Saturday, June 23, 2007

LibraryThing Week 8 #19


"Thing" was my favorite character on the Adams Family television program. The bodiless hand creeping out of the black box, "snap, snap". Curious, competent, but just a little odd. LibraryThing strikes me the same.

I've been playing with LibraryThing since July '06. I am not very faithful to it. Every once in a while, usually during my holidays, I will go in and add a few books. I use it as more of a reading list, than a true catalog. I never thought about using it at school. Thomas Kaun, the fabulous Library Media Teacher at Redwood High's Bessie Chin Library, has placed an LT widgit showing new books that have been added to his collection. Great idea!

I have one reservation about LibraryThing; the search database is not all that extensive. I know it seems like Amazon has everything in the world, but I have run into "no hits" on some of my less well known books. For example, Michael Chabonne's Yiddish Policeman's Union. I searched Amazon, and they came up with a double set of books, because they're trying to make a sale. I tried Library of Congress, but no record appeared. That always confuses me, I always thought the LC had EVERYTHING catalogged. LibraryThing is supposed to be a quick hit, and if I can't find it within two minutes, I won't put a whole lot of effort into it. So I settled for the Amazon find and edited.

LibraryThing was where I first tried to use Tags. It made me smile to see my early efforts at tagging, which, by the way, I have since edited. I have learned some things this past year after all!

2 comments:

Randy de Jong said...

You have so much more experience with Library Thing, did you find a dewey cataloging tool in there somewhere?

librarymum said...

Hi, I love your comment and picture of Thing! So true. I haven't gotten to LibraryThing yet.

I followed up on your comment about not finding a book at LC. Actually, you had the title slightly misspelled, it's "Yiddish Policemen's Union" by Michael Chabon. I did find it, and the LCCN is 2006049751. I couldn't believe it wasn't there either, so I tried a variation. Amazon compensates for our misspelled words and shows us what's close. LC doesn't. Just thought you might like to know.

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