By the way, has anybody looked at what http://www.librarything.com/
<http://www.librarything.com/> is doing?
It's a web-based tool to allow people to catalog their individual libraries
-- and then connect to other people with similar taste in books, or look for
trends (see http://www.librarything.com/users.php
<http://www.librarything.com/users.php> ). Books can also be tagged and
rated and publically reviewed. And it even appears to include MARC records
pulled from various sources by Z39.50.
The service is free for cataloging up to 200 books; paid accounts allow an
unlimited library.
And it seems to be relatively popular among people I know.
While this is geared towards individuals rather than institutional
libraries, it may help to look at the kind of library tools that patrons are
using for their own collections as a way of getting ideas to better serve
them.
[The other tool I've seen mentioned for cataloging personal libraries is
http://www.readerware.com/ <http://www.readerware.com/> , a software product
which allows users to barcode scan ISBNs and looks up the titles to save on
data entry.]
Received on Mon Jun 19 2006 - 09:53:20 EDT