LibraryThing, GoodReads, Shelfari: Social Networking around Books

Why Social Networking? Why Books?

People love to talk about books – recommendations are important

• Proof once again – that people love books and still read
• Geography is not a barrier
• Connecting with people who have the same or similar titles
• Long tail of certain titles
• Tagging – user generated, diverse viewpoints
• Member reviews – honest, straight-forward
• Connecting with authors – positive for authors as well as for readers
• Support and discussion – author mentoring (GoodReads), topical discussion (LibraryThing)
• Publishers can connect directly with readers

LibraryThing Basics

• Public library thing for all users (http://www.librarything.com/)
• LT for Libraries (a product) - http://www.librarything.com/forlibraries
• 459,380 users, 29,405,040 books cataloged, 3,460,217 unique works (7.21.08)
  For everyone:
• Free for 1st 200 books, $10 for 1 year, $25 for a lifetime
• Started in 2005
• Catalog books (using Amazon, Library of Congress or 690 world wide sources)
• Tag titles, star rating, reviews
• Profile page – basic info, blogs, interests
• Comments – private and public
• Tag interesting libraries, make LT friends, connect with authors in your library
• Early Review Opportunities
• Discussion groups
• Suggestions and unsuggestions
• Blog and Facebook widgets
• International (French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian) sites

What LibraryThing for Libraries Brings to the Catalog

• User generated tags
• Suggestions
• Reviews from patrons
• Patrons stay within the library’s own site – seamless
• First library – Danbury CN Public Library: http://danburylibrary.org/books/index.htm
• Universities – UT Austin: http://catalog.lib.utexas.edu/
• Special Libraries – An Organizational Membership is available (http://www.librarything.com/organizations.php)

GoodReads

• Free – no fees but there is advertising on pages
• Started in 2006
• Daily digest email from friends (can disable)
• Create bookshelves – currently reading, read – and user created
• Star rating and review screen
• Group activity – author lead
• More geared toward social networking – connecting with people around books
• Graphics are refined
• Blog and Facebook widgets

From Otis Chandler, the founder and CEO of GoodReads:

"Thank you so much for the opportunity [to share with librarians]! ...you may want to mention that Libraries can submit their catalogue as a 'find at' link for Goodreads members to easily look up books via ISBN/title.

To submit a link, go to any book detail page, then click "more..." to the right of the 'find at' links, then click 'create a new link'.

http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/edit_list?book_id=1154887

Shelfari

• Dubs itself – the premiere social networking site for books and readers.
• Amazon has bought a stake in the company in Feb. 07 (also based in Seattle)
• Focused on the social aspect
• Group discussions, author pages
• Graphics are even more refined
• Launched in October 2006
• Blog, Facebook and MySpace widgets

Things to consider

• Pick one and stick with it (basically)
• Import data using CSV from one to the other (not perfect)
• Barcode readers can make adding to the collection even easier
• Occasional spam
• Makes the TBR pile even taller
• Something else to manage
• If using with patrons – dedicated user

Coming down the pike

• Visual bookshelf – Facebook application
• Amazon – discussions, tags, recommendations
• Ning – User created groups
• WhatsOnMyBookShelf.com or PaperBackSwap – book trading sites with some tagging, reviews, and rating
• Bookswellread.com – A personal lifetime list of books read
• Revish – Encourages lengthy reviews
• WorldCat – My WorldCat
• GoogleBooks -- create profile, add books, integration with WorldCat