Okay, I have to admit that this Thing got me interested and I spent lots of extra time on it. I only added 22 books from my library, but I picked a diverse group of books, including a few bestsellers. I was surprised to see that someone had 8 books in common with me with only 22 to choose from! I can see the social and the personal reasons for using Library Thing.
I see the value of Library Thing as a reader's advisory tool. I looked up a few titles I know and saw other titles recommended that I agree, would be similar titles. I even found some titles I didn't know and could use those too! Many of the titles were by the same author, but we refer patrons to books by the same author all the time. I do think looking up titles in Library Thing for RA would be more useful for lesser known titles. I often just google "Who writes like..." and find lists online that work as well or better. Those lists are usually written by librarians.
I could see us starting up a library account for the staff to enter suggested reads. We could all put in our favorites, and get a diverse list of recommendations. We could have other area users "friend" us to get suggestions.
Now, I am really excited about the geocaching connections I have with this Thing. First, I added a geocaching novel to my list. It is a little known novel. It's a really weird book that my sis-in-law found on Amazon.com. Well, the funny thing is - I'm the only person to enter it on Library Thing! It's that unknown! It's also that bad. Second, and really cool, is that this Thing asked me to check out an account by a middle school media specialist. I followed the link and saw the profile, and lo and behold, here was Brook, AKA BookMN! BookMN is a geocacher I have met when caching in Detroit Lakes. I saw her recently at an event at Wm O'Brien SP too. Small world!
tesser's LibraryThing catalog
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