and managing a book club.  They also offer “Book Club Makeovers”, monthly contests, and drawings for author chats or free books for registered book clubs.

Open Culture features free audio books, university lectures, foreign language lessons, and podcasts on a variety of subjects, as well as lists of useful and interesting YouTube and university video collections.  This is one I’m definitely bookmarking.

Metacritic seems like Rotten Tomatoes for books, music, tv, and games, as well as movies.  It compiles reviews and calculates a weighted average of all individual reviews to get the Metascore for each work.  Metacritic also has a discussion forum.

Book renting just doesn’t seem like that great a deal.  Even if you don’t have a public library, there’s a lot to read/listen to for free online (see Internet Archive and Open Culture).  If you need college textbooks, your university library should have them.  The only scenario I can imagine in which book renting might actually save you money is if you’re enrolled in an online college degree program and you don’t have a public library that is able to get textbooks through interlibrary loan.  BookSwim works like Netflix: make a list of books you want to borrow, BookSwim sends them through the mail, you can borrow a certain number of books at a time and keep them as long as you want, then you return them through the mail.  Shipping is free.  BookSwim’s plans range from $19.98 per month to borrow three books at a time to $39.94 per month for 11 books.

Finally, I added Visual Bookshelf to my Facebook profile because lots of people that I think are smart did.

As the above tools indicate, there are many ways to find, read, and discuss books online.  If people weren’t reading, these services wouldn’t exist, and these and similar services add value to books and reading that ensure that the future of the book is a bright one.

Thing 19: Social networking, part 2: The other guys

Well, I guess Gather never became the MySpace of books, because I’d never heard of them before this thing.  I checked out the site after reading the Publishers Weekly article to see how far they’ve come in three years.  It seems that they’ve changed their focus from promoting writers to being a more intellectual (“Social networking with substance”) and mature (“Gather has become the premier social network for the over-30 crowd”) alternative to MySpace and Facebook.  It’s structured around groups focused on topics such as “Books”, “Family”, “Health”, “Money”, and “News”.  And if that’s not enough to pique your interest, they give you points for using the site that you can exchange for gift cards for retailers like Amazon and Starbucks.

I hope all 23 Thingsers in my library district read the Webjunction article, because while we’re doing well with the first two stages of building a social networking environment, education and application, we’re failing miserably at the third, integration.  There are various MySpace and Facebook pages for the departments and branches, the district has Flickr and YouTube accounts, and I just started a blog and a Twitter account for my department.  The problem is, the patrons don’t know about them.  They’re not on our website and they aren’t mentioned on promotional materials or at events.  Hopefully, that will change as more staff realize that these tools aren’t just about making the library seem cool, but can actually help us serve patrons better.

As for my personal experience with social networks: I am a Last.fm member, though I just use it to listen to music; I consult VegWeb.com for vegan recipes, but I haven’t joined their social network; I joined LibraryThing six Things ago and haven’t used it since; I added the Shelfari widget to the two MySpace pages I manage for my department; and I tried to add a Goodreads application to our department’s Facebook page a long time ago, but, like all Facebook apps, it didn’t work.  I discovered a few social networks through this Thing that I’d like to look into more when I have time: Ning (I found a few interesting zombie-centric social networks), Goodreads, and Yelp (I found a few vegan-friendly restaurants in Gainesville).

Thing 18: Social networking, part 1: MyBook and Facespace

I already have experience with MySpace and Facebook; I’ve had personal profiles on both for quite a while (I grudgingly provide this link to my Facebook profile, though you’ll need to be my friend to see much), plus I manage a Facebook page and two MySpace pages for my department.  I joined a couple of the groups suggested for this Thing: Libraries Using Facebook Pages and Library 2.0 Interest Group.

Yay!  NEFLIN’s showing off the ACLD’s MySpace page.  I like the layout.  Jacksonville Public Library has integrated a search bar for their catalog into their page; way cool. Pasco County Libraries has made their layout look less like a MySpace profile; nice.  AskaLibrarian’s animated gifs aren’t so hot; maybe they’re ironic?

Regarding social networking use by patrons on library computers, I completely agree with Meredith Farkas: 1)Libraries shouldn’t be deciding what use takes precedence; social networkers have as much right to use the computers as people doing homework or applying for jobs. 2) We need to protect younger patrons from the dangers of the internet not by banning access to certain sites, but by educating them and their parents.

Should libraries have a presence on social networks?  Yes!  But as Farkas points out in her post, it’s not enough to just create a profile.  Joining a social network can be a good source of patron feedback, but libraries need to solicit it and express an interest in their patrons thoughts about library services.  Some libraries are using social networks as an extension of the library in a place where some patrons might be more likely to find them; Jacksonville’s catalog search is a good example of this.  Farkas’ post is a good source of ideas for how libraries can and do reach out to patrons more effectively using social networks; I highly recommend reading it.

Thing 17: Attack of the Pod(casting) People

Personally, I don’t find podcasts very useful.  I prefer to read my information.  The only time I listen to non-music audio is when I’m on long car trips.  Like radio and audio books, podcasts can be very useful during long commutes.

Podcast.com and Podcast Alley seemed about equally easy to navigate:  you have the option of either searching using the search bar, or browsing through their lists of genres.  Podcast.com further organizes podcasts into folders within each genre, making browsing a little easier.  It also has channels: collections of podcasts about a specific topic or from a specific publisher.  I searched for “zombies” in both sites.  Podcast.com found 194 podcasts to Podcast Alley’s 49.  One thing that immediately annoyed me about Podcast.com: if you click on the title of a podcast to visit its page, you can’t just go back; you have to perform your search again.

Both sites let you listen to and download episodes, as well as vote and comment on podcasts.  Podcast.com also lets you add tags and share by email, and you can see which Podcast.com users subscribe to the podcast and find out what other podcasts they subscribe to.  Subscribing is easy; each site provides you with a URL that you can copy and paste into your feed reader or podcatcher.  Podcast.com also offers single-click subscription for many services, or you can subscribe with Podcast.com.  Podcast Alley doesn’t offer a subscription service, but directs you to Mevio.

For those of you breathlessly awaiting zombie podcast recommendations: “Midnight Podcast” features “reviews and rants” on all things zombie, but, as the website warns, “often digresses into not-quite-zombie topics”.  I listened to the first 10 minutes of the show, which consisted mostly of digression (warning: NSFW).  “Mail Order Zombie” reviews straight-to-DVD zombie movies.  More professional, less rambling.  I added them both to my feed reader.

Podcasting is another way libraries can reach out to their patrons.  Library podcasts could highlight materials, programs, and other services.  Another cool idea is to create a radio show, perhaps based on a book.  Here are few resources, some mentioned in the NEFLIN 23 Things post, that should get you started:

Production software

Windows comes with Microsoft Sound Recorder

Macs come with GarageBand

Audacity (open source; compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux)

Free hosting

Ourmedia

Internet Archive

Podcasting services

Podbean.com (basic package is free)-provides hosting, RSS feed, and embeddable player

Libsyn (services start at $5)-provides hosting, blog, and RSS feed

GCast-provides free hosting, RSS feed, and embeddable player.  Integration with GarageBand.com gives you access to tons of songs that you can use in your podcasts.  (Note: As of April 1, to record podcasts by phone, you must pay a $99 yearly subscription fee)

Help

YALSA Wiki Teen Tech Week Podcasting Guide

Library Success Wiki article on Podcasting-Gives tons of examples of how libraries use podcasts.

How to Podcast tutorial-Covers everything from planning to promoting.  Includes video tutorials and has a section about podcasting for free.

Creating a Podcast, from Secrets of Podcasting by Bart G. Farkas-The book is three years old, so specific product recommendations are probably out of date, but he gives good tips, especially on what to look for in microphones.

Audacity tutorials (from the Audacity site)

Making an RSS feed using WordPress (from WordPress.org)

Making an RSS feed using Blogger (from About.com)

This Thing directed us to “try GCast”.  I assume this means to create a podcast using GCast.  Unfortunately, GCast is no longer allowing you to record by phone for free.  Luckily, I just bought an MP3 player with a built-in microphone that I’ve wanted to try out.  I recorded an example of the kind of podcast we might create to promote teen programs at the library.  My recording was in WAV format, so I used eRightSoft’s SUPER to convert it to MP3.  Once I had done that, I was able to upload it to GCast.  I would have liked to add some music, but I don’t know how to do that yet, and I don’t have time to learn; the deadline is rapidly approaching.  I can’t embed the player in my blog, so go here to listen to my podcast.

Thing 16: Online Video (It’s not just YouTube!)

Libraries are already using video to reach out to patrons.  Check out these great examples:  a book trailer for Meg Cabot’s Airhead, a Library PSA done by teens (funny), a book talk for John Green’s Paper Towns (by a teen, and very cute).

You can do it, too.  Really!  Do you have a video camera?  Webcam?  How about a digital camera or cell phone?  (None of the above?  Don’t worry, you can still do it!  Keep reading.)

Once you have your recording, you might need to edit it.  If you’ve got a PC, you’ve got Windows Movie Maker.  There are also some open source (free!) options that are compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux: Avidemux, Jahshaka, and ZS4.  If you don’t want to download software, JayCut is a good browser-based video editor (also free!).

You’re might want to record audio separately, in which case you’ll need a mic and some sound editing software.  Windows comes with Microsoft Sound Recorder, which is pretty basic.  Another option is Audacity, a great open-source digital audio editing and recording application that works with Windows, Mac, and Linux.

If you don’t have a way to record video and you’re still reading, your patience has paid off.  Just get some free stock or Creative Commons licensed photos from stock.xchng and Flickr Commons, respectively, and some CC licensed sounds or music from The Freesound Project or ccMixter (or record your own), then mix ‘em up using your video editing software.

But wait, there’s more!  Animoto creates music videos for you, right in your browser.  Just upload pictures (or retrieve them from your favorite photo sharing site), pick music or upload your own, and viola: a 30 second music video.  With Animasher, you can easily create animations in your browser.  Slideshare includes a feature called Slidecasting: sync an mp3 to a slideshow.  See what one of our fellow 23 Thingsers did with it.  Finally, Slide, Rock You!, and Picture Trail let you set your photo slideshows to music.  All of the above services are free.

Now it’s time to unleash your creations on the world.  You can share your videos on YouTube, but there are other video sharing sites out there, too.  A few you might want to check out: Vimeo, Veoh, Blip.tv, Ourmedia, and Motionbox (which has some video editing capabilities).

There’s a lot of advice out there for making videos.  This YALSA blog post gives tips on shopping for a digital camcorder.  The author also wrote this post on the intersection of teens, books, libraries, and online video.  It includes some good examples.  Blip.tv has a great guide on creating, producing, and distributing online shows; probably more information than you’ll need, but there are lots of useful tips in there.  This infodoodads blog post about trends in and tips for using video in libraries is the first in a month-long series on video in libraries.  The next post discusses a ReadWriteWeb post about using YouTube as a search engine (an interesting and thought-provoking piece that I recommend reading).

To complete this Thing, I searched for “zombies” in YouTube.  Guess what I found?

Zombies + The Common Craft Show = Awesome!

Here’s my attempt at challenge #1.  I recorded the video using my digital camera, edited it in Windows Movie Maker, and uploaded it to Vimeo.  I chose Vimeo over YouTube or Google Video because I prefer the way the embedded Vimeo video looks.  I also like the Vimeo community more.  Vimeo forbids uploading content that you weren’t involved in creating (e.g., movie and tv clips), as well as commercial videos, though video makers, musicians, writers, and even independent production companies can promote their work on Vimeo.  You can see how this would create a different environment.  Anyway, watch my little video.

The videos I mentioned at the beginning of this article are but a few examples of what you could do with video in a library.  The manager of my department has recorded librarians throughout the district presenting Story Time programs.  She uses the video for training staff, and we’ve discussed sharing them online so our patrons can watch them, too.  Video can be a great tool for overcoming time and staff limitations to reach a wider audience.  A couple of coworkers and I gave book talks at a local middle school.  The teacher recorded it so  she could show it to the rest of her classes.  It would be great if those book talks were available online for teachers, librarians, parents, etc., to download and show to their kids.

Thing 15: Rollyo

Rollyo is definitely something I could have used when creating my Teen Tech presentation. I had to search through dozens of blogs and websites for ideas and resources. No more! Gaze in wonder upon my Tech in libraries searchroll (WordPress wouldn’t let me add a searchbox, of course).  Below is the list of blogs and sites it searches. Do you have any recommendations?

ALA Games and Gaming Resources wiki

ALA TechSource

Allan’s Library

blyberg.net

Go 2 Web 2.0

infodoodads

LibrarianInBlack

LibraryBytes

Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki

Loose Cannon Librarian

Mashable!

ReadWriteWeb

Tame The Web

TechCrunch

The Other Librarian

The Shifted Librarian

The Travelin’ Librarian

What I Learned Today…

Libraries could use Rollyo to create useful homework or research tools for patrons.  Instead of having to sift through hundreds of pages of results of dubious authority from the web, patrons could use searchrolls of sites vetted by information professionals.

More custom search options: Google Custom Search Engine, Eurekster Swicki, Hittery.

Thing 14: Online productivity tools

Start pages

This is another thing I always meant to look into more that I’m finally getting around to thanks to 23 Things.

You can choose to link your iGoogle page to your Google account, if you have one, so you can access your Gmail, Google Bookmarks, search history, etc. on your start page. Or as my husband puts it, “If you’re willing to drink the Google Kool-Aid, it’s good to have all of your stuff in one place.” iGoogle also has a chat feature that lets you talk to people who use Google Talk or Gmail chat.

PageFlakes is more social; you can publish your page so others can see it (Pagecasting). You can choose between a Group Pagecast that can be viewed by invited members only, or a Public Pagecast, which can be seen by anyone. You can also use the “Take a Flake” feature to easily copy and paste a flake’s HTML to share it on your website. Another feature I like is the “Anything Flake”, into which you can enter text, images, or HTML. I used it to add a Last.fm widget to my start page and it worked perfectly.

MyYahoo! combines the social features of PageFlakes with the convenience of having all of your Yahoo! services in one place. Easily share a module or tab with your friends by email.

I also checked out a couple of other start pages:

Netvibes allows you to create a Public Page, in addition to your private page. They aren’t synchronized; you have to manage them separately, and you can’t put a bookmarks, mail, or Delicious widget on your public page. You can share feeds, widgets, or tabs by email, im, or adding them to your blog or MySpace profile. You can also leave comments on someone’s public page. Similar to Pageflake’s “Anything Flake”, Netvibes offers an HTML widget and a Flash widget.

myAOL’s Mix and Share feature lets you create public folders containing feeds and/or bookmarks that you can share by email or im.  myAOL also offers a recommendation service called Mgnet (pronounced “magnet”). You can save and rate recommended items, and Mgnet will base your recommendations on your saved items and ratings, as well as your searches in their search bar. Mgnet has two tabbed pages: one is your recommendations, the other is What’s Hot?. Finally, Mgnet includes a “What else ya got?” button to refresh the page and get more recommendations. Mgnet seems pretty similar to Stumbleupon, for those familiar with the social bookmarking service.

A couple of fun start pages that you might want to try out: Schmedley and Qrowd.

The more I played with the start pages, the more I realized how useful a tool they are, and how limited the current options are. What I’m looking for in a start page is a feed reader, bookmarks of tools I use on a regular basis, and a few widgets for things like social networking and chat, email, weather, movie and tv listings, and online radio. I’d like to see more integration between services in general, but especially with start pages. If I can’t access my accounts through my start page, it’s just a glorified feed reader. I haven’t found a start page that I’m completely satisfied with, but there are a lot out there, so I’m going to keep looking.

Check out this list of popular bookmarks tagged “startpage” in Delicious for more options.

Calendars

Start pages come with their own calendar widgets, so I tried out Google Calendar and Yahoo! Calendar. Both are easy to use and integrated with their other services.

A few features that make managing your events in Yahoo! Calendar easy: “Quick add event” just below the calendar (add to any date, no matter where in the calendar you are), Event Lists view, and Task view. You can import from or export to Palm Desktop or Outlook. Yahoo! Calendar lets you choose how you share your entire calendar (private, friends, or anyone) as well as individual events (private, show as busy, or public). You can also create “Special Friends” who can edit your calendar. If you use Yahoo! Groups, you can use Calendar to create a group calendar. Finding anyone’s Yahoo! Calendar is easy: just search by their Yahoo! ID. You can send out invitations to events from Calendar or email friends a URL that adds your event to their Yahoo! Calendar. Finally, you can set Yahoo! Calendar to remind you about events by Yahoo! Messenger, email, or cell or other mobile device.

Google Calendar has an awesome feature called “Quick Add”. Just type in your event in everyday language, “Doctor’s appointment 9 am May 7″, and Calendar creates the event in your calendar at the time and on the date you specified. It has an event list, too; it’s called “Agenda”. Calendar will automatically add invitations to your calendar and remind you by email or SMS. You can embed your calendar on your website or blog, make your calendar public, choosing whether to share details or just your status (available or busy), and share with specific people, setting their permission settings (how much they can see, whether they can edit or manage sharing). If you share your calendar, people can subscribe to it.

I don’t see myself sharing my calendar in the near future, so I’m just looking for something to help me keep track of appointments and the few non-work related events in my life. Either Yahoo! or Google would do the trick. Which I choose depends on which start page I end up using.

Lists

Again, start pages include their own list widgets. Ta-Da Lists is pretty basic: make lists, check off tasks as you complete them, and share them with others if you want. Remember the Milk adds to this reminders (via email, SMS, or IM), tagging, search, notes, RSS, and integration with a bunch of other services (Gmail, Twitter, and Netvibes, just to name a few). One of my favorite features is “Locations”, which lets you set a location for a task that you can then view on a map.

Ta-Da Lists and Remember the Milk are a little too simple for my needs. I currently use Luminotes, a wysiwyg wiki notebook. You create notes in notebooks (create as many notebooks as you want). You can link notes together, attach files to them, and search through your entire notebook. You can share your notebooks by email, choosing whether your friends can only view your wiki, edit it, or invite others to share it, though I’d recommend something like PBWiki or Backpack if you’re going to collaborate with others.

Backpack

Backpack is a wiki with other tools integrated into it to facilitate planning, especially within groups.  Backpack Calendar will send you reminders via email or SMS, and you can subscribe to calendars using iCalendar.  If you have multiple calendars, they will be color coded.  Backpack Messages is intended to replace email: post a message, and others can read it and comment on it, and their comments are displayed below the message (like a blog).  Writeboards are text documents for which all versions are saved.  You can compare versions, revert to a previous version, and comment on the document.  The Journal is like Twitter: update your status to let people know what you’re doing, and when you’re done, write a short journal entry telling everyone what you did.

You can make a page public (anyone will be able to see it, though they won’t be able to edit it).  If you choose to share it with specific users (in your account), or email an invitation to people from different Backpack accounts, they will be able to edit it.

I think Backpack could definitely help organizations get, well, organized.  For my personal use, though, the free plan doesn’t sound as good as Luminotes.  It doesn’t include the Calendar (which is the only reason I would switch), you’re limited to five pages, and you can’t upload files.

PDF Converters

I’m actually in the market for a PDF converter, so I looked at PDF Converter and Zamzar.  Three ads popped up as soon as I went to the Zamzar site, so I didn’t spend much time there.  They convert between many different formats, including audio and video formats.  The maximum file size you can convert for free is 100 MB.  PDF Converter’s free plan has no conversion file size limit.  Besides converting from over 70 formats to PDF, you can convert PDFs to Word documents, extract tables from PDFs to Excel, and extract images from PDFs (two page limit for all services but converting to PDF).  They even offer a free web to PDF service that you can add to your blog or website to let visitors save the page to PDF.  I’ve been told by a coworker that its Word to PDF conversion works as advertised, and I’m looking forward to trying it out myself.

More productivity tools

My husband and I are currently using Google Docs to coordinate our apartment hunt.

URL shorteners can be helpful.  I like doiop.com.

Thing 13: LibraryThing Thing

I love books and book recommendations, but I’ve never gotten around to joining a book-centered social network, so I was really excited about this Thing.

I added a few books, rated a couple of them, and have gotten a few recommendations.  I look forward to building my library and finding out how good the recommendations are.  I’ve heard from John that they are right on the money.

My most popular book (150) is also one of my favorites: Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder.  There aren’t any conversations about it, though, while some of my much less popular books have generated much more discussion: Anathem (popularity 2,449) has 67 conversations, Feed (2532) has 70,  and Nation (4186) has 90.

No events listed in LibraryThing Local.  Maybe now that we’ve done this Thing, staff at the various branches in my library district will start using it to promote library programs.  Update: It looks like my prediction has come true.

My favorite aspect of LibraryThing is how many different ways it offers to browse the site and find new things.  Between your home page and the Zeitgeist, you can’t miss anything.  LibraryThing even has an Unsuggester, in case you wanted to find a book that you probably won’t like.

A group called I See Dead People’s Books has entered the personal libraries of famous historical figures.  Go to Legacy Libraries under Statistics in your Home tab to see how your library compares with Benjamin Franklin’s or Marilyn Monroe’s.  Apparently, I have a book in common with Eeva-Liisa Manner, a Finnish poet, playwright, and translator.

Another thing I like about LibraryThing is its integration with other sites and services.  Give LibraryThing your Twitter username and you’ll be able to add books via direct message.  LibraryThing searches your choice of Amazon.com, Library of Congress, or one of almost 700 libraries, and it includes all of the data on the book from that source.  Library display style B includes a column providing a link to Google Book Search for each book in your library.  Bookstore Integration lets you display pricing and availability information from your local bookstores (if those bookstores have LibraryThing accounts).  LibraryThing is also integrated with several book swapping sites.

Odds and ends:  You can include your usernames at other social sites (Also on…) in your profile so your friends in those networks can find you on LibraryThing.  If you’re willing to review books, you can get free pre-release books from LibraryThing or free books from other members.

I think it’s interesting that small libraries are apparently using LibraryThing as an ILS.  It only costs $15/year to catalog up to 5000 books; however, LibraryThing doesn’t have circulation tracking features and mentions in its FAQ that members use tags for this purpose.  I wonder why they don’t use a library computer system or open source ILS.

The widget seems like an easy way to highlight books in a library’s collection, as it seems some libraries are already doing.  My library district currently features book lists on its website.  I would say the LibraryThing widget is superior because of its social features, but we’re about to unveil a new OPAC that allows patrons to tag, rate, review, and comment.  It doesn’t include fora, though.  LibraryThing for Libraries offers a few features that I’d like to see in our catalog: library-branded widgets and recommendations, plus you get all of LibraryThing’s data (ratings, reviews, recommendations, and tags) integrated into your catalog.

Check my sidebar for my LibraryThing chiclet.  It links to my catalog.