Image: Librarything.com

My colleague Roberta Sibley just introduced LibraryThing to a group of high schoolers so they could use it to track books.  I asked her if she’d share her experience with us.

The Librarian Who Loves Library Thing
by Roberta Sibley

Last spring I went to a MACUL (Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning) conference and I went to a session on LibraryThing. When we looked at it at during the conference session, it was touted as a way to catalog your own personal library books.

It looked like a great tool, but why oh why would I want to catalog on weekends? Wasn’t cataloging during the week enough?

I was having a hard time keeping track of all of the books I read. I used to use an index card file, but that’s so 80s! We got rid of the card catalog 20 years ago, what in the world was I doing with a card file? I’d forget to write the cards out anyway, so it became outdated faster than I did. And then it hit me like a bolt of lightning, LIBRARYTHING! Out from the repressed memory of conferences past came the idea of using LibraryThing to keep track of my reading. Ditch that old card file, welcome to Library 2.0.

I started, albeit slowly, to enter the books I was reading. I used the tags to help me remember topics that students or teachers ask for. While I am using Follett Destiny resource lists to keep track of the titles I routinely use for lit circles, and carts for projects, I am using Library Thing as a way to remember basics of the books I read and recommend to students and staff.

TAGS, STARS & REVIEWS
Library Thing allows you to rate your book with a star system, create your own tags, and add reviews and comments to your record.You can make your entry public so others can see it, or private if you want to keep it to yourself. The tags help me remember book topics. I can put the names of characters, or anything that will spark a minor booktalk.

COST
It’s free for the first 200 books, $25. for an unlimited number & lifetime.  Great deal!

COMMUNICATING WITH OTHERS, THAT WEB 2.0 STUFF
You can join groups like Librarians who LibraryThing, Book Talk, Read YA Lit, & Science Fiction fans. You can see how many people have your book in their library, get info into your record from LC and Amazon, Blog about Library Thing, and look for local book groups. You can pick the cover to display on your record, as well as choose the way you view your record.

LIBRARY THING WITH STUDENTS
The other day I nabbed one of my low tech teachers. He’s been reluctant to use the media center, and the other day I helped him with his grad school research, so he owed me.   He teaches a class where students do a lot of reading and have to write reviews of the books.  I asked if he wanted me to try out LibraryThing with his class.  I explained what it did, and he was game. 

The next day I showed the students my personal bookshelf and taught them how to create an account. They started adding their books right away.  I had them make their accounts public, as this will allow the teacher to see what the students read and review.  If he has their usernames, he can use the Search function to find their page and their books.  Some students were so excited that they wanted to add all of the books they ever read. Ah, to be a teenager when you could actually remember everything you’ve ever read! Most of the kids were excited, as it was a new way to keep track of things, and it lives beyond life in high school.

I showed them the difference between a quick add, and a more extensive record that allows for the reviews they will need for class. The teacher is going to have them add a common tag (like MRJONES), so he could discern which books they were reading for class vs. their personal ones.

There will be five sections of this class next fall, and I already have a few more teachers interested.  I just sent an email to the English Department with an offer to teach them how to use it, so hopefully we can get this going.  This year is my “guinea pig” where we will work out problems.  There seemed to be some software slowdowns when the whole class was on, which we were able to correct by using the back button and trying again.

This is definitely worth a try, and a great tool for students.  And it’s not really cataloging, or at least that’s what I tell myself.

Thanks, Roberta! After reading your post, I nabbed a teacher who is moving up to 5th grade next year.  “Any interest in tracking your kids’ reading logs in LibraryThing next year?” I asked …

Long, long ago, right after undergraduate school, I worked as an opera stage manager.  And though it has been years since I’ve had to say, “No, no, please don’t show me your surgical wound,” in Italian to a tenor, those Technicolor experiences still call to me.

On April 4, The New York Times ran a brief story about a performance of Aida at the Pittsburgh Opera.  When the leading tenor, Vladimir Kuzmenko, became unwell before the curtain, the Pittsburgh company arranged to borrow a singer from New York City’s Metropolitan Opera.  Kuzmenko agreed to go on until the replacement singer arrived.  But by Act IV, he could no longer sing, and the replacement had not arrived. 

What to do? The artistic director asked conductor Antony Walker to sing the part from the orchestra pit, Kuzmenko mimed the role onstage, and the show went on.

Why am I telling this story on a School Library 2.0 blog? Because it reminds me that sometimes, our value as school librarians comes when we step outside of traditional expectations. 

As your district administrators move toward staffing decisions or budget cuts, how can you position yourself as the person who helps the show go on?  Are there old traditions (like the fact that the conductor never sings during a performance) that need to be jettisoned? New practices adopted? �

This is a short-and-sweet article about the do’s and don’ts of using copyrighted music in video.  Did you know that using video as background music in a video for school doesn’t mean it’s Fair Use but playing The Beatles to learn about the Sixties is?