Thursday, July 17, 2008
Library Thing!!
Here's a site I neglected to mention: It's called Library Thing. It utilizes a Del.icio.us-type interface that allows users to store and share their favorite BOOKS! It uses tags and clouds (this is called folksonomy, rather than taxonomy, because they are created by users). Check it out... look at a few collections people have created. How could this online resource be used in our schools? Well, darn it!! I just went to it and they've been being attacked by a high schooler and so are temporarily shut down. Dang! It's cool that they're trying to catch this Dave though. Look at the site another time. Hopefully, they'll resume their regular interface soon. In the meantime, read the wikipedia articles http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibraryThing and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy
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20 comments:
Darn you, Dave! Hopefully LibraryThing will be up and running again soon because I think it sounds great for getting myself (and my books) organized.
It's up and running now, without the warning to Dave. But, actually, that was kind of an interesting thing to see too. Check out Library Thing!! I started an account after a conference I went to. It's lame (only 2 books!) but compare mine to some of the other, more-involved users! http://www.librarything.com/catalog/tmccausland
It's up! And OMG, I am practically foaming at the mouth looking at this site. I can't wait to get started -- seriously. It so fits into my very geeky penchant for cataloguing books. And talking about them, and sharing them. And I love the clarity and simplicity of the web design -- beautiful!
and so... how can we use this with our students or staff?
Well, I missed my window of opportunity -- it was down when I looked, but then it might have only been my lack of touch. I will look again later or tomorrow. We could catalog our personal collection of teacher resources so that people would be able to borrow them... students could do the same so that even books not in the library would be shared. More conversations about education and reading would likely result. Hurray! Have a good evening. :)
"and so... how can we use this with our students or staff?"
Oh, yeah -- that. Well, I mean, who cares? (Just kidding -- obviously I was blinded by my booklust and didn't even notice your question.)
Since the site doesn't require any personal information, then kids can sign up too. What a great way for them to share their thoughts and feelings about books, and also look upon their growing collection of books with pride -- their own library. I assume we'd have to make sure they didn't use their real names?
I bet some kids would do this at home, too. Fun site.
Well isn't that the cat's meow? I love that site. I was mocked for categorizing and alphabetizing all of our books at home, but I'm so happy there are other people like me.
We can catalog the Language Arts recommended books or classroom sets. We could catalog teacher's classroom collections.
--You could use it for the book groups at school (or on your own). --I love the comments. I read, "what are funny requests?" on the library thread and it was a riot. I was looking for a good librarian blogging spot, maybe this is the site for librarians and booklovers to comment for the fun of it. :)
(I got Annie Dillard's new book and Diary of a Call Girl today. :)
I like how they have a different section for genres. I think my students would really get into blogging or giving book reviews that are published. Staff could use the site for various things too, such as book clubs, reviews on other books, etc.
What a fantastic site. The first thing that came to mind for me personally was that I could indicate the books I have and have read and I would stop buying books that I think are new just because they changed the art work on the cover. I agree "Sangwij" that this would be a great way for students to share what they are reading and their thoughts on them. I bet my staff would love this too. A bunch of us share books back and forth right now and this would be a way for others to know what we have and what we thougt about it. Then they could come and ask to borrow it.
Went on to Library Thing just now. What a great resource. I could see teachers using it to catalog books for the units they teach. I can also see setting students up with their own account to keep track of the books they read. I can even see a teacher having students add to the class catalog for the year. What great data for "Read a Million Words".
Now I am back to the power point that mysteriously evaporated this afternoon! No tissues needed here, life's to short to cry over lost power points;>
aaaarrrrgggghhhhh!
Teresa, how could you show me this?! It's taking the addictive quality of our Categories function (in the Catalog) with my inabiblity to refrain from getting excited about my favorite books. And how fun - it looks like Richelle Mead may have published a new Succubus book! This website would appeal to the kids we chat with who love books and want to share their passion with others, kind of a way to have an IHS book club virtually) not to mention a great way for me to find new books to add to my reading list and to our library shopping list.
Julie
And so... yeah! The kids wouldn't really have to OWN the books either... maybe they just read them from the LIBRARY and want to talk them up. Love the pride idea. Yep, Bette, anytime we can have students talking about lit is a bonus. Shelly I thought about you here and was shocked I didn't mention Library Thing right away on Monday. Wow... Diary of a Call Girl AND a big boat trip. You're livin' girl!
It's my job, Weasel. It's my job.
I'm sure I'll get really excited about it after I recover from six hours of photo story! Sounds like something you can do on facebook where you create your own bookshelf, but way bigger. And there's a cool site called Lists of Bests where people create book lists and share them. You can check off books as you read them, too. Okay, so even photo story couldn't beat out enthusiasm over books for me. For school, you could create a school-wide reading list of all the books we read in a year.
Very excited about Library Thing. Too tired to list how I'd use it, but I think a good starting point is with myself!
'Night, folks!
When I saw the site, I thought about the hundreds of books in my classroom collection that I've been cataloging by genre, author, and reading level over the past few years, and how Library Thing might have been a very useful tool during that process (and still could be in the future, giving me a more detailed and accessible set of entries and allowing me to add new books easily). I also see the site's potential as an online learning community for students, teachers, and librarians, although at first glance I didn't see much evidence of these groups connecting on the site (the members seem to be mostly adult readers whose interests aren't specifically those of students, teachers, or librarians, although I did see Julie's name there). That doesn't mean that people like us and the students we work with can't get something started though.
I was not able to check the site LibraryThing. I tried many times and was out of luck. But the fact that only during the first year LibraryThing had registered more than 73,000 users who cataloged 5.1 million personal books sounds great! Will try again.
Richard, I remember seeing examples (at a conference) of some classes that created a closed environment in which to discuss their books. The page-builder has the opportunity to make it viewable by the public or by password only. I think I might recommend that for a class to use, just because you can. Then only your students would be able to log in and add books, comments, etc.
Oooops, I completely forgot to add to the blog last night. I will look at library thing later after our podcast is finshed!
librarything is not running again...
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