After weeks of gradual effort I've finally completed entering my personal library into a LibraryThing account. If interested, you can view the contents of my library here. This is just the dead-tree stuff and doesn't include the many PDF books that I have collected over the years. Perhaps that will be the topic of a future post.
Until now I have used an OSX desktop application, Delicious Library, to catalog my books. It's a nice program that works fairly well but the eye-candy UI clearly takes priority over the needs of a serious book collector. LibraryThing, on the other hand, better suits my goals of:
- Cataloging all my books, including the older ones that don't have an ISBN number
- Providing online access to my library making it easier to recall references and send links to potentially interested colleagues
- Getting book recommendations based on the contents of my existing library
Some friends of mine use GoodReads for similar purposes. I spent a little time comparing LibraryThing to GoodReads and it seems that the material differences between the two are:
- GoodReads is free for an unlimited number of books, LibraryThing is free up to 200 books and requires a paid-for account for larger libraries.
- GoodReads prioritizes social networking over cataloging. LibraryThing prioritizes cataloging over social networking.
I think both services are good and provide much value to avid readers.
While I was entering my catalog, I also tagged each book to make it easier to browse and track my library. One nice feature of LibraryThing is that it provides RSS links for each tag so that interested parties can track additions to my library for a specific tag. Now I don't have to nag friends whenever I buy a new book, they can just subscribe to my feeds!
