Sonya Green, LibraryThing's Libraian for Libraries
Among the vendors occupying the Library 2.0 pavilion at the ALA Expo was LibraryThing,the social networking site that allows individuals to catalog, tag, and review books in their private collections. Your library OPAC can benefit from the collective wisdom of the LibraryThing crowd by signing up for LibraryThing for Libraries (LTFL), under a license arrangement now handled eclusively by Bowker. (Read the announcement from earlier this year.)
LTFL puts tags, tag clouds, recommendations and reviews directly into your library catalog, according to Sonya Green, LTFL Libraian, who told me yesterday that there are about 140 libraries currently subscribing to the service.
Once you subscribe, your library records can be checked (by title, author, and ISBN) against LibraryThing holdings and LibraryThing data extracted for display over your own OPAC.
Some ILS suppliers are incorporating LibraryStuff for Libraries into their offerings, including ProQuest and Serials Solutions AquaBrowser.
Polaris has also introduced features that support the exchange of data between your OPAC and the LibraryStuff for Libraries service.
For more information, consult your ILS vendor or fill out the online form at LibraryThing’s web site.
Dick Kaser, ITI VP, Content
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