1 AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE VIABILITY OF LIBRARYTHING FOR PROMOTIONAL AND USER ENGAGEMENT PURPOSES IN LIBRARIES A study submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Librarianship at THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD by ANNA RICHARDS September 2012
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AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE VIABILITY OF LIBRARYTHING FOR
PROMOTIONAL AND USER ENGAGEMENT PURPOSES IN LIBRARIES
A study submitted in partial fulfilment of
the requirements for the degree of Master
of Arts in Librarianship
at
THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD
by
ANNA RICHARDS
September 2012
2
Abstract
Background
Use of Web 2.0 tools by libraries has increased rapidly in recent years but at the same time there are
always new Web 2.0 websites being developed, with Phil Bradley listing over 100 on his website
(Bradley, 2010). LibraryThing is one such website. It allows users to catalogue their books using data
drawn from sources such as Amazon and the Library of Congress and has other facilities such as
tagging and interest groups that members can join. As this website is aimed at the same audience as a
library it is an ideal tool for libraries to consider using and this is why this study studied its value for
libraries.
Aim
This study aimed to evaluate whether LibraryThing is a valuable tool for libraries to use for
promotional and user engagement purposes. This was achieved through three research objectives:
Identify the ways in which LibraryThing could be used by libraries to promote services or engage
with users; Identify how libraries are currently using LibraryThing and the perceived usefulness of
the website to librarians who use it; Evaluate the overall value of LibraryThing for libraries.
Method
This study used a sequential mixed methods qual QUAN design. It consisted of 3 phases. Phase 1
was the identification of LibraryThing features that could be used by libraries for user engagement or
promotional purposes, which was achieved though the literature review and the researcher’s own
knowledge of LibraryThing. Phase 2 consisted of 3 semi-structured, exploratory interviews, which
informed the creation of a questionnaire for Phase 3. This final phase was the main method for data
collection.
Results
Several uses of LibraryThing for promotional and user engagement purposes were identified in Phase
1 of the study and the interviews in Phase 2 supplied several answers that were incorporated into the
questionnaire. There were 51 complete answers to the questionnaire. The main findings were that the
most popular reason libraries used LibraryThing was to promote the library or library stock, with
most respondents using it specifically to highlight collections of books. Monitoring of patron usage
was low and many respondents had not received feedback from users, though of those that had, 94%
(15/16) had received positive feedback. The most common advantages of using LibraryThing
identified were that it is easy to use, it is remotely accessible, and it has a low cost, whilst its main
drawbacks are the 200 book limit for free accounts and the fact that it is a third-party site. Finally,
although only 69% (35/51) of respondents thought that LibraryThing added enough value to spend
extra time on it, 90% (46/51) felt that LibraryThing was a useful tool for libraries.
Conclusion
LibraryThing has most value as a promotional tool for libraries, particularly for promoting specific
collections of books. It is recommended that libraries use it to promote whichever collection of books
would be of most value to their users and that they use the LibraryThing widget to incorporate their
account into their website or blog. It is also recommended that libraries actively monitor patron usage
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of their LibraryThing account or request feedback so that they can ensure that LibraryThing provides
a truly valuable service for their library.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all the people who gave their time to help me with my
interviews and who responded to my questionnaire. This literally could not have
been done without your help.
I would also like to thank my supervisor for her help throughout this whole process.
You have been a great support and one I could not have done without.
Finally, my thanks go to my mother whose love and encouragement have sustained
me throughout this Masters degree.
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Table of Contents
List of figures ................................................................................................................ 7
The following table covers the different ways that Web 2.0 tools are used as found
by studies of library use.
RSS feeds To provide news updates, either specific
to the library or relating to the parent
organisation.
(Harinarayana & Raju, 2010; Nesta and Mi,
2011; Tripathi and Kumar, 2010; Chua and
Goh, 2010; Mahmood and Richardson,
2011)
To alert users to library events, such as
workshops or exhibitions, and to new
stock.
(Harinarayana & Raju, 2010; Nesta and Mi,
2011; Tripathi and Kumar, 2010)
Blogging and microblogging To provide news or other information to
users e.g. alerting users to new stock or
database subscriptions, conveying
opening hours etc.
(Cragg, 2010; Harinarayana & Raju, 2010;;
Mahmood and Richardson, 2011; Nesta and
Mi, 2011; Pacheco, Kuhn & Grant, 2010;
Tripathi and Kumar, 2010)
As a user-engagement tool, discussing
topics of interest to users.
(Chua and Goh, 2010; Nesta and Mi, 2011)
To provide subject guides/ subject
specific information.
(Harinarayana & Raju, 2010; Pacheco, Kuhn
& Grant, 2010)
To provide reference services/course
help.
(Harinarayana & Raju, 2010; Nesta and Mi,
2011)
For publicity purposes
(Cragg, 2010)
Instant Messaging Services To provide reference or enquiry
services.
(Anttiroiko & Savolainen, 2011; Cragg,
2010; Harinarayana & Raju, 2010; Nesta and
Mi, 2011; Tripathi and Kumar, 2010; Chua
and Goh, 2010)
To provide homework guidance to
students.
(Chua and Goh, 2010)
Podcasts/vodcasts To provide instruction in using library
resources.
(Harinarayana & Raju, 2010; Tripathi and
Kumar, 2010)
To provide library news.
(Harinarayana & Raju, 2010)
Wikis To provide study resources/guides for
students.
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(Chua and Goh, 2010; Harinarayana & Raju,
2010; Tripathi and Kumar, 2010)
Used for internal purposes, e.g. to
distribute committee minutes.
(Cragg, 2010; Mahmood and Richardson,
2011)
To provide library news
(Nesta and Mi, 2011)
Social Networking Sites (e.g. Facebook) To communicate to users in a new space
outside the library.
(Chua and Goh, 2010)
For promotional purposes e.g. sharing
photos and news.
(Anttiroiko & Savolainen, 2011; Cragg,
2010; Harinarayana & Raju, 2010;
Mahmood and Richardson, 2011; Pacheco,
Kuhn & Grant, 2010)
To provide a new entry point to the
library’s OPAC.
(Harinarayana & Raju, 2010; Mahmood and
Richardson, 2011; Pacheco, Kuhn & Grant,
2010)
To provide entry points to other
catalogues, such as Copac and
WorldCat.
(Pacheco, Kuhn & Grant, 2010)
To engage with users in new ways e.g.
Rice University Library has a book club
on Goodreads.
(Harinarayana & Raju, 2010)
Video/audio sharing sites (e.g. Youtube) To provide tutorials or library news.
(Mahmood and Richardson, 2011)
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Appendix B
Consent form
Participant Consent Form
Title of Research Project: An investigation of the viability of LibraryThing for
promotional and user engagement purposes in libraries.
Name of Researcher: Anna Richards (Contact: 07552793040) Participant Identification Number for this project: Please initial box 1. I confirm that I have read and understand the information sheet dated 15/06/12
explaining the above research project and I have had the opportunity to ask questions about the project.
2. I understand that my participation is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw
at any time without giving any reason and without there being any negative consequences. In addition, should I not wish to answer any particular question or questions, I am free to decline.
3. I understand that my responses will be kept strictly confidential.
I give permission for members of the research team to have access to my anonymised responses. I understand that my name will not be linked with the research materials, and I will not be identified or identifiable in the report or reports that result from the research without prior consent.
4. I agree to take part in the above research project.
________________________ ________________ ____________________ Name of Participant Date Signature (or legal representative) _________________________ ________________ ____________________ Name of person taking consent Date Signature (if different from lead researcher) To be signed and dated in presence of the participant _________________________ ________________ ____________________
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Lead Researcher Date Signature To be signed and dated in presence of the participant Copies: Once this has been signed by all parties the participant should receive a copy of the signed and dated participant consent form, the letter/pre-written script/information sheet and any other written information provided to the participants. A copy of the signed and dated consent form should be placed in the project’s main record (e.g. a site file), which must be kept in a secure location.
Information sheet
Participant information sheet
Project title: An investigation of the viability of LibraryThing for promotional and user engagement purposes in libraries. Invitation paragraph You are being asked to participate in a research project for a Masters dissertation in Librarianship at the University of Sheffield. Please read the following information thoroughly before you decide whether or not to take part. I welcome any questions that you have about the project and your involvement in it. What is the project’s purpose? The aim of the study is to evaluate the usefulness of the LibraryThing website for promotional and user engagement purposes for libraries. As there are many web 2.0 applications which could be used by libraries it is necessary to evaluate the true usefulness of these applications before implementing them. Thus this project will study how LibraryThing could be used by libraries as well as how libraries are currently using LibraryThing and will use this data to evaluate its overall usefulness for libraries. The project will be running for approximately 3 months. It is hoped that by conducting this research best practice in regards to libraries using LibraryThing will be identified. Why have I been chosen? You have been chosen because you have a publicly viewable profile on LibraryThing which identifies you as a library. Do I have to take part? Participating in this project is voluntary and there will be no penalties if you decide not to take part. You are free to withdraw from the project at any time, without giving any reason. If you decide to participate you will be asked to sign a consent form or, in the case of the online questionnaire, tick a box signalling your consent. You are welcome to keep this information sheet to consult at a later date if you wish.
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What will happen to me if I take part? The questionnaire should take about 15 minutes to complete. You are being asked to complete a questionnaire on your use of LibraryThing and your thoughts about its usefulness to you as an organisation. It will include a mixture of closed and more open questions where you can expand on your thoughts about a particular topic. The interview should last no more than an hour. You will be asked about your use of LibraryThing and your thoughts about its usefulness to you as an organisation. The interview style will be semi-structured so that you can expand on any topic that you wish. It will be recorded and transcribed. What do I have to do? All I ask is that you provide honest and frank answers to the questions; you will not be judged on anything you say. What are the possible disadvantages and risks of taking part? There is little potential for physical and/or psychological harm to participants in this study. You are free to withdraw from the study or to decline to provide any information that you are uncomfortable providing. What are the possible benefits of taking part? Whilst there are no foreseen individual benefits to taking part in this study it is hoped that this study, by highlighting examples of best practice and evaluating the true value of LibraryThing for libraries, will provide guidance for libraries using or wishing to use LibraryThing. What happens if the research study stops earlier than expected? If the study stops earlier than expected any participants who have expressed an interest in the results of the study will be notified and all data collected will be managed according to the University of Sheffield’s ethics policy. What if something goes wrong? If you have any concerns about the project or about the investigator please contact Ms Barbara Sen on [email protected]. If you feel that your complaint has still not been handled to your satisfaction please contact the University’s Registrar and Secretary. Will my taking part in this project be kept confidential? Any information that you provide and that I collect will be kept strictly confidential. All data will be anonymised so you will not be identifiable in the report. What type of information will be sought from me and why is the collection of this information relevant for achieving the research project’s objectives? The information sought from you is about your (as a librarian) use of, experience with and opinion of using the LibraryThing website for promotional and user engagement purposes in libraries. Gaining information about how LibraryThing can and is being used by libraries, and the candid opinion of librarians who use it professionally, is necessary to thoroughly evaluate the service’s value to libraries. What will happen to the results of the research project? The results of the research will be written up as a Masters dissertation for the University of Sheffield. If you would like to know the results once the project has been completed please indicate this to the researcher.
Who is organising and funding the research? This research is organised by the Information School of the University of Sheffield. Who are ethically reviewed the project? This project has been ethically approved by the Information School of the University of Sheffield in line with University policy. Contact information If you would like to know any further information please contact Anna Richards on [email protected], 07552793040 or Ms Barbara Sen on [email protected]. Thank you for taking part in my research. (Dated 15/06/12)
A1. Title of research project: An investigation of the viability of the LibraryThing website for promotional and user engagement purposes in libraries.
A2. Name of Student: Anna Richards
Department: Information School Email: [email protected] Tel.: 07552793040
Name of Supervisor: Ms Barbara Sen A3. Proposed Project Duration:
Start date: 01/06/12 End date: 01/09/12
A4. Mark ‘X’ in one or more of the following boxes if your research:
involves adults with mental incapacity or mental illness
involves prisoners or others in custodial care (e.g. young offenders)
involves children or young people aged under 18 years
involves using samples of human biological material collected before for another purpose
involves taking new samples of human biological material (e.g. blood, tissue) *
involves testing a medicinal product *
involves taking new samples of human biological material (e.g. blood, tissue) *
involves additional radiation above that required for clinical care *
involves investigating a medical device *
* If you have marked boxes marked * then you also need to obtain confirmation
that appropriate University insurance is in place. To do this email [email protected] and request a copy of the ‘Clinical Trial Insurance Application Form’.
It is recommended that you familiarise yourself with the University’s Ethics Policy Governing Research Involving Human Participants, Personal Data and Human Tissue before completing the following questions. Please note that if you provide sufficient information about the research (what you intend to do, how it will be carried out and how you intend to minimise any risks), this will help the ethics reviewers to make an informed judgement quickly without having to ask for further details.
A5. Briefly summarise:
i. The project’s aims and objectives: (this must be in language comprehensible to a lay person)
The aim of this research is to evaluate the usefulness of the LibraryThing website for promotional and user engagement purposes for libraries. This aim will be achieved through the following objectives:
1. Identify the ways in which LibraryThing could be used by libraries to promote services and activities or engage with users.
2. Identify how libraries are currently using LibraryThing and the perceived usefulness of the website to librarians who use it.
3. Evaluate the overall value of LibraryThing for libraries.
ii. The project’s methodology:
(this must be in language comprehensible to a lay person)
Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with librarians working in 3 or 4 UK libraries which use LibraryThing. These will be exploratory interviews, examining the libraries’ use of LibraryThing and the librarians’ thoughts on its value to their organisation and in general. Data collected from these interviews will be used to inform a questionnaire which will be sent to libraries based in English-speaking countries which have LibraryThing accounts.
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A6. What is the potential for physical and/or psychological harm / distress to participants?
There is minimal potential for physical and/or psychological harm or distress to participants. All data will be anonymised and participants are free to withdraw from the study or to decline to provide information if they wish. A7. Does your research raise any issues of personal safety for you or
other researchers involved in the project? (especially if taking place outside working hours or off University premises)
If yes, explain how these issues will be managed. I will be interviewing people I do not know. However, I will contact and talk on the telephone with potential participants before interviewing them in person so I will have some prior knowledge of them before I go to talk to them. I will also conduct interviews during working hours and in a public space.
A8. How will the potential participants in the project be:
i. Identified? I am searching for libraries which have a profile on LibraryThing in order to identify potential participants.
i. Approached? I will obtain contact details from either the library’s LibraryThing profile or from the institution’s website. If there is an identifiable contact for one individual, for example, the librarian who updates the LibraryThing profile then I will contact them, either by e-mail or by telephone if an e-mail contact is not given. If I cannot find an individual I will contact the institution by a general contact and ask if there is an individual I should contact. A similar methodology will be taken for approaching librarians to interview. I will e-mail them and explain the project fully, asking for their participation.
ii. Recruited? When I e-mail institutions I will explain the project fully, attaching the information sheet which would be provided if I was meeting them in person. I will ask for their participation and if they are willing to participate I will send them the link to the online survey.
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If the potential interviewees agree to take part I will then organise a time when it is convenient for me to call them on the telephone to give them more in-depth information about the project if they wish it and to organise a time for the interview.
A9. Will informed consent be obtained from the participants?
YES X NO
If informed consent or consent is NOT to be obtained please explain why. Further guidance is at: www.sheffield.ac.uk/ris/other/gov-ethics/ethicspolicy/policy-notes/consent
A9.1. This question is only applicable if you are planning to obtain informed consent:
How do you plan to obtain informed consent? (i.e. the proposed process?):
I will explain the project in full to any participants, assuring them of their right to ask any questions about the project and to withdraw at any time. I will explain that their data will be anonymised. In the case of the questionnaire users will be asked to tick a box giving consent and a form will be provided for interviewees to sign. All participants will be given an information sheet which will cover the project and how their data will be used. It will also include my contact details and will remind them of their right to withdraw. A10. What measures will be put in place to ensure confidentiality of
personal data, where appropriate? All respondents will be given an identification number which will be used to anonymise their responses. Consent forms will be kept securely by the researcher as will the audio recordings of interviews. A11. Will financial / in kind payments (other than reasonable expenses and
compensation for time) be offered to participants? (Indicate how much and on what basis this has been decided)
A12. Will the research involve the production of recorded media such as
audio and/or video recordings?
YES X NO
A12.1. This question is only applicable if you are planning to produce recorded
media: How will you ensure that there is a clear agreement with participants as to how these recorded media may be stored, used and (if appropriate) destroyed? As part of the process of informed consent I will explain to any interviewees that I will be recording the interviews. By agreeing to participate they will be agreeing to allow me to record the interview. This data will be listened to and transcribed by myself. It will be stored on my own personal computer and destroyed once the project has been completed.
Guidance on a range of ethical issues, including safety and well-being, consent and anonymity, confidentiality and data protection’ are available at: www.sheffield.ac.uk/ris/other/gov-ethics/ethicspolicy/policy-notes
The above-named project will abide by the University’s ‘Good Research Practice Standards’: www.sheffield.ac.uk/ris/other/gov-ethics/good
The above-named project will abide by the University’s ‘Ethics Policy Governing Research Involving Human Participants, Personal Data and Human Tissue’: www.sheffield.ac.uk/ris/other/gov-ethics/ethicspolicy
Subject to the above-named project being ethically approved I undertake to adhere to any ethics conditions that may be set.
I will inform my Supervisor of significant changes to the above-named project that have ethical consequences.
I will inform my Supervisor if prospective participants make a complaint about the above-named project.
I understand that personal data about me as a researcher on the research ethics application form will be held by those involved in the ethics review process (e.g. my Supervisor and the Ethics Administrator) and that this will be managed according to Data Protection Act principles.
I understand that this project cannot be submitted for ethics approval in more than one department, and that if I wish to appeal against the decision made, this must be done through the original department.
The interviews were semi structured and therefore new questions were asked if they
arose within the interviews. Also not all the questions were asked in all of the
interviews as the interviewees told the interviewer that they could not answer these
questions, as in Interviews 1 and 2. However, below are the questions devised for
the interviews in light of the pilot interview.
1. Why did your library decide to use LibraryThing?
2. What factors influence your decision to start using a new social media tool?
3. How does your library use LibraryThing?
4. How often do you interact with or update your LibraryThing account?
5. Do you monitor patron usage of your library’s LibraryThing account?
6. If ‘Yes’, how?
7. Have you had any feedback from users about your library’s use of
LibraryThing?
8. If ‘Yes’, what kind of feedback have you had?
9. This is a list of possible uses of LibraryThing for promotional and user
engagement purposes. Do you think any of them would be useful for your
library?
10. Would you be willing to spend time using LibraryThing in the above ways or
do you think your library is well enough or better served by other social
media tools that you already use?
11. What do you think are the benefits of a library using LibraryThing?
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12. What do you think are the drawbacks of a library using LibraryThing?
13. Do you as an information professional think LibraryThing is a useful tool for
library services?
Interview transcripts
Interview 1 (Pilot)
Interviewer: Okay, so were you involved in the original setting up of the account,
the LibraryThing account?
Participant 26: No, that was [37] the guy that you first –
Interviewer -- Yeah, I just wanted to check because that’s, you know, one of the
things I’m going to ask but I just wanted to check.
26: -well, jointly contacted. Yep.
Interviewer: So how do you use LibraryThing then, in the library?
26: We currently have our own circulation system which includes a catalogue and
we’ve got that on a standalone machine in our library. But [37], being this…
technical kind-of…he has this technical role in our library, came across
LibraryThing and thought it might be useful—
Interviewer: Right.
26: -- for [institution’s name]--
Interviewer: Yeah.
26:. -- Mainly because it’s obviously accessible from your own PC. People don’t
have to come down to [institution’s name] library to check our standalone catalogue.
So he thought it’d be good for that. And it was free, as well. And it is…you
know…it does look good, it does look good, it’s easy to use. But I’m sure we’ll get
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in to that later. So that was the main reason I think, that we wanted everyone to be
able to access our catalogue –
Interviewer: So it’s just got all –
26: --or everything on our catalogue.
Interviewer: So its got all the books or whatever.
26: Yeah. So, so the way we work now…Obviously, we had to put on all our old
stock. But now, as a matter of course, whenever new stock comes in, I will
catalogue in on our Windchill catalogue, and then the next stage will be for me to
put it on LibraryThing. And again, that’s effortless, because you put your ISBN in
and it does it for you.
Interviewer: Okay, so obviously you’re quite a small library --
26: Yeah, very small, just [unintelligible].
Interviewer: ---so that kind-of works for you then? Because I know it’s sort of…it’s
free up to 200 books, isn’t it?
26: Yeah.
Interviewer: And then it kind-of costs…a very small amount but it does cost. So
how much time would you say… I mean you said it was very quick to do, how much
time would you say in a week you spend using LibraryThing.
26: Well it depends, we don’t really order that many books. It goes through phases,
really, we’ll order a big batch and then they’ll all come in at once. Weekly? Gosh,
not very oft—not very much at all. It’ll be minutes I suppose.
Interviewer: Yeah, so it’s very quick then. And do you monitor, sort of patron
usage of LibraryThing at all? Or do you have any idea..--- No?
26: No, is that possible?
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Interviewer. Well that’s one of the things I’m going to look at, just because sort
of…the idea is if this is a new tool that library’s could use when we’re all strapped
for time we need to know well, are people actually looking at accounts on
LibraryThing. So that’s why I’m asking do you monitor usage in any way.
26: No we don’t, not at the moment anyway.
Interviewer: So I mean, have you had any feedback? From any users, has anyone
said anything to you about it?
26: No.
Interviewer: No.
26: Not had any feedback good or bad. No, but we try, we do try and market it
[unintelligible]. Alongside our catalogue. If anything we probably push it more than
the actual catalogue.
Interviewer: Yeah. I mean, do you know…Does [institution’s name] monitor their
sort-of social media feedback or usage or anything in general?
26: No. No.
Interviewer: No.
26: We’ve got a blog. Is that-? Would that be-?
Interviewer: Yeah, yeah, anything like that, you know, do you-?
26: Well we…Our library has a blog that, you know, has followers and whatever but
that’s--
Interviewer: --But there’s no systematic --
26: No
Interviewer: --that you know of.
26: No.
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Interviewer: So I mean like would you…If someone was to say to you, well, you
know I’ve done some research and there’s all these different ways that a library
could use LibraryThing as a sort of more promotional or whatever. I mean is that
something that you think you’d be interested in? Or are you just interested in using
LibraryThing as a sort of online catalogue?
26: No, definitely be interested in it, if we could do more.
Interviewer: Yeah?
26: Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Interviewer: Because that’s what I’m sort of…seeing, whether, you know, it’s…So
I mean, what do you think, you’ve sort-of covered this already, but what do you
think are the main benefits of using LibraryThing? Would it just be the ease of use
or--?
26: Lots of things, yeah. Ease of use for me, definitely, all I need to do, like I said
before, put in the ISBN. I mean obviously not everything’s on there, we have a lot of
like internal publications, like [organisation’s name] publications, which won’t be
on there if you search by ISBN but the good thing is you can put things in manually.
And you can….you see I like silly things like you can upload your own covers and
stuff like that. So you can make it your own, really. So there is that. I like the idea
that anybody can access it as long as they’ve got the log in, people can access it
from their own PC wherever they are and they can check what we’ve got in stock.
Interviewer: Okay. And do you think there are any drawbacks to using
LibraryThing?
26: There probably are but…
Interviewer: But you haven’t --? I mean, if you haven’t come across any or you
don’t know of any…
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26: So you see I don’t know if you can run reports of it, like you know you were
talking about usage reports or…?
Interviewer: Well…when I sort-of….from my own sort-of use of LibraryThing and
from thinking about this and from the literature there’s things like, people can sign
up for RSS feeds and I think you can then track how many people sign up for RSS
feeds. So that could be a way of sort of marketing to users so you can see when
we’ve got new stock in. Other than that, I don’t know if there’s any sort-of reports as
such, like you would with a normal OPAC, I don’t know that there’s anything like
that but obviously there’s sort of ways to try and track general, you know, web
analytics for social media or whatever. So..
26: I think the other thing that I often think about is whether it could completely
replace our circulation system as such. I mean I don’t know if there’s a way
of…using it as a catalogue where people could take things out and we could use
LibraryThing as a way of recording that, as a way of recording what people use.
Interviewer: Yeah, is that something that you think you’d want to do or-?
26: Yeah because, well, we’re…we’re not in the process of changing our current
system, we would like to change our current system cause it’s quite antiquated and
doesn’t do what we want it to do. And it fails a lot, crashes a lot. And it’s got its own
little blips and quirks and stuff, which we don’t really, we don’t trust it.
Interviewer: So you’re completely separate then from sort of…
26: Yeah and that’s part of the problem. See we’d really now like to be part of the
rest of the university because it would make things…And they’ve just moved over
to a new catalogue haven’t they, [anonymised]. So yeah, I mean, that’s something
we’re sort of looking into, that’s an aside. And obviously we wouldn’t use
LibraryThing then, I don’t think. Really. Because we’re in that situation, that’s why
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LibraryThing so helpful for us. So the other side, like I just said, would be the acqu-
not the acquisitions the circulation side. Whether that would be a possibility with
LibraryThing. But I mean I’ve not had a look to see if that’s possible.
Interviewer: Not in the traditional sense. You would have to, there are certain sort
of private comment fields on a book, when you put a book and you know there’s all
the sort of, the usual sort of Library of Congress Subject Headings or whatever that
might come up, the measurements of the book or whatever. So there’s certain
private comment fields on that view where you could put in sort of user details to
say that it was brought out but there isn’t in the same sense, you couldn’t scan a
book and it would go in that way. Because obviously that’s not how it’s –
26: It’s not designed for that, yeah.
Interviewer: So you can but it’s manual--
26: --But it’s all manual. It would probably make life harder in a way.
Interviewer: If you’re current system has circulation ability and that doesn’t crash
too often.
26: Yeah it has the basics so we might as well stick with that I think.
Interviewer: So I suppose that’s one of the drawbacks of using for a sort of
catalogue.
26: Yeah.
Interviewer: When you’re putting in new books do you tag them then on
LibraryThing?
26: Yep, yeah
Interviewer: Do you use the same sort of tags or keywords or whatever you would
use in your normal catalogue? Do you just use the same ones or-?
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26: What I tend to do is I cheat. I’m a really lazy cataloguer. I mean we’ve got our
own cataloguing system which is health libraries, it’s not Dewey or anything else
but I go, for the tags themselves, I go to the British Library. Look up the book and
more often that not it’s on there and just use their keywords.
Interviewer: So you’re just using their keywords.
26: Yeah. And then it’s consistent.
Interviewer: Yeah, no, definitely. I used to check for sort of stuff like that on Copac
when I was doing cataloguing so I, you know…--
26: It’s not cheating, is it? I feel like it’s always cheating.
Interviewer: It’s not, it’s making use of the resources that are there so it’s fine.
26: And I trust the British Library, they should know what they’re doing. I think it
does make you a lazy cataloguer though [unintelligible] –
Interviewer: Because you’re not thinking about it maybe?
26: Absolutely yeah, I should know what, you know, WX152 is.
Interviewer: I suppose but yeah…
26: That, you know, that’s the internet for you it is making things easier and us
lazier in a way.
Interviewer: Yeah, I guess. I mean, do you make use at all of the other tags that
might already be on LibraryThing at all? Do you ever look at them?
26: I don’t actually, that’s something I’ve not done. I know that’s like common
sense.
Interviewer: Oh no, cause I think the sort of layout of LibraryThing you don’t see
other people’s tags until it’s already on there so it’s a bit of a faff but it’s you know a
different maybe viewpoint. I mean do you find it’s useful for academic books
because obviously the majority are sort of public library fiction books on
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LibraryThing. Do you think that you know, when you put in the ISBN it always
brings up the right --copy and right edition and everything --?
26: --I don’t notice any kind of – yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah. Like I say the only
things I don’t find are things like grey literature, things that are our own publications.
Interviewer: And do you just use like Amazon data or do you…because I know
when you are inputting the book you can sort of choose like --
26: -- Different…
Interviewer: --their Overcat, which is lots of different libraries’ data going in, you
can use Amazon, you can use Library of Congress.
26: Well what tends to happen is I’ll search by ISBN and it will come up…I don’t
know if you know which page I’m talking about, you’ll search by ISBN, it’ll come
up with a list on the right hand side and I…or the list of the right hand side tends to
be your books and I think it just adds it to the top of the list and then it’ll just say
‘edit’ and I just click edit and I just accept whatever it gives me. And I do make sure
that it is the right edition and the right cover, obviously.
Interviewer: But you’re finding the data there.
26: Yeah, more often than not, yeah.
Interviewer: ‘Cause that’s where sort of one thing that has….not a criticism as such
but a concern that’s come up about sort of using the LibraryThing for Libraries
overlay, so you can make it sort of into a Web 2.0 style thing with one of their
applications and someone was saying well, it wouldn’t really work for academic
libraries because LibraryThing is fiction orientated. So that’s why I was asking. So
would you recommend using LibraryThing as an information professional or do you
think it’s quite a sort of niche thing, it would only be useful for small libraries?
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26: Yeah I think, it’s hard to tell really because you know I work in a small library
and I haven’t worked in a big library for years but yes I think it works very well for
us because of our size. If we got any bigger I’m not sure what we’d do really.
Interviewer: Would you be still willing to use it, not so much say for your whole
catalogue, but say, some libraries I’ve looked at have just used it for new stock or,
this doesn’t apply so much for academic libraries but people have said you could use
it for readers’ advisory kind of stuff. Would you still be willing to put in effort of
having a LibraryThing account and uploading things if you were just using it for –
26: Yeah I think I would. I think I would because it’s so easy to use.
Interviewer: Yeah so it doesn’t take that much –
26: No.
Interviewer: Okay so that’s all my questions…
[The recorder was kept running whilst Respondent 26 and the interviewer talked
informally at the end of the interview but nothing of relevance to the study was said.]
Interview 2
37: My experience is very different to [26]…
Interviewer: Yeah, yeah. Well I mean, I’ve got some questions but if for any of
them you don’t feel that you can really answer that in any way –
37: Okay I’ll do my best.
Interviewer -- Just say, ‘Oh I don’t really have that much experience or I can’t
really answer that. If you could just say your name and say that you agree for the
interview to be recorded and for the data to be used in my dissertation that would be
good.
37: Yeah so we’re starting?
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Interviewer: Yeah
37: So my name’s [37] and I agree to participate in this study as part of a
dissertation.
Interviewer: Thank you. So why did you decide to use LibraryThing for your
library?
37: I’d seen LibraryThing floating around for a while. The thing we’ve got here at
[institution’s name] is that we’re quite a small library, we’re a satellite library of the
university and in effect we’re totally independent, not governed or have anything to
do with them as such. So we are not part of the kind of university catalogue system.
And the reason for that is that we don’t want our stock being loaned by people
outside of [institution’s name] it’s a very private stock to us, to our students and our
staff. So we’re an academic library. So we needed something where we could put
our books on. At the moment we have a catalogue which is basically Access based.
It can be web hosted but it’s just an Access database, a very smart Access, with a
front end. So it’s not web based. So we needed something that gave us a web based
easy option. And I’d come across LibraryThing and because of my role which is
very much kind of looking at innovation and horizon scanning and new technologies
and Web 2.0 and everything like that, this came on my radar. So it became
something that had taken my attention. I looked at it and thought, that’ll do the job
we want.
Interviewer: So, what factors influence your decision to start using a new social
media tool?
37: Well one that it was free. I think we did pay that initial, I can’t remember what it
was, something like $25 for unlimited, so we paid that which will be a couple of
years ago now. So one that it was very, very cheap. It was very, it’d got, it was very
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user-friendly. It was a network already out there. And I always liked the kind of the
Amazon model, the idea of tagging things, and the serendipity of moving around
catalogues, as opposed to just doing a kind of, a traditional search that just brung up,
brought up a linear collection. So I liked that it incorporated some of the Web 2.0
kind of ideas that I was already very aware of, so that was kind of really the driving
force. And also I thought it was, because I’m a member of a team of information
specialists of which there are around 8 of us, we’re all qualified in either
Librarianship or Information Science, but I’m the most techie of the group and I
wanted something that I thought my colleagues could easily use and that students
could easily use so we could get students to catalogue things and we knew there
wouldn’t be any particular problems because systems we’d used in the past that
were web based were never so straight forward. They had idiosyncrasies etc.
Interviewer: Okay. So yeah these following questions are sort of more to do with
your views on LibraryThing and how it could be used, so like I said if you can’t, if
you don’t feel that you’ve got enough experience with it just say so. So this is a list
of possible uses if LibraryThing for promotional and user engagement purposes
that…these are just from the literature that I’ve read and sort of from my looking at
LibraryThing. Do any of these…do you think any of them would be useful for your
library? Obviously, they’re… a lot of them are public library based which is sort of
reflected from what LibraryThing is originally for but you know do you think any of
them would be useful?
37: No definitely, there’s things there that I can see, to highlight a specific
collections of books relating to an event or new stock. We use it…the great thing
about LibraryThing is that you have widgets with it so we’ve been able to kind of
take things out and put them in our web page, which isn’t the…The University of
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[anonymised] webpages are not the most flexible of content management systems
but we’re still able to embed HTML in there and also we’d be able to kind of take
our little widgets that might show 9 of the most recent books on our blog. So, we do
like that, as we’ve done that to highlight books on a blog. We’ve not used it to create
kind of book lists as such or anything like that but one thing I’ve certainly thought
about LibraryThing, the first time I saw it and looked at it [in?] experience of my
own, kind of, local kind of council authority, kind of public library, is that, you
know, that they should all be using this. It’s kind of, I look at their kind of…what
they’ve got and that, I feel like nipping in and having a word with them. So can
certainly, those top two things are very good. The reviews, I never really saw that
there was a lot of reviews on LibraryThing, I don’t know if that’s changed much in
the last year, I imagine like Amazon it kind of moves more with kind of more users
but….but certainly the couple of first things to highlight books in different places.
It’s great that it allows you to take your collection and stick in another presence. But
I’m not sure about some of the others…
Interviewer: Yeah the Readers’ Advisory and stuff like that is obviously sort of
more public library but I am hoping that obviously with my research I’ll be able to
expand it a little. And would you be willing to sort of expend time on using
LibraryThing for these or do you think that you’re use of other social media serves
you well enough or serves you better for any of..?
37: I think the problem is that because we are a very small library we’re limited in
resources and we only get a finite amount of feedback or usage with things so for
me…once I’d kind of got LibraryThing up and running, that was it. Bar me looking
at widgets and where I can kind of stick it in other places or making kind of tag
clouds or nice little pictorial kind of widgets of books really I’ve kind of left it with
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the person, [26], to kind of do as she sees fit. But I imagine if something, I think the
thing is with books it’s something people are passionate about and I think
LibraryThing have kind of detected that and I can see that they will expand on this
and I think if something comes on my radar that they do that’ll excite me I would
definitely investigate because I think it’s a very, very good tool.
Interviewer: So I was going to ask, you know, what you think the benefits are of
using LibraryThing and what you think the drawbacks are but I guess if you don’t…
haven’t used it recently…?
37: No, I mean, the definite benefit is the price. It’s fantastic what it does, it looks
nice, it’s…I think it’s a good tool, is something that someone can get into and
understand fairly easily and LibraryThing you can do that. You can some feel of
how it works. I think anyone who has ever used Amazon or anything like that, you
know, you’re going to be okay, so that’s the…The drawback with any of these tools,
it’s always the same, is that it, it’s a third-party site, you don’t know if it’s going to
go down, you don’t know if it’s susceptible to passwords getting hacked and stuff
like that. I’d imagine that those that go out hacking are more interested in LinkedIn
and Facebook than they are LibraryThing, so I think it probably is fairly safe in the
big scheme of things. It would be, I think it would be great to see more of like the
networks and I’d imagine that will come with time, that libraries become more
networks and I’d imagine that that is happening already, as I say I’ve not seen that
but…I don’t see a lot of drawbacks in it. It’s….you know, what’s not to like really?
Interviewer: Well I agree with you! So would you as an information professional
sort of advocate LibraryThing as useful tool for library services?
37: Definitely. And I think even for us at the University of [anonymised] who have
just got our own new library catalogue system which you know kind of sits within
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the traditional kind of vendor, off-the-shelf software kind of packages that we, that
quite often organisations, large organisations do, I’m thinking particularly public
libraries that for a little bit of extra time and effort you’ve got a wonderful way of
selling your services and your books and…I would say there’s absolutely no excuse
not to use it. Even if you’re just putting on one hundred of your best books I think
that in itself would take somebody just a few hours. So it’s…there’s…I don’t see
any reason not to use it. Regardless of what you’ve already got.
Interviewer: Well thank you, that’s everything. Very short and sweet. So thank you
for being willing to help me out.
Interview 3
Interviewer: If you could both just say your names and say that you understand that
it will be recorded and what the interviews are for and that you give your consent.
44: [Participant’s Name] I understand that this interview is being recorded for a
library Masters on LibraryThing and I give my consent for the interview.
75: I’m [Participant’s name]. I understand that the interview’s being recorded and I
understand what the questions are for and I give my consent.
Interviewer: Thank you. Why did your library decide to use LibraryThing?
75: We decided to use LibraryThing initially because we were changing our Library
Management System and we weren’t going to be able to get hotlists of most used
materials and also we weren’t going to be able to tell people our recent acquisitions
[unintelligible]. So in order to put together a collection that was, that could be seen
by our readers of recently acquired material we decided to try out LibraryThing.
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Interviewer: Okay. And what factors influence your decision to start using a new
social media tool? Is there anything in particular that makes you think that one social
media tool is better than another?
75: I think I had used LibraryThing before, we knew that other libraries were using
LibraryThing and we knew that they were using it for this kind of purpose. We also
knew that we could then link it in to other social media sites if we wanted to. But it
was really a test run to see if it would work for our purposes.
Interviewer: Right, that’s okay. [To 44] Just chip in whenever you want.
44: I’m sure [75] will kick me at some point.
75: I’ve never kicked a colleague.
Interviewer: It’s on record. How does your library use the LibraryThing website
then? You’ve sort of, you’ve already said it’s…
44: Well, all of the new books that come in, when they’re processed to go on the
shelf, one of the last things that happens before they go on the shelf, is that I add
them to LibraryThing. So it is really just a list of our new acquisitions although we
are looking in to tagging things by you know period and the term when they came in
just to make it easier for students to use.
75: Yeah yeah I would say you’ve caught us just at a point where we’re starting to
look at doing a bit more with it. We’ve seen what, in particular, History have been
using it…So we’re as up until now we’ve just been putting things straight on.
44: And we just upgraded the account as well so it was just 200 hundred books up
until like 2 weeks ago.
Interviewer: Right, so you can put more on there…
44: So it’s in transition yeah.
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Interviewer: So when you say, I mean you say it’s for new acquisitions, do you
have them on, do you delete them on a rolling basis after so many months or…?
75: We had been because of the…
44: Yeah, because every time I wanted to add one I had to delete one because I was
at the max so now I’m just adding them but we’ll, yeah we will look into how long
they’ll stay there until they get taken back off again. But we haven’t done that yet.
75: Yeah, I think we’re, yeah, we…once we’ve started using it in this new way of
tagging by subject matter as well as by acquisition date I think that’s when
we’ll…we don’t want it to…It’s not going to replace our catalogue so I think we
still do want it to be recent acquisitions but whether it’s the last year’s worth or
something like that…
Interviewer: And when you say you’re going to tag them, are you going to be
tagging them with sort of….I’m trying to think, what’s the word…like abbreviated
Library of Congress Subject headings or your own?
75: We’re just in the process of deciding this and I think what we want to try
initially, and it is obviously quite easy to edit, that’s another useful thing on
LibraryThing, is quite broad subjects. So things like what century we’re looking at
and if it’s language, we just had a language paper, so English Language or just the
plain language. So it’s going to be very…not too many different subjects per book
as well but looking at sort of overriding concerns so is it poetry, prose, drama. But
again I think we’ll come back and look at it and also see how it’s being used by, if
we can, I’m not sure with these things. See what kind of feedback we can get. But
we don’t want it to be too much work as well. Obviously the useful thing is, as the
next, or our next year’s trainee, we have a new trainee every year, as they’re putting
the books onto LibraryThing with the book in front of them at the point that they’re
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processing it, that again makes it easy to see what the books about and just do a little
bit extra. But we are also thinking that we will keep using it just to sort of say this is
what we’ve acquired this term. And then people can sort it…
Interviewer: So how often do you interact with or update LibraryThing, is it like
once a month, twice a month, once a week?
44: It really varies by just when new books come in, so whenever new books come
in and I process them that’s when I’ll go onto LibraryThing. That might be changing
now as well. If we [unintelligible] more interactive or whatever but yeah…I don’t go
on it unless I’m adding something to it.
Interviewer: So you get books through in sort of bulk and then [unintelligible] –
44: -- Yeah.
Interviewer: And I mean you mentioned wanting feedback or monitoring how it’s
used, do you monitor patron usage of it right now in any way?
75: Only incidentally, we look at sort of connections and people adding us to lists
and things like that but we haven’t been very systematic about it but I suppose
because we haven’t been hugely promoting it yet apart from saying this is where you
can see…And I think that a lot of our u-, our readers in our library only go on to it to
have a quick look at what books we have, I don’t think many of them are
LibraryThing users themselves who are looking at it…but it’s something we’re
looking at…
[At this point someone entered the room]
75: We’re being recorded that’s why…
Interviewer: Slight interruption.
75: To be honest I don’t know quite what we could monitor on LibraryThing, it’s
something that is on our summer time list of things to do, I’m looking at all of the
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Web 2.0 [institution’s name] presences and looking at how we can tie them together.
So you asked a bit about tags. We’re looking at maybe trying to rationalise the tags
we use on LibraryThing to Delicious so looking at trying to simplify things and have
sort of really user friendly groupings that people can use. I don’t know if you know
anything more about LibraryThing, keeping up to date with it and what people are
doing. I know I get emails through because I get the enquiries email at the
[institution] but we don’t get a huge amount of interaction, apart from from other
libraries.
44: Yeah we’ve been added to you know, we just get a message saying so and so has
added you to ‘Interesting Library’ list, so we’ve gotten quite a lot…
Interviewer: Yeah you’ll have got me.
44: I didn’t know that so obviously I don’t [unintelligible] through all that much.
Interviewer: No because my username’s nothing to do with my actual name so…
75: Very [unintelligible]. I’m looking at it and I think we have, I can see [another
related institution] and that kind of thing, there’s quite a few…I think, I think often
as well the other libraries in [the city] and in other places try to, try to sort of join
together ‘cause it’s useful to see what other libraries are doing, that kind of thing and
I think it’s a bit like Twitter I think, a lot of the attention you get is from other
libraries and other librarians.
Interviewer: So I mean have you had any feedback from users?
75: I would say no.
44: Yeah, no. Not that I know of anyway.
75: I am aware from having spoken… I go to our JCC so that’s where we have
interaction with our undergraduates and the faculty and I know that they are aware
of it being there and I know that some of them have looked at it to see what books
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we have but I haven’t had any kind of feedback as to whether they like LibraryThing
or if it …all I know is that they like to see what books we get in and it’s good that
there is something that we have. So I think that they would be happy if that were
anywhere I don’t think it’s anything inherent in LibraryThing they particularly like
or –
Interviewer: But it’s a service that they appreciate.
75: Yeah, it’s the service that they’re after and I think actually having the book
covers on there as well is quite nice but yeah I think it’s the service as opposed to
the system.
Interviewer: Yeah. I mean you mentioned getting enquiries through. Is that through
LibraryThing or…?
75: No that…I mean our email address is on there and I imagine that anyone who
wanted to would just email. I’ve had a couple…I mean it’s mostly just people
marking us as interesting. But no I don’t think we’ve had [unintelligible]…[Again
someone entered the room] That’s the point in which our librarian tries to knock
over our water cooler. That was quite entertaining.
Interviewer: So right. So we’ve moved on from sort of what, how you use it to sort
of possible uses and your thoughts on LibraryThing just generally. So I’m looking
specifically at how it can be used for promotional or user engagement purposes and
this is a list I’ve got. Obviously you’ve got sort of, you’re already using it for the
first one and a lot of them are more public library related because of the nature of
LibraryThing and how it’s developed or whatever but would any, do any of them, do
you think that could actually be a useful way to use LibraryThing as a library or not?
75: I think that some of those are actually what we’re, we’re looking to do. So say
the genre-specific book lists I think that’s what’s going to be useful, it’s what’s
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useful as well about Delicious when you’re looking at websites. And [44] and my
colleague [anonymised] are working on putting our ebooks on there as well.
44: Yeah well I actually made those…as you’ll see [showed interviewer something
on computer] this is who we’re trying to emulate. This is the History faculty
library’s website so they have LibraryThing widgets of all their new ebooks so that
is what we’re going to put on our website. So I think that’s number two.
75: Yeah we are looking at using to highlight our collection of ebooks. And we are
going to put in on to the website. It’s already on Facebook but I’m looking at how
we can maybe make it a little more prominent on there. I think for us we’re going to
be having a push of marketing ebooks so it’s going to be a useful…[at this point a
crash came from outside the building which disturbed the interview].
44: It came at a really silent time.
75: We’re not the quietest of libraries just now. I really hope that wasn’t someone
collapsing one of the scaffolding. But yeah because we are already looking to
promote ebooks we can see, we’re looking at this as quite a useful way, now that
we’ve got the bigger account of pushing it because of the widgets.
Interviewer: Yeah so you’re already doing point number 1 but yeah to use the
widgets and the genre specific book lists you think that’s when it would be most
useful. And obviously you’ve kind of already answered in that you’re saying that
this is what you’re thinking of doing but are you willing to sort of spend the extra
time in using LibraryThing in that way or do you think that say Delicious or other
social media tools serve you well enough?
75: I think it’s one of these things where I mean I’m, I’ll ask [44] to answer this as
well but it, there’s, you have to put the time in for the set up but actually when it
comes to maintaining it… I don’t think we’re planning on putting a whole lot
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through into it, we’re certainly not planning on doing kind of book club type things
on there just because it’s not really, yeah it’s not really what we would want, what
would be particularly useful in our library itself. But I think the actual ongoing is
quite straightforward.
44: Yeah I mean to do the tags obviously I’ve got to go back through the books that
are already there but as [75] said before when you’re processing them and it’s just
right in front of you it’s just an extra click and it’s, they’re not going to be massively
detailed so…
75: We’ve put together a list so that we make sure that we stick to the same tags
across them all and then obviously once you’ve written a tag in once it remembers
that you’ve done it so I think it’s going to get quicker and quicker as we add them on.
Interviewer: Yeah. So what do you think are the benefits of using LibraryThing
then? A sort of list of benefits.
44: It looks quite nice. Well I just mean that it would be attractive for users rather
than you know like Delicious is a list of links and that kind of thing I think people
would be more attracted by book jacket covers. And it’s, yeah if we promote it a bit
more it’s useful to show people what ebooks we have as they come in because there
isn’t any other way of displaying them really.
75: Yeah I would say it’s user friendly on both sides. It’s quite easy for us to use to
put stuff on there and it’s also quite easy to kind of click through for people using it
the other way. I know when I use it for myself then I find it quite straightforward but
maybe as a librarian it’s easier but I think it doesn’t take too much effort for quite
attractive and useful output. And it’s definitely something we can use.
Interviewer: Yeah. So what do you think are the drawbacks of LibraryThing? Are
there any?
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44: Well two weeks ago I would have said the drawback was having to delete every
book as you put one on but we signed up to the lifetime package thing so that’s gone.
75: I think it’s always worrying that, we had this issue with Delicious as well but
then it was handed over to new management, there’s always the worry that you’re
putting information into a site that you don’t own and therefore if LibraryThing
were to close down all that effort would disappear. I can’t think of anything else of
the top of my head that’s a particular drawback it’s quite easy. I think that’s quite a
big, a big potential drawback.
Interviewer: Yeah, yeah. So final question, do you as information professionals
think that LibraryThing is a useful tool for libraries?
44: Very quasi…quasi information professional. Yes, well I think if we put it to the
use that we need, it’s filling a gap for us so…
75: Yeah. I mean we used to have you know an integrated system that did this but it
wasn’t so pretty and it just gave you a big long list of titles so actually there is an
added value to using LibraryThing and having looked at what other libraries can do I
think you know the way that you can, you can use that information across different
sites and that you can kind of group things how you want to I think there’s a definite
benefit to the information that we had already being manipulable by the user as well
as by us, as long as we put enough information in there and [unintelligible] start
using it so [unintelligible]…that’s a long, the long yes.
Interviewer: Long yeses are fine. Okay well that’s all my questions is there any, do
either of you have any questions you wanna ask?
44: --No
Interviewer: -- Feel free to say no.
75: No
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Interviewer: No? Okay.
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Appendix D
Questionnaire
The questionnaire created through Google Forms could not be inserted into this
document but it has been transcribed below.
A questionnaire on library use of the LibraryThing website
Please answer the questions honestly and to the best of your ability. All answers are
anonymous.
By checking the box below you are giving your consent to participate in this study
and for your data to be recorded and used in the report.
□ I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and
used.
1. Which type of library do you work for?
University / academic library
Public library
School library
Other
2. Thinking generally, what factors influence your decision to start using a new
social media tool?
Choose any options that apply. 'If 'Other' please expand on your answer.
114
The tool is free or very cheap
The tool is easy to use
The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join
The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging
Other libraries are using the tool
It can be linked with other social media tools
3. Why did your library decide to use LibraryThing?
Choose any options that apply. If 'Other' please expand on your answer.
The library needed an online (web accessible) catalogue
The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions
To promote the library / promote items held by the library
For user engagement purposes e.g. for use with book clubs
Don't know
Other
4. How does your library use the LibraryThing website?
Choose any options that apply. If 'Other' please expand on your answer.
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or
new stock
To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget
To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book lists for users such as all the
crime novels held by the library
To create a book club selection list, using LibraryThing recommendations or
Common Knowledge data
115
To help with readers' advisory work
To provide reviews of books held by the library
To promote library events through LibraryThing Local
To provide an online discussion group for book clubs
To provide an online catalogue for users
Other
5. How often do you interact with or update your LibraryThing account?
Choose an approximate length of time if the exact amount is not known.
Less than once a month
Once a month
Twice a month
Once a week
More than once a week
6. Do you monitor patron usage of your library’s LibraryThing account?
Yes
No
Don’t know
6b. If you answered 'Yes' to the above question, how do you do this?
116
7. Have you had any feedback from users about your library’s use of LibraryThing?
Yes
No
Don’t know
7b. If you answered 'Yes’ to the above question, what kind of feedback have you
received?
if you would like you can expand on your answer using the 'Other' option.
Positive
Negative
Other
8. This is a list of possible uses of LibraryThing for promotional/user engagement
purposes. Do you think any of them would be useful for your library? Ignore any
that your library already uses.
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock
To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget
To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book lists for users such as all the
crime novels held by the library
To create a book club selection list, using LibraryThing recommendations or
Common Knowledge data
To help with readers' advisory work
To provide reviews of books held by the library
To promote library events through LibraryThing Local
To provide an online discussion group for book clubs
117
9. Do you think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time
on it?
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra
time on it
No I don’t think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending
extra time on it
Undecided
10. What do you think are the benefits of using LibraryThing?
Choose any options that apply. If 'Other' please expand on your answer.
Ease of use
The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers
It's accessible remotely by anyone
It looks attractive
It's free or very cheap
Other
11. What do you think are the drawbacks of using LibraryThing?
Choose any options that apply. If 'Other' please expand on your answer.
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked
It's low on social networking aspects
It's low on social networking aspects
Other
118
12. Do you as an information professional think LibraryThing is a useful tool for
library services?
Yes it is a useful tool
No it isn't a useful tool
Undecided
If there is anything you would like to add please do so here.
Questionnaire results
Note that the answers to Question 2 are shown before those of Question 1. This was
done automatically by the Google Forms program.
Timestamp
By checking the box below you are giving your consent to participate in this study and for your data to be recorded and used in the report.
2. Thinking generally, what factors influence your decision to start using a new social media tool?
1. Which type of library do you work for?
3. Why did your library decide to use LibraryThing?
4. How does your library use the LibraryThing website?
5. How often do you interact with or update your LibraryThing account?
6. Do you monitor patron usage of your library’s LibraryThing account?
6b. If you answered 'Yes' to the above question, how do you do this?
7. Have you had any feedback from users about your library’s use of LibraryThing?
7b. If you answered 'Yes’ to the above question, what kind of feedback have you received?
8. This is a list of possible uses of LibraryThing for promotional/user engagement purposes. Do you think any of them would be useful for your library? Ignore any that your library already uses.
9. Do you think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it?
10. What do you think are the benefits of using LibraryThing?
11. What do you think are the drawbacks of using LibraryThing?
12. Do you as an information professional think LibraryThing is a useful tool for library services?
If there is anything you would like to add please do so here.
7/9/2012 11:31:34
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, It can be linked with other social media tools
NHS Health library
We needed an immediate web-accessible catalogue, as we weren't going in with a region-wide one
To provide an online catalogue for users
Less than once a month
No No To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget
Undecided It's accessible remotely by anyone, It's free or very cheap
Transferring data via NHS is cumbersome, slow, & not always entire..
Yes it is a useful tool
APART from the tiresomeness of transferring data, I think it's a terrific site - although, using it for work purposes, find the US-orientation slightly irritating. I wish more in the NHS would consider it: it would save everyone a fortune.
7/9/2012 12:10:59
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, Other libraries are using the tool, It can be linked with other social media tools
Oxford College library (so academic library)
The library nneeded a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book lists for users such as all the crime novels held by the library
Once a week No No To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It's free or very cheap
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked, It's low on social networking aspects, It's only free up to 200 books
Yes it is a useful tool
7/12/2012 16:29:54 I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, Other libraries are using
community college The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To provide reviews of books held by the library
Once a month No No Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked
Yes it is a useful tool
119
the tool
7/12/2012 17:42:52
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, Patron outreach
Public library The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To create a book club selection list, using LibraryThing recommendations or Common Knowledge data, To provide an online catalogue for users
Once a week No Yes Positive To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library, To help with readers' advisory work, To promote library events through LibraryThing Local
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
It's accessible remotely by anyone, It's free or very cheap
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked
Yes it is a useful tool
Our patrons like having an up-to-date list of our new acquisitions.
7/12/2012 17:53:18
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is easy to use
Public library The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock
Once a week No Yes Positive To provide reviews of books held by the library
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked
Yes it is a useful tool
We've been using the LibraryThing widget on our website since 2006.
7/12/2012 19:00:17
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use
Public library The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book lists for users such as all the crime novels held by the library, To help with readers' advisory work
Once a month No Yes Positive Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
It's only free up to 200 books
Yes it is a useful tool
7/12/2012 19:49:10
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use
Public library promote new acquisitions at the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock
Once a week No No To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library, To create a book club selection list, using LibraryThing recommendations or Common Knowledge data, To help with readers' advisory work
Undecided Ease of use, It's free or very cheap
It's only free up to 200 books
Yes it is a useful tool
12/2012 22:10:00
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging
Public library The library needed an online (web accessible) catalogue, The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, to showcase new titles
Less than once a month
No No To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library, To help with readers' advisory work, To promote library events through LibraryThing Local
Undecided Ease of use, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It's free or very cheap
time expended entering the books
Yes it is a useful tool
Our use of our LT account has been low lately, mainly because the person responsible for entering the books (me) is also the library's sole cataloger and does not have enough time to both catalog the new books and enter them into LT. This is not because LT is felt to be a poor time investment but because there just aren't enough hours in the day to put into LT.
7/12/2012 22:15:59
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging
Public library The library needed an online (web accessible) catalogue, To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To provide reviews of books held by the library, To provide an online catalogue for users
Less than once a month
No No To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To provide reviews of books held by the library
Undecided It's free or very cheap
It's low on social networking aspects
Undecided
7/13/2012 21:01:31
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging
nonprofit organization
The library needed an online (web accessible) catalogue, To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To provide an online catalogue for users
Twice a month No No To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To provide reviews of books held by the library
Undecided Ease of use, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It's free or very cheap
It's low on social networking aspects, not widely used among other libraries
Yes it is a useful tool
Our library is a very unique, small collection, that is not incorporated under any larger accredited organization, and we have no budget / no professional librarian on staff. LibraryThing is the only site that option that bridges the gap between a shelf of books and a professional collection through LC cataloging. Also, we have no budget for the collection, so this is our only option.
7/14/2012 15:18:17
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging
University / academic library
The library needed an online (web accessible) catalogue, The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To provide users with another way to access items in our collection without having to use our catalog which is not searchable via Google (or the internet)
More than once a week
Yes Regrettably, we have very little patron usage.
Yes Positive To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock
No I don't think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked, It's low on social networking aspects, It's only free up to 200 books
No it isn't a useful tool
As an academic library in a non-profit museum/research setting, we had hoped that LibraryThing might provide potential patrons with more exposure to our collections. We started using LibraryThing about 5 years ago (at my suggestion). I was excited about it as a tool to help us provide greater access to our collections. I was also happy that our library was eager to engage in this new program, and we have continued adding new acquisitions to it. However, I fear we may be overstretching our staff to accommodate adding to LT, and not getting a positive
7/15/2012 16:09:09
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, Other libraries are using the tool, It can be linked with other social media tools
University / academic library
For user engagement purposes e.g. for use with book clubs, Useful as can copy and paste pictures of the books into students' emails when I'm letting them know a book is ready for them to pick up, visual display adds interest.
To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, Snapshot of book to include in emails telling students when their book reservation is r eady to pick up
More than once a week
No Yes Positive Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
It's low on social networking aspects
Yes it is a useful tool
120
7/15/2012 20:38:13
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, It can be linked with other social media tools, Easy to use ready made widgets, can put html code into my library website
University / academic library
The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget
Once a week No No To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library, To help with readers' advisory work, To provide reviews of books held by the library
No I don't think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked, It's only free up to 200 books
Yes it is a useful tool
LibraryThing is particular popular with the libraries of the institution that I work in because we switched to a new LMS in July 2011 and we cannot generate acquisitions lists from it yet without significant assistance from the tech services team (it's a big institution with multiple libraries so this is not a realistic option). LibraryThing has proved increasingly popular because of this as an alternative.
7/16/2012 3:16:56
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use
Public library To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To provide reviews of books held by the library
Once a month No No To help with readers' advisory work
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
It's only free up to 200 books
Yes it is a useful tool
7/16/2012 9:50:56
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, Other libraries are using the tool, It can be linked with other social media tools
University / academic library
The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock
More than once a week
No No To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library
Undecided Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's free or very cheap
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked, It's only free up to 200 books
Yes it is a useful tool
We originally signed up for a librarything account (before I worked in the library) as a result of a staff training session on various web 2.0 tools that were being utilsed by other libraries - I think that it was seen as an interesting way to interact with more of our users, but at the time we didn't have the staff time / resources to do anything more than setting up a profile. A few months ago, I joined the library on a full-time basis, and we were able to think again about impoving the ways that we communicate with our readers. We had a presence on facebook and twitter, but we also wanted a way to promote our new acquisitions
7/16/2012 10:16:02 I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
Other libraries are using the tool, It can be linked with other social media tools
University / academic library
To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget
More than once a week
No No Undecided Ease of use, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It's free or very cheap
It's low on social networking aspects, It's only free up to 200 books
Undecided
7/16/2012 13:36:33
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging
School library To promote the library / promote items held by the library, For user engagement purposes e.g. for use with book clubs
To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book lists for users such as all the crime novels held by the library, To help with readers' advisory work, To provide reviews of books held by the library, highlight new titles
More than once a week
No Yes Students really like being able to find books similar to what they have just read. It provides very easy Readers' Advisroy.
To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library, To help with readers' advisory work, To provide reviews of books held by the library
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked
Yes it is a useful tool
We started using LibraryThing because we had heard about it at a conference. We started entering all our new acquisitions as part of the processing check-list. Staff enjoy tagging. Students enjoy looking at the views and related titles. For us, it has been a win-win endeavor.
7/16/2012 15:14:31
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is easy to use, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging
University / academic library
To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock
Twice a month
Yes I have a LibraryThing widget on a LibGuide that I can get statistics on. I must confess I don't check it as often as I should. The LibGuide itself has averaged about 1,000 views a year.
Don't know To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library, To provide reviews of books held by the library
Undecided Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's accessible remotely by anyone
It's low on social networking aspects
Yes it is a useful tool
It has crossed my mind to explore Pinterest as an alternative to LibraryThing but I haven't had the chance to play around with Pinterest.
7/16/2012 17:49:36
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, It can be linked with other social media tools
University / academic library
The library needed an online (web accessible) catalogue, The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions
To provide reviews of books held by the library, To provide an online catalogue for users
Less than once a month
No No To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library, To provide reviews of books held by the library, To promote library events through LibraryThing Local
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's free or very cheap
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked, It's only free up to 200 books
Yes it is a useful tool
We used LibraryThing primarily as a gateway to getting our MARC records for our automation system we were installing at the time. LibraryThing did pose a good option to an OPAC however it wasn't what we were looking for entirely.
7/16/2012 20:02:49
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging
Public library The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To provide an online catalogue for users
Twice a month No No To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To help with readers' advisory work
Undecided Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
It's low on social networking aspects, It's only free up to 200 books, for us, does not seem to be a lot of interactivity with other users.
Yes it is a useful tool
I specifically use it to highlight new teen books that have been added to the library. I can not determine any usage statistics on how many library users actually view Librarything widget, and how that transfers to circulation statistics.
7/16/2012 20:29:26
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, Other libraries are using the tool, It can be linked with other social media tools
University / academic library
To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, highlight new books
Once a week No No To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library, To provide reviews of books held by the library, To promote library events through LibraryThing Local, To provide an online discussion group for book clubs
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked, It's only free up to 200 books
Yes it is a useful tool
7/16/2012 20:53:10
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join
Public library The library needed an online (web accessible) catalogue, The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions
To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To create a book club selection list, using LibraryThing recommendatio
Twice a month No No To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To promote library events through LibraryThing Local, To
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very
It's only free up to 200 books
Yes it is a useful tool
Great topic for a thesis. Good luck with your project. Best wishes from the [anonymised]
121
ns or Common Knowledge data, To help with readers' advisory work
provide an online discussion group for book clubs
cheap
7/16/2012 23:29:16
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging
University / academic library
To promote the library / promote items held by the library, for the tags
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book lists for users such as all the crime novels held by the library, To provide an online catalogue for users, tagging books in the leisure collection
Twice a month
Don't know Yes Positive To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To create a book club selection list, using LibraryThing recommendations or Common Knowledge data, To help with readers' advisory work, To promote library events through LibraryThing Local
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap, tagging
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked, we have more than 200 books on Library Thing.
Yes it is a useful tool
Library Thing has been very useful for tagging our leisure collection and keeping track of which books are in the leisure collection, the main collection, or the juvenile collection. Not all books are cataloged in Library Thing, but only books we purchase originally for the leisure collection (popular reading).
7/17/2012 14:58:54
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, Other libraries are using the tool, It can be linked with other social media tools
Public library promote library events
To promote library events through LibraryThing Local
Once a week No No To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library, To create a book club selection list, using LibraryThing recommendations or Common Knowledge data, To help with readers' advisory work, To provide reviews of books held by the library, To promote library events through LibraryThing Local
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked, It's low on social networking aspects, It's only free up to 200 books
Yes it is a useful tool
We started using LibraryThing for book lists, but we did not really receive any feedback from patrons to justify the time spent creating the lists. Now, we exclusively use it for promoting events on Local. Again, not sure if this is helping, but it is free publicity. We will be looking into linking it with our Facebook/Twitter accounts in some way to use it more creatively. It is a drawback to only get 200 books free, so I am considering switching over to Goodreads or Shelfari for booklist purposes. Also, we now have Bibliocommons catalog, which is a handy way to add booklists to our website, etc
7/17/2012 15:06:21
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, Other libraries are using the tool, It can be linked with other social media tools
School library To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To provide an online catalogue for users
Twice a month
No Yes Positive To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library, To provide reviews of books held by the library
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked
Yes it is a useful tool
One of the options above states that it is only free up to 200 books... ummmm, I have over 1,100 books listed and do not pay... ?????????
7/17/2012 17:53:31 I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, It gives our users an attractive and easy to create new book list.
University / academic library
The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions
To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book lists for users such as all the crime novels held by the library
More than once a week
Don't know No To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To promote library events through LibraryThing Local
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
Yes it is a useful tool
7/17/2012 18:11:47
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, It provides functions that traditional library tools do not
School library To enhance access to a collection (graphic novels and manga) that is poorly served by a traditional library catalog
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To help with readers' advisory work, To provide a supplement to our existing catalog
Twice a month No No To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library, To provide reviews of books held by the library
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
Wish it could be somehow integrated into our regular catalog
Yes it is a useful tool
For us, the chief advantage of LibraryThing is the unlimited tagging capability. Traditional catalogs are limited both by how many subject headings can be assigned, but also by the restrictions of controlled vocabulary. Terms that are used by users to describe favored genres, etc. are often not allowable.
7/17/2012 19:46:18
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, Other libraries are using the tool
University / academic library
The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To provide an online catalogue for users
Twice a month
No Yes Positive To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To help with readers' advisory work
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It's free or very cheap
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked
Yes it is a useful tool
Library Thing provides a good service and value for what they are providing us. We also use other services, like World Cat local, but these don't provide the level of customization that is beneficial. The biggest advantage of Library Thing is being able to highlight specific segments of our collection, particularly our newer books. We send updated links to our new books to our faculty, with subject lists that they can link to to find books in particualr areas of interest. This makes it a great marketing tool. The disadvantage is that it is double the work; meaning I have to catalog our books in
7/17/2012 21:10:11 I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, Other libraries are using the tool
Public library The library needed an online (web accessible) catalogue, To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To let patrons know what has recently been added to the collection
Once a week No No To provide reviews of books held by the library
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
Yes it is a useful tool
7/18/2012 4:53:01
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, It can be linked with other social media tools
University / academic library
The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library, For user engagement purposes e.g. for use with book clubs
To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book lists for users such as all the crime novels held by the library
Twice a month No No To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked, It feels a bit low-tech
Yes it is a useful tool
7/18/2012 9:16:27
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, Other libraries are using the tool
University / academic library
The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock
Less than once a month
No No To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by
Undecided Ease of use, It's free or very cheap
It's only free up to 200 books
Undecided
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the library
7/18/2012 14:52:22
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, Other libraries are using the tool, It can be linked with other social media tools
University / academic library
The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget
Once a week No No To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's free or very cheap
It's only free up to 200 books
Yes it is a useful tool
We only use LibraryThing to facilitate RSS feeds of new items which we display on our website and Facebook. Any use beyond this (e.g. lists of books on certain subjects) would require going over the free 200 book limit and that is not something I feel we could justify paying for.I can see that for very small libraries it could be a viable alternative to a traditional catalogue, provided they didn't require any of the other functions of a Library Management System.
7/18/2012 16:06:34
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, Other libraries are using the tool, A good way to display new titles.
School library The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library, For user engagement purposes e.g. for use with book clubs
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To provide reviews of books held by the library
Twice a month No Yes Positive To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library, To create a book club selection list, using LibraryThing recommendations or Common Knowledge data, To provide an online discussion group for book clubs
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap, A great tool.
Yes it is a useful tool
7/18/2012 16:28:05 I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, It can be linked with other social media tools
University / academic library To be able to provide a list of our Less than once a month
7/18/2012 16:29:51
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, It can be linked with other social media tools
University / academic library
To be able to provide a list of our new books with RSS feed (which our website could not do)
To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book lists for users such as all the crime novels held by the library, To provide RSS feed of new books
Once a week No Yes Positive To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library, To help with readers' advisory work
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It's free or very cheap
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked
Yes it is a useful tool
7/19/2012 16:42:17 I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging
career college library (Bachelor degrees included)
The library needed an online (web accessible) catalogue
To provide an online catalogue for users
More than once a week
No No To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
Yes it is a useful tool
7/19/2012 18:03:20
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, It can be linked with other social media tools
University / academic library
The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock
More than once a week
Don't know Yes Positive To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library, To promote library events through LibraryThing Local
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked, It's only free up to 200 books
Yes it is a useful tool
Patron said that he had seen a book he was interested in checking out on our new book table. The book had been checked out by another patron and he wanted it to be put on hold. He couldn't quite remember the title or author but did remember the book cover. We pulled up LibraryThing and scrolled through the covers and he was able to identify the book he was looking for. I put the classification number as a tag and that can enable a patron did not to have to return to our catalog to find the book's location.
7/19/2012 20:24:15 I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, Other libraries are using the tool, It can be linked with other social media tools
University / academic library
The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book lists for users such as all the crime novels held by the library
Once a month No No Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked, It's only free up to 200 books
Yes it is a useful tool
7/21/2012 17:26:27
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, Other libraries are using the tool, It can be linked with other social media tools
Special (government) library
To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To help with readers' advisory work, To provide reviews of books held by the library
More than once a week
No Yes Positive To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library, To create a book club selection list, using LibraryThing recommendations or Common Knowledge data, To promote library events through LibraryThing Local
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
Yes it is a useful tool
7/23/2012 9:17:59
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, meets a functional need in an improved way
Public library To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To provide a widget promoting DVD covers of recent releases
Once a month No Feedback not possible. Just a visual promotion.
No To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library, To create a book club selection list, using LibraryThing recommendations or Common Knowledge data, To provide reviews of books held by the library, To provide an online discussion group for book clubs
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap, Functionallity such as widgets and discussion forums
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked, It's only free up to 200 books, The widget does not work with the Council approved wordpress blog. The widget has difficulty working with our webpage software.
Yes it is a useful tool
7/23/2012 10:06:02 I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, It can be
University / academic library
To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a
Once a week No No No I don't think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked, It's only free up to 200 books
Yes it is a useful tool
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linked with other social media tools
LibraryThing widget attractive, It's free or very cheap
7/23/2012 10:06:35
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, It can be linked with other social media tools, Minimal time investment needed to get it set up and see benefits
NHS hospital library
To promote the library / promote items held by the library, Partly just experimentation - trying something different to see if it was useful
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock
Less than once a month
No No To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To provide reviews of books held by the library
Undecided Ease of use, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It's free or very cheap
It's only free up to 200 books, It would be nice to have the option of a more "professional" look & feel - but this isn't a major drawback
Yes it is a useful tool
7/23/2012 11:11:12
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, was good at the time I started because nothing was catalogued in the library (so it was a good "cache-misere")
University / academic library
The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library, see "other" above.
To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book lists for users such as all the crime novels held by the library, promoting all new titles
Once a week No Would like to know how to use this (keep me posted!)
No To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked, not good for Russian books or many other languages. Doesn't do audiovisual such as DVDs which is an important part of my collection
Yes it is a useful tool
I do not spend much time on it, I have created the page and trained my assistants to add everything new arriving in the library.It does look good but it is not as serious of course as a real online library catalogue. was a great solution when I arrived as nothing was catalogued. I will continue to use it for new stuff arriving.
7/23/2012 13:16:18
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, It can be linked with other social media tools
University / academic library
The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions
To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget
Once a week No No To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library, To help with readers' advisory work, To promote library events through LibraryThing Local
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
It's a third party site i.e. you don't know if it will go down or be hacked, It's only free up to 200 books
Yes it is a useful tool
7/23/2012 16:01:40
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use
University / academic library
The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library, For user engagement purposes e.g. for use with book clubs
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To create a book club selection list, using LibraryThing recommendations or Common Knowledge data
Once a week No No To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To create a book club selection list, using LibraryThing recommendations or Common Knowledge data
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
I would like 2 levels of interaction; 1 for librarians (who should be able to add books) and 1 for users (who should not be able to add books, but who should be able to comment on them).
Yes it is a useful tool
We only use it for a small part of our library - the non-academic 'light reading' books that are not on our proper library catalogue. This collection does not have to be borrowed on our computers; books can just be taken away/returned when people hae finished with them. The LT catalogue s a good way of showing what we have without spending money catloguing this collection on our peoper catalogue.see Question 11. If we had this option, we would do much more promotion of LT.
7/23/2012 17:38:53
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use
University / academic library
The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget
Once a month No Yes Positive To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library, To help with readers' advisory work
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
Yes it is a useful tool
7/24/2012 3:34:43
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, It can be linked with other social media tools
Public library To promote the library / promote items held by the library, For user engagement purposes e.g. for use with book clubs
To help with readers' advisory work, We highlight staff picks
Less than once a month
No No To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To create a book club selection list, using LibraryThing recommendations or Common Knowledge data, To promote library events through LibraryThing Local, To provide an online discussion group for book clubs
Undecided Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
It's low on social networking aspects
Yes it is a useful tool
I find that I use this much more in a Reader's Advisory capacity than a social networking tool. It's very useful for RA and I use it fairly frequently for that.
7/24/2012 8:57:25
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use
School library The library needed an online (web accessible) catalogue, To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To provide an online catalogue for users
Less than once a month
No No To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book list such as all the crime novels held by the library, To provide reviews of books held by the library
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It's free or very cheap
Yes it is a useful tool
LibraryThing was originally adopted as a way of getting our (primarily) fiction catalogue onto the internet where it could be browsed by students. Access to it was via a link from our website at [anonymised].I was more interested in making the catalogue available than monitoring its use but fear that, after talking with a number of students, the take-up rate was very low.The provider of our library software (Eclipse.Net from MicroLibrarian Services) has now made available an online version of our school library software. We have
7/25/2012 17:16:36
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, It allows us to reach a goal ie., reaching our patrons, making our collection accessible.
Public library The library needed an online (web accessible) catalogue, The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library, We now have an online catalog but continue to also use LibraryThing.
To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book lists for users such as all the crime novels held by the library, To provide an online catalogue for users
Once a week No Yes Positive feedback from librarian community and a little positive feedback from patrons.
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To provide reviews of books held by the library
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap
Only draw back on our end is the extra step of adding titles to LibraryThing during our cataloging process -- very small drawback.
Yes it is a useful tool
We use LibraryThing to advertise our new titles. All new Adult Fiction (including genres), Nonfiction, Audio Books, Book Group titles and other program related titles get added. We have a Librarything widget on our library website and I like changing graphics that it adds to our site without me having to upload something new all the time.Like I mentioned above, we started using librarything before our online catalog was available remotely so
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patrons would know what was coming in. Now that we have that capability with our own catalog, we still continue with LibraryThing because it is a fun book centric social media that is easy to maintain. See our widget: [anonymised]
7/25/2012 22:26:36
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, Other libraries are using the tool, It can be linked with other social media tools, It's where our customers are
Public library To promote the library / promote items held by the library, For user engagement purposes e.g. for use with book clubs, To create a catalog of our Book Hunters recommendations
To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To help with readers' advisory work, To promote library events through LibraryThing Local
More than once a week
No No To provide an online discussion group for book clubs
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap, Tagging
It's low on social networking aspects, It has less use by the general public (compared to GoodReads)
Yes it is a useful tool
We use it (at [anonymised]) to catalog the books we recommend in Book Hunters, our online readers advisory service. It is invaluable for that service as we can catalog the book, annotation (private comments), and tag the books for later retrieval.
7/27/2012 9:17:50
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool incorporates Web 2.0 features e.g. tagging, It can be linked with other social media tools
University / academic library
The library needed a way to create lists of new acquisitions, To promote the library / promote items held by the library
To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To highlight books on a blog or website through a LibraryThing widget, To create book lists e.g. genre-specific book lists for users such as all the crime novels held by the library
Once a month No Yes Negative No I don't think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
Ease of use, The ability to personalise your account e.g. choice of book covers, It's accessible remotely by anyone, It looks attractive, It's free or very cheap, create own tags
Can't put direct links in anywhere other than the comments field using html, can't customise viewing style: users have to 'select suggested viewing style', bit too traditional (no as flashy as GoodReads, but better).
Undecided We used to use LibraryThing to promote ebooks, faculty publications and new books, but the problem with direct linking to ebooks and the 'suggested viewing style', plus our ebooks were added to the official library catalogue, we stopped using it for promotion. It is still good as an archive though.
7/28/2012 17:01:22
I agree to take part in this study and for the data that I provide to be recorded and used.
The tool is free or very cheap, The tool is easy to use, The tool provides a ready to use network the library can join, It can be linked with other social media tools
Public library The library needed an online (web accessible) catalogue
To provide an online catalogue for users
More than once a week
No No To highlight specific collections of books e.g. those relating to an event or new stock, To provide an online discussion group for book clubs
Yes I do think that LibraryThing adds enough value to justify spending extra time on it
It's accessible remotely by anyone, It's free or very cheap
It's only free up to 200 books
Yes it is a useful tool
I love this library thing because it keeps my list of books organized and I know exactly what I have in the library. Very easy to use and fun.