LibraryThing for libraries at Claremont
| Published date | 06 March 2009 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830910942937 |
| Date | 06 March 2009 |
| Pages | 78-81 |
| Author | Jezmynne Westcott,Alexandra Chappell,Candace Lebel |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
THEME ARTICLE
LibraryThing for libraries at
Claremont
Jezmynne Westcott, Alexandra Chappell and Candace Lebel
Libraries of The Claremont Colleges, Claremont, California, USA
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to share the experience of implementing LibraryThing for
Libraries (LTFL) at the Claremont University Consortium’s libraries, the first US academic library to
try LTFL.
Design/methodology/approach – The objectives are to share CUC’s experience with LTFL,
sharing a list of pros and cons about the tool, implementation of the tool, experiences with the tool, and
future steps planned by LTFL.
Findings – Claremont University Consortium finds the tool to be a helpful overlay of user-generated
tags and suggested readings based on tags over the current bibliographic information provided in the
traditional library catalog. Implementation of LTFL is easy, LTFL provides significant and immediate
support, and is useful for finding items for research as well as for browsing.
Originality/value – The paper is valuable for libraries considering LTFL as a catalog overlay, as
well as for libraries interested in learning about next generation cataloging concepts.
Keywords Online catalogs,Tagging
Paper type Technical paper
Introduction
LibraryThing is an online personal cataloging tool book lovers use to organize
personal book collections (http://librarything.com). LibraryThing allows users to tag
items with meaningful keyword descriptors, review items, browse others’ holdings
based on similarly-held items, browse books tagged with the same descriptor, and to
create and contribute to groups. LibraryThing began to offer LibraryThing for
Libraries (LTFL) in 2007. LTFL draws on the data stored in LibraryThing, and
contributed by LibraryThing users. LTFL is an overlay for the OPAC; it consists of a
snippet of Javascript residing in the OPAC’s HTML code, that queries LibraryThing
data by ISBN number as a user selects a bibliographic record. The Javascript then
displays LibraryThing tags for the book, and a list of Similar Books (books in the
OPAC with the same tags; see Figure 1). The LibraryThing tags are user-generated
tags drawn from LibraryThing holdings, and are displayed in the OPAC as either as a
tag cloud or a tag list. In the tag cloud display, tags that have been applied by other
LibraryThing users appear in bold and in a larger font than less-popular tags. The tags
are hyperlinked to a tag browser overlay, which lists tags used for that item, suggests
related tags, and lists books in the OPAC that have the same LibraryThing tag (see
Figure 2). In the tag browser, clicking on a tag will list books identified with that tag,
and clicking a book link will take the user back to the OPAC and the item’s record
therein. LTFL is a quick and easy way to insert a user-generated folksonomy into the
OPAC without having to start from scratch and build a tag base over time. As of
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
LHT
27,1
78
Received 20 October 2008
Revised 17 November 2008
Accepted 25 November 2008
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 27 No. 1, 2009
pp. 78-81
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/07378830910942937
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