LibraryThing - Lesson 4

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LibraryThing is an online tool designed to help you organize your books and connect to other readers. In this lesson we are going to set up a LibraryThing account, add books to your account, learn how to connect with other LibraryThing readers and do a little tagging.

Photo titled: Manga Reader
Photo by Poo-tee-weet
See Creative Commons license

Set up account....

Click on the url: http://www.librarything.com

Log in with your user name; make up a password and add your email address. This is important if you forget your password. Enter. You have set up your LibraryThing account.

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Add a book......

We are going to start by adding one book. Click on the "Add Books" tab. In the search screen, we will start by adding a book by the ISBN number. Please type in "0060175966" and enter. You will see the book The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester pop up on the right. Click on it. You've added a book to your library. You may delete it later.

Click on "Home" tab.

You will see that LibraryThing has created a list of recommended books for you based on your one entry. Under "Recent Recommendations" you'll see recommendations automatically generated by LibraryThing based on your choice and personal recommendations from LibraryThing members who have read the Professor and the Madman.

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Add another book.......

Grab a favorite book from your library shelf at home or work and add it to LibraryThing. Unless your book is pretty old, you'll find the ISBN number on the copyright page in the front matter of the book. Type in the ISBN number in the search box and enter.

To the right you'll see the title, any maybe an image, of the book. Click on it to add to your library. You've added another book to your library.

Click on "home" tag.


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Join a group........

Click on the "Groups" tab. In "search for groups" box, type in keyword(s) for a group that might interest you; it can be the author or a subject keyword. Explore groups and join one of them by clicking on the "Join this group" yellow icon in the upper-right side of the web page. (You can "un-join" later if you decide to leave).

Photograph titled: Le Reader, photo by Moriza
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You have a library of two books and you've joined a book group!

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Click on "your profile" tab at the top of the browser. Notice "Connection News" Already you have a number of connections because others have also added your same books to their library and have activity in their libraries, mostly adding books or adding comments. Click on "Connections News" and on the drop down list click on "Connections" and spend little time looking the the books recently added by your connections.

Back to the input mode:
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Add more books........

Grab any seven books you like from the Whittemore Library or home bookshelf and add them to your library. If you choose books with ISBN numbers in the front matter, this will go quickly, but it's a good practice to enter one old book from your shelf.

Take a coffee break or just play around with LibraryThing.

End of break

Make a LibraryThing friend or two.....

Click on your "profile" tab and look at the "Members With Your Books" list in the green panel on the right. Click on "weighted", "raw" and "recent" outputs. You will intuitively understand the difference by looking at the difference in the results. Click on and explore the libraries of various members. Choose one you like and click on "Add to Friends" icon in the upper right-hand side of browser. You have sent an invitation to become a friend, but it won't be official until he/she accepts your offer.

Photograph titled Attimi Rubati, photograph by seleniamorgillo
See his Creative Commons license

Add me as a friend. I promise to accept you and will check LibraryThing once a day.

Click on the "Search" tab and type "blavin" in the "members and location" box in the lower right-hand corner of the page. Click on where you see a link to "bslavin" of Framingham, MA. Click on "Add to friends". As soon as I accept you offer you will have a friend in LibraryThing.

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One more book and you are done adding books.....

Click on "Zeitgeist" tab and explore the page. Look at "Top 75 Authors" in the lower right-hand side of page and click on an author you have read. From the list of books written by the author, add one you have read to your library by clicking on "add to your library"

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Almost done...tagging next.....

Click on "my library" tab. Click on "covers" tab and look at results. Click on "list". Play with "styles" tab and find the style you like. Return to style "A". Locate a favorite book and add a tag. A tag would be a way of describing the book or the "aboutness" of the book. So A Hundred Years of Solitude might have a tags like "South American Novel" or "novel" or "Gabriel Garcia Marquez". Tag two more books in your library.

Done!

Congratulations. You've complete the LibraryThing lesson. There's a lot more to it, so please explore it's many facets and features.

Please add a comment to the bottom of this post that you have completed the assignment.

Thanks.

One more lesson to go.