LibraryThing

LibraryThing
Web address librarything.com
Type of site
 Catalog and community
Registration Free with upgrade option
Owner Tim Spalding (majority)
AbeBooks
CIG
Created by Tim Spalding
Launched August 29, 2005
Alexa rank
 negative increase 12,972 (April 2014)[1]
Current status Active

LibraryThing is a social cataloging web application for storing and sharing book catalogs and various types of book metadata. It is used by authors, individuals, libraries, and publishers.

Based in Portland, Maine,[2] LibraryThing was developed by Tim Spalding and went live on August 29, 2005. As of January 2015, it has over 1,900,000 users and nearly 95 million books catalogued.[3]

Features

The primary feature of LibraryThing ("LT") is the cataloging of books by importing data from libraries through Z39.50 connections and from six Amazon.com stores. Library sources supply Dublin Core and MARC records to LT; users can import information from 690 libraries, including the British Library, Canadian National Catalogue, Library of Congress, National Library of Australia, and Yale University.[4] Should a record not be available from any of these sources, it is also possible to input the book information via a blank form.[5]

Social features

LibraryThing's social features have been compared to bookmark manager Del.icio.us[6] and the collaborative music service Last.fm.[7] Similar book cataloging sites include aNobii, BookLikes, BookJetty, Goodreads, Shelfari, and weRead.[8]

Ownership

LibraryThing is majority owned by founder Tim Spalding.[9] Online bookseller AbeBooks (now owned by Amazon) bought a 40% share in LibraryThing in May 2006 for an undisclosed sum.[10] In January 2009, Cambridge Information Group acquired a minority stake in the company, and their subsidiary Bowker became the official distributor to libraries.[9]

Publicity

At the end of June 2006, LibraryThing was subject to the Slashdot effect from a Wall Street Journal article.[11] The site's developers added servers to compensate for the increased traffic. In December of the same year, the site received yet more attention from Slashdot over its UnSuggester feature, which draws suggestions from books least likely to appear in the same catalog as a given book.[12]

See also

Competitors

References

  1. ↑ "Librarything.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
  2. ↑ "LibraryThing - Send us money".
  3. ↑ "Zeitgeist Overview". LibraryThing. Retrieved 2015-01-17..
  4. ↑ "Add books to your library". Retrieved 2008-06-03.
  5. ↑ "Manual Entry". Retrieved 2010-10-13.
  6. ↑ Regan, Jim (2005-11-09). "Do your own LibraryThing". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 2007-03-13.
  7. ↑ Bain, Alistair (2007-04-28). "LibraryThing". Desert of Zin. Retrieved 2007-06-20.
  8. ↑ Woodroof, Martha (2008-03-20). "Web Sites Let Bibliophiles Share Books Virtually". NPR. Retrieved 2009-05-14.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "CIG Acquires Minority Stake in LibraryThing; Bowker to Distribute to Libraries". Retrieved 3 April 2013.
  10. ↑ Davies, Richard (2006-05-16). "ABEBOOKS.COM ACQUIRES MAJOR STAKE IN LIBRARYTHING.COM – A SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE FOR BIBLIOPHILES". AbeBooks.com.
  11. ↑ Rutkoff, Aaron (2006-06-27). "Social Networking for Bookworms". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2006-12-15.
  12. ↑ "Unsuggester: Finding the Book You'll Never Want". Slashdot. 2006-12-04. Retrieved 2006-12-15.

Further reading

External links