Thing 19

This is one of my favorite things. I first started using this in my cataloging class in the summer of 2006. One student became obsessed -- she went to ALA in Philly in January -- got lots of things at the exhibits and turned me onto Scaredy Squirrel by Melanie Watts -- very funny -- but I digress -- (no surprise!) I liked the idea of Library Thing when I was working at a small, private school with no automated library system. I like the idea of a place to put information about my things. I liked the tags -- checking out what others have 'tagged' items as. Oh! The Library Thing Success stories I know: my former cataloging class students. One student cataloged EVERYTHING she picked up at ALA so she would know where it was/is once she started her new job -- she put all her stuff on Library Thing. Once she started, she couldn't stop. She likes to catalog. Another student from the summer of 2007 wrote me yesterday saying she was putting her library's collection on Library Thing, since her library lacked automation software and she wanted to get started with getting the place put together. Way to go ladies.

I liked to add items -- searching Amazon was fun! I was disappointed to see that '0 members' had the items I added ... oh well. Think how excited someone will be when they see they are not alone! I was thrilled when a few people had selected the same books as me. Puff the Magic Dragon with 132 other users. Now, I feel popular! It is a lot of fun -- less cumbersome than at school. I can see how people start cataloging their lives in this thing! It's a good thing! I know when I first started reading about Library Thing -- you were limited to 200 items -- I like all the options -- the widget for 'to read more like this' ... and the idea of putting it onto my blog -- for you all to see what I'm reading. Here's the thing -- so much of what I read comes from the library -- I'm big on borrowing! My library thing looks like I'm not reading. But I am ... I feel like I've found a new friend. I like this thing!