Thing #11: LibraryThing

I have to admit that I won't use all of the Web 2.0 elements that we're learning about. It's essential to know about them, just to be able to communicate with patrons, but I won't use all of them for my own purposes (sites that are strictly for social networking, Facebook or MySpace, for example).

But what librarian would not fall in love with LibraryThing? What a great "thing" to be able keep track of your own reading (and listening) materials online! Until last year, I would faithfully record my books on index cards. I would jot down the title and author, the dates that I read the book, and a few short sentences describing my thoughts. Then, I would give the book an overall grade, ranging from A to F (admittedly, I rarely gave Fs; if I despised a book that much I wouldn't complete it!). At the end of the year, I would count the number of books that I had read.

In 2007, life just became too busy for me to spare even the small amount of time that it took me to complete my index cards. I'm so thankful that I'll be able to start this tradition again via LibraryThing (since I'm at a computer every day, there won't be any reason not to!).