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UKOLN is based at the University of Bath.

Creating Bookshelf using LibraryThing

Bookshelf title details are held in a service called LibraryThing. This is a service that allows you to create your own 'library catalogue'. Having registered with LibraryThing, you can then add the details of books that you own - or in our case the titles we've selected as a virtual library. The first step in adding titles is to search for an existing record for the title; if no record is available then you can type in the details manually.

A useful feature is being able to add one or more 'tags' (subject headings or index terms) to the record for a title. Having added items to your 'library' you can then see who else owns these titles, any reviews that have been recorded, and also recommendations of similar titles. As long as your collection is marked as for public view, anyone can see the titles.

Use of the service is free for a specified number of titles, with subscriptions for use above that. The number of free entries depends on the type of user - personal, non-profit organisations and commercial organisations.

The Bookshelf topic displays have been created using a LibraryThing 'widget' - a bit of HTML code that you can embed in your blog or an HTML page. You can customise the widget but are limited to some preset options. For example, you can specify that only titles with a specific tag are displayed, but the widget restricts you to either displaying 'random' or 'recent' additions within this subset. To see all the items you 'own' the user just needs to view your library; they can sort the list by tag if they wish.

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