Beyond Method #5

I've used both Shelfari and LibraryThing before. I love Shelfari. I use it all the time to keep track of books that I'm reading, books I want to read, and books I've read. One of my coworkers introduced it to me. We're all on it. I think I have 200+ books on my wish list (to be read). I think Shelfari is very easy to use. I love the widgets. My friends send me book recommendations. The only thing I have not done is tie it to my Amazon account. I don't think I'll ever do that. LibraryThing is very cool as a catalog. I was actually thinking of using it for one of my jobs. But, I think I'm going to go with an opensource catalog instead. I do like LibraryThing's statistics (very fun). It is very time consuming to add materials. I don't think I've used it since 2007.
I just joined GoodReads today. It's pretty neat. I like the quizzes. I was put off by some of the comments from this blog entry. Some of the people who left comments referred to the snark of people in the GoodRead community. I don't like that. I think that might scare patrons away from sharing their opinions.
I do LOVE using tagging in catalogs. I think tagging can be a very powerful tool to make finding things a little easier. For example, looking for a book on littering? The subject terms one might use: Refuse and refuse disposal or Conservation of natural resources -- Waste disposal. While, someone who tags the same book might use: trash, litter, pollution. Which do you think an 18 year old would use to find what they want? I think incorporating natural language is important. Please note, I'm not saying do away with subject terms - they are VERY useful...to those who understand them...but, sometimes they are a bit outdated...sometimes even offensive.
Do you think Goodreads and LibraryThing could be effective readers advisory tools?
I think that Goodreads or LibraryThing would be good to get recommendations. I think the reviews of books are helpful. I like LibraryThing's recommendations. I like that you can see why LT has given you the suggestion. I like that it also has member based recommendations. GoodReads, I have not tried the recommendations. You have to put in a request. I will have to play around on it a bit later. I just joined it today. I did not like What Should I Read Next. It listed a bunch of books that I did not like as recommendations for one that I did like.
I will have to try BookLamp. That seemed pretty cool. I like that you can find books based on tone, speed, length, etc. That's pretty rad.
Also, I will have to try Zotero. I keep hearing about it. I've been showing NoodleTools, EasyBib, Son of a Citation Machine, and Knight Cite. I will download Zotero today.