LibraryThing

I feel like I'm getting off easy this week, and not just because it's a play week. I already have a LibraryThing account, and I use it religiously! I've got almost 500 books in my catalogue already! I'm a member of the Librarians Who LibraryThing group and participate in discussions there a lot. I also try to get involved in a lot of other groups there that discuss topics I'm interested in. Recently, I've gotten involved with the Early Reviewers group as well because I love reading new things that come out and am usually opinionated and verbose enough to offer a few hundred words on any given topic. Also, free books! Who could turn that down?

The thing I love best about LibraryThing is that it gives you a free digital way to organize all the books in your home library. I don't use the call numbers they provide, but I do make use of their tagging system. I sometimes forget what I have on my shelves, so the ability to log on and search for a specific title or author is very handy in preventing me from purchasing titles twice. In addition, I like being able to group my books with tags when I can't always group them together physically on my shelves. I can't look at my physical bookshelf and see all the books on feminist literature I have, but I can click on my "feminist" tag on LibraryThing and have a handy list of everything I consider to fit into that category.

Anyone who's worked with me knows that I'm a bit neurotic, a bit overeager to organize things, and LibraryThing appeals to me in some deep, core way...all via technology. I ♥ LibraryThing.

You can see the widget I created using LT's Beta Widget Instructions for LiveJournal and MySpace widgets on my journal. I like that you can be very specific in your customizing when you create it yourself. Just click it to visit my profile!