First off... How refreshing to find a service where the only information they need or want to collect from you on your first visit is a signon and password. Most places want your whole life history before they'll let you have an account. So, 5 points to Library Thing on behalf of those of us who like things simple.
Library Things is a social book catalog. There are lots of different tools inside Library Thing, & you can use the site in all kinds of ways, but the power in the service comes (I think) from the pooling of information & the wisdom of crowds.
First, set up an account (easy, as discussed) & add books to your Library. I had some challenges finding correct editions etc. in the search part of the process, where the default catalogs offered are Amazon or LC. I wound up inputting ISBN's to be sure I was getting the right book.
Next, view "your library" to sort books, rate your books, and tag them so that you (and other users) can find your books by topic. We've run into Folksonomy once before, see Thing #5, Flickr and we'll be coming back to tags in considering Technorati and Del.icio.us. Inside Library Thing, tags enable you to label your cataloged books with keywords that you feel are relevant. They also let you access the hive-mind (Bzzzzzz). On the "social information" page for a given title, you can see which tags other Library Thingers have attached to a book, and assess their relative importance, judged by frequency and displayed by size.
The social information page includes some read-alike recommendations based on user data. You can also access this information under the "suggestions" tab. There are some social networking and profile features on Library Thing too, and so opportunities exist to make connections based on shared interest in reading material. To see it all in action, take the tour.
Labels: 23_things, librarything, thing_11
