Relieved at Last: Cataloguing with Librarything

Abstract

This paper argues that LibraryThing (LT), a cheap, user friendly, social networking cataloguing tool can also be used by big libraries to develop library collections’ catalogues as well as a platform for sharing bibliographic information with other libraries. LT has always been regarded as an open software that can be used by small libraries to organize and share information about their collections. In this time when libraries are facing acute financial challenges due to limited budgets, LT can bail out many libraries by offering them a quality web-based cataloguing service despite their limited budgets. The population of LT users continues to grow steadily, an indicator that the software is being adopted by many libraries now. LT falls under Web 2.0 application. Individuals and organizations use LT to catalogue their own collections because it is simple and straight forward. The advantage of web-based social networks applications for cataloguing like LT is that they are visible on the web, and that they use a format that is known and created by users themselves and that they also allow user input. By using Z39.50 data exchanging protocol, LT users can catalogue their books by themselves and import data from other catalogues available like the Library of Congress, the British Library, the NEBIS Catalog or Amazon etc.