LibraryThing

LibraryThing is a multilingual web application for the public or private management of personal library catalogs and media lists. Therefore the service can be seen as a literature management program for computers.

In February 2016 it had more than 2,000,000 registered members worldwide (23,000 in German-speaking countries) and more than 16,750,000 cataloged book titles. The website does not use advertising, but receives re-link fees from online booksellers who provide images of book covers.

history

LibraryThing was developed by Tim Spalding and has been available on the Internet since August 29, 2005. In December 2005 of the same year, the Nordenham City Library, known for its weblog , began to enter its new additions to the adult collection in its LibraryThing library.

In May 2006, AbeBooks , the world's largest online retailer of antiquarian books, bought 40% of the company. Abebooks was again bought by Amazon in 2008 .

After the Wall Street Journal published an article about the project, LibraryThing fell victim to the Slashdot effect in late June 2006 . The site operators had to provide additional servers due to the increased data traffic.

Tim Spalding took part in a public discussion on the subject of Web 2.0 at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2006. In time for the book fair, the multilingualism of the project was implemented through translations by members, and a German-language version can now be found at www.librarything.de.

In January 2009 the Cambridge Information Group acquired a non-publicly quantified minority stake in LibraryThing.

Functions

Users (also called thingamabrarians ) can register for free and manage books online, keep reading lists and wish lists and find other users with the same books. A fee is charged for larger volumes of books or for commercial users. The early success of LibraryThing can be traced back to the social nature of the web application, but also to the ease with which books are updated and the consideration of bibliographical details.

Maintenance of book collections

Entering the title, author or ISBN (tab "Add books") searches the holdings of the Library of Congress or optionally more than 700 (as of September 2013) international libraries or commercial booksellers such as Amazon.de . If the corresponding book (including edition) has been found, the work is automatically added to your own list with one click . Searching via Amazon is done via the Amazon E-Commerce Service , searching via libraries uses the Z39.50 protocol. The libraries include, for example, the National Library of Canada , Yale University and, in the German-speaking area, the Joint Library Association , the Association of Public Libraries in the State of Brandenburg , the Association of Public Libraries in Berlin , the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf , the University Library of Braunschweig , the Max- Planck Institute for Human Development as well as the ETH and University of Zurich (NEBIS) and the University of Basel . Books can also be entered with a barcode scanner . The user can also add their own or general keywords ( tags ) to the entry , which correspond to their organizational needs and allow other users to find books with the same tags. The use of MARC data from large libraries enables individuals to maintain a high standard of their book lists.

Social aspect

The site has been free to use since March 2020; previously, free use was limited to 200 books.

LibraryThing is considered Web 2.0 application and is similar to social software such as bookmark management of Internet sites Del.icio.us and Community music service Last.fm . Providers of similar services in the field of books are, for example, international Goodreads.com (Amazon), ANobii.com , Reader2.com , BooksWeLike.net , BookJetty.com and Listal.com , gurulib.com and in German BuecherTreff.de , LovelyBooks.de , meinalexandria.de and Reliwa.de . LibraryThing operates two weblogs .

Although you can keep your book catalog non-public , most users show it openly so that they can find other members with similar preferences. The entire database can be searched by title, author or so-called tags (keywords that users assign when entering their books). The similar libraries feature can be used to find users who have many of the same books. In April 2006, the recommendations application was introduced, which enables book recommendations in different categories (users with similar books). Since July 2006, there is the possibility of groups ( groups ) to form. In September 2006, LibraryThing integrated web links to book exchange websites.

literature

• Jakob Voss: Web 2.0 for lovers of literature and libraries In: Bulletin of the libraries in Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. Vol. 137, August 2007, ISSN  0940-0133 , pp. 12-13.

Web links

• Official website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Zeitgeist overview
2. ^ Zeitgeist in German
3. ↑ On our own behalf "New in the inventory" - library weblog, user nordenhamerbuecherei , in: LibraryThing.com.
4. ↑ ABEBOOKS.COM ACQUIRES MAJOR STAKE IN LIBRARYTHING.COM. - Press release abebooks.de, May 16, 2006
5. ^ Tim Spalding: news: The scoop for LibraryThing . In: LibraryThing Weblog. August 1, 2008.
6. ↑ Invitation to the discussion "Revolution in the card index: Libraries & WEB 2.0". ( Memento of the original from April 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: FORUM Science. H. 4.2, Vol. 420, Frankfurt 2006 (abebooks.de, September 28, 2006). 
7. ↑ LibraryThing can now also be used in German / Tim Spalding in Frankfurt , Buchmarkt, October 5, 2006
8. ^ LibraryThing group in German
9. ^ CIG Acquires Minority Stake in LibraryThing; Bowker to Distribute to Libraries ( Memento August 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). In: Library Journal. New York January 22, 2009. ISSN  0000-0027
10. ^ Public libraries in the state of Brandenburg. Retrieved March 27, 2019 . 
11. ↑ Tim Spalding: LibraryThing Is Now Free to All , The LibraryThing Blog, March 18, 2020, accessed August 18, 2020.
12. ↑ LibraryThing blog , Thingology Blog
13. ↑ LibraryThing - Web 2.0 for literature lovers and libraries.