Thing 35: Books 2.0

You know, you glance down a list of 23 Things and right away you see some Things that attract you more than others. Thing 35 is probably the most attractive Thing on the current list.

I've been on LibraryThing since 2006. I don't feel like picking up another site for cataloging my books since I'm mostly happy with LT in this regard, plus I have a book database on my home computer. Still, I enjoyed seeing what other sites had to offer. I liked that Lib.rario.us is set up to let you enter other media besides books, but beyond that, it just seemed to be playing catch-up to the more established book sites (and light print on a dark background is difficult to read for long periods). Ditto on catch-up for BookJetty. They're justifiably proud of being linked to library catalogs, but I can look up books in libraries--or on Amazon.com--on LT. Plus, as far as I can tell from their screenshot of a book details page, they don't include cataloging information like call numbers, which is something I specifically enjoy. ITrackMine definitely adds value with its ability to track item loans, not only that you lent a book to your friend, but in what condition your friend returned it to you (and if they returned it). This is not something LT is set up for, and while I can do that with my private database, ITrackMine's "circ module" is more sophisticated. The reports feature also looks easier to use than LT's. Too bad the design of the site makes me think of the 1950s. aNobii doesn't seem to do anything that other sites don't do (I see whoever described it on the More 23 Things wiki said, "is yet another collection management site"). I got the same impression with BookTagger, although maybe its online book clubs are easier to manage than the discussion groups in LT.

I'm not likely to be reading a book on my cell phone anytime soon, it being too primitive to support these services. If I wanted to badly enough, I'd find a way to do so, but based on these offerings, I'm not motivated to try. I thought about following TwitterLit on Twitter--they even have an iPhone app I could use--but I realized that I just wasn't that interested. For the other services...look, I carry books with me 90% of the time. I just can't work up much enthusiasm for this aspect of Web 2.0, although I'm glad it's out there in case I change my mind.

I've got over 250 unread books at home. I won't need to use a reader's advisory service for years, if ever. BookStumpers looked promising though, because I too have partially-remembered books from childhood that I'd like to track down. And I might play on ReadingTrails someday, just to get a better feel of how it works.

I'll have to get back to you later about the resources for online book clubs. I have a penchant for books that no one else wants to read. But I'm in a fledgling online book club at the moment, and since its current home (Facebook) is awkward, I may look into these and see if I should recommend that we relocate.

If I enjoyed audiobooks, I bet I'd enjoy these online ways to listen to them. Librivox sounds both ambitious and noble. I'm impressed that Open Culture gleans its materials from reputable universities (when something's "free," you might very well wonder about its quality).

I joined BookCrossing about the same time I joined LibraryThing. I've released several books into the wild; rarely does anyone report that they've found one. But yes, one of my books was last seen headed for Hawaii. It's fun, as long as you can live with the uncertainty of ever hearing of your books again.

The Internet doesn't lack book reviews--why are people wondering if reading is declining? So now I have somewhere else to go besides Amazon.com, Library Journal, Facebook, LT, BC, etc. to look for reviews. You could spend so much time researching books that you'd never have time to read them! (Did I mention the number of unread books I have at home...?). But when I look up a book review, it's because I'm either thinking about reading the book or have just read it and want to know what others think of it. With The Complete Review, it looked like they review only certain books, in an effort to promote them. I suspect our tastes will rarely overlap.

No children in my private life, no children in my professional life. So, not much need to play with Web 2.0 tools for children's books. As for the book rental services, my first thought was that why would I pay for what a library does for free? Then I saw Bookswim rents college textbooks. I'm in school. I should see if they handle MLIS texts. Suddenly, this sounds practical as all get-out.

Ah, Facebook. And ah, Facebook's book apps. I believe over the past year, I've tried them all. I'm currently using Visual Bookshelf, not because I think it's a wonderful app, but because it comes closest to what I want. What I want is for LT to put together a Facebook app, but they've been procrastinating on that since 2007 at least, and I've given up on them. I like the idea of showing off my current reads. When I find myself feeling uncomfortable about it, this is encouragement to weed my friends list on Facebook. If I'm really bothered by someone seeing what I'm reading, chances are, we're not friends in any sense of the word.

Thing 23: Final Thoughts

Oh, where to begin? I gained several favorite new Things through 23 Things. I went from having no idea what Facebook was to using it daily to keep my long-distance social life on track. I didn't understand why people want to blog (why so many people want to blog!) and now I'm tentatively considering starting a personal blog once I sign off on 23 Distractions. And let's not even get into listing the online productivity tools--those are just plain fun (and useful--a win/win situation!). Plus there were the old Things I was already familiar with that I was happy to see during the program: seeing LibraryThing on the list made me feel like I was already being trendy and innovative on my own.

Naturally in a list of multiple options, some will be less attractive than others. The idea of doing much with my photos online just leaves me feeling exhausted, not creative. I keep forgetting I have a Delicious account, much less that I can use it. Second Life may have to wait until I put grad school behind me and get a faster Internet connection. But at least now I know that these Things are out there and I've tried them, rather than just hearing about them and idly meaning to look into them someday.

I liked that I knew people, usually coworkers or fellow students, who were also going through the 23 Things. It was always interesting to read their takes on stuff; often they picked up on aspects of something that I didn't consider important or vice versa. And yes, if you do a "23 More Things" or "Another 23 Things," I'm likely to sign up.

Thing 14: LibraryThing

LibraryThing. Again, whee!

I joined LibraryThing a little over two years ago. It was meant to be: I'd kept my own little card catalog since childhood, which I'd eventually migrated to an Access database, but Access was merely adequate for this purpose. LibraryThing and Book Collector (library catalog software which I'd bought just before learning about LibraryThing) were much better.

I haven't been all that social on LT. I mostly use it for the cataloging feature, although now that a couple of friends of mine have joined, I'm getting a tenuous social network going. I've joined several groups, but I just don't have time to check in on them.

While I have about 888 books in my LT catalog as of this writing, I'm not comfortable with opening my entire library to strangers. So I have created a second account for 23 Things on a Stick and dropped in about 200 books. It should at least give a taste of my collection, and if it looks a bit sparse tag-wise, well, I assure you my master collection is tagged, filled with LC call numbers, and generally maintained to the best of my abilities.

Thing 11: Tagging and Del.icio.us

Or, as they're calling themselves now: delicious. That will be easier to type, anyway.

I was first introduced to tagging via LibraryThing when I joined a couple of years ago. I took to it almost instantly: it was do-it-yourself subject cataloging without the barriers thrown up by LCSH. Not that I want to trash LCSH--I see the advantages of a controlled vocabulary--but that controlled vocabulary could be improved, and overall LCSH...well, let's not get into that right now. Suffice it to say, tags are much more useful for an individual and usually more fun as well. I've been tagging these posts as I've written them. Tagging works best for grouping similar things, so I've found tagging posts to be a bit of a challenge. I've tagged this one "LibraryThing" knowing that there's a LibraryThing Thing coming up so I'll have at least two posts with the tag, but I haven't peeked ahead enough to know if the "tagging" or "Delicious" tags I'm using will ever be used again.

I joined Delicious a couple of years ago as well. I don't know why I don't use Delicious more, since if nothing else, the idea of saving bookmarks to a website where you can access them from any computer makes so much sense. But I've memorized the addresses to the sites I visit the most and I just never think to go to Delicious. Maybe I'm just not adventurous enough: obviously I should be going out, finding new sites faster than I can memorize them, and seeing more of the Internet!

Since I barely use Delicious for its most fundamental purpose, as you may guess, I haven't been using the social networking aspect at all. I think some of my friends must have Delicious accounts, but we never talk about them, I have no idea what their account names are, and if I had an interesting link I wanted them to see, I'd just email it to them. Nor have I felt much urge to poke around in strangers' bookmarks. I just popped over to Delicious and looked at the popular tags...no, nothing called.

Despite my lack of personal enthusiasm for Delicious, I think it would be a good tool at work. Saving a collection of work-related bookmarks to an account that anyone on staff could access would be useful, and it would also be nice to browse Delicious for other potential bookmarks relating to law libraries, to see things we would probably otherwise miss.