11Otes fromth eField
The Librarian
Who Loves LibraryThing
aA year ago, l at-
tended a con-
ference session
on LibraryThing.In that
session, this online tool
was touted as a way to
catalog a personal library
collection. It looked like a
great resource, but why,
oh why, would I want to
catalog on weekends?
Wasn't cataloging during
the week enough?
At the same time, however, I was
having difficulty keeping track of all of
the books I read. I used to have an index
card file, but that's so 1980s! I got rid
of the card catalog twenty years ago, so
what in the world was I doing with a
card file? Moreover, I would often forget
to write up the cards after I read a book,
so the system became outdated quickly.
Then it hit me like a bolt of lightning:
LIBRARYTHING! I remembered that
conference session and realized that us-
ing LibraryThingwould be a great way to
keep track of my reading. Ditch the card
file; welcome to Web 2.0.
Professional Use
LibraryThingis, indeed, a great way
for library media specialists to keep
track of the books we personally read.
The account is free for the first 200
books or twenty-five dollars for a life-
20 School Library Media Activities MonthlyNolume XXV, Number 8/April 2009
time subscription. LibraryThingallows
me to create a personal library, give my
books tags, choose book covers, give star
ratings, generate citations (MLA, APA,
Chicago), and review books. I can also
connect to other readers and see their
reviews. Entries can be seen by anyone
or made private ifI don't want to share.
The tags, which can be sorted alphabeti-
cally, are useful for remembering book
topics and themes. When a tag is clicked,
all of the books in the library tagged
with that subject are displayed. When
a student asks for a book about "love,"
for example, I can sort through my tags
to find titles, cover art, and reviews to
trigger my memory of which books to
recommend.
LibraryThing
with Students
I started experimenting with Li-
brary7hinginour high school last
spring. (One word of caution: according
to the site's Terms of Use, children under
the age of thirteen are prohibited from
using LibraryThing.This limits its use to
high school students.)
We have a senior elective in our
school entitled "Reading in Literature.
Students develop a personal read-
mig plan, do booktalks, participate in
literature circles, keep a log of responses
to teacher-prompted questions, and
review the books they read. It was the
perfect place to try out LibraryThing
with students. Teachers can go paper-
less and keep track of student reading
logs, journals, and reviews online. They
can also respond to students individu-
ally, and those responses can be private
by Roberta Sibley
communications between teacher and
student.
I showed the students my personal
bookshelf and taught them how to create
an account. They immediately started
adding books. By the end of the class, all
students had an account, the teacher cre-
ated a group, and every student joined
the group.
Getting Started
with Students
Go to the LibraryThingpage (http://
www.Librarymhing.com). On the right
pane, click the Join Now button, and
have students create a username and
password. Email is optional, but if stu-
dents don't put in an email address, they
cannot retrieve lost passwords. I sug-
gest that students enter their personal,
rather than school email addresses, so
that when they graduate and lose their
school email, they will still have access
to their LibraryThingaccount.
Groups
Over the summer I experimented with
the Groups feature with several of my
Birmingham media colleagues. We cre-
ated a group and read a common book.
We tried to post in real time, as well as
asynchronously, to see how the discus-
sion thread worked. This professional
practice is also a great way for library
media specialists to gain the experience
needed to get classes started with groups.
Teachers can post a topic and have
students respond to the journal prompts
online. Students can sign their names
at the end of the entry (John S.) so that
the teacher does not have to look up
each student's username to see who is
responding. The other option is for the
teacher to keep a spreadsheet with the
real names and usernames for reference.
Each entry is date and time stamped, so
the teacher knows if the assignment is in
on time.
It works well for the teacher to create
a group while I get students started with
their LibraryThingaccounts. Students
give the teacher their real names and
usernames on a sign-up sheet or index
cards. The teacher invites students to a
group by username, and the students
must accept the invitation.
1"Iti-q L-I'.
U 6brarr[i,~
-1,000 rob,s 'tour beo,jjp
If the screen is projected in the lab,
we can watch the students join and dou-
ble check that all of the students have
accepted the invitation. I walk around
the lab to provide support. The first time
that I worked with a teacher to create
groups, all of the students had created
accounts, joined a group, and responded
to a topic by the end of the period (see
Figure 1).
Responding to Journals
Once the teacher posts a topic, they
can see all student responses. When the
student username is clicked, it leads to
MTa!,JTh t'~o ___
a dialog box where a comment can be
posted. This allows the teacher to give
the students private feedback about their
work (see Figure 2).
Assessment
LibraryThingallows for several as-
sessment tools. Students can write book
reviews, tag books, respond to journal
topics, and participate in virtual book
groups. The teacher can see each stu-
dent's library as well as all of the journal
entries.
With LibraryThing,my collaborat-
ing teacher could do all of his assess-
ments online, "going paperless" for the
class. The students can see one another's
libraries just as they can see all of the

group members' names.

The World Group: R-dingi ii Li,r t H1tllr 4 .
ACtoeoo
Yodepi onllne Journatl 11 24 124 Mail
Ye,urWorld, ________

Y-or becks
YO* group.
Hssave 1: mrt,r,io
What sould be teah addest endS Sto yoar book? Thehappiest The mo
st bizarre? Student Responses
to LibraryThing
yo 0aa-r
Yoe-toar-ed

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2-!
Parst taxt
be Irs mother diei or someth;g traic hapmpne in
At first, students were varied in their
I thnk for o, bonk,sOomedaythis painwiAbe useful to you, the sadd-t oind,egmound
seaeis Ta!lk bok. ut It btikthati be a trnble smfing, Th happiest is hle rothbr gatbW marded agam and bhang
he, 11s IhaVen-t gotten tar inta hook
happy, and Jamesbs,g happy in solege. The mto bassirendeg would be pawbugs bm stoltenfrom the gsilanr,and a amythin0g
responses. Some found it confusing the
happ;ns to Jamesat te end! rm neotsie what the ending w?] be to this boo, b•t I'm
t ure it a good se-
first day, but by the end of the semester,
0 Port a oussase fltg abuse

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they all had positive comments. Many
I ttonkthatt, bt
mostbasarre ending woutd be 1aSophie wasnt a real pemcn b-oooe ir my bookrVg• I am fioideg outthtri Hild real of the students like the book recom-
and the is aloe 00w reading eortbmg that the phltosopher writes to Sophia.I don'tret, the*A makes ssmi.nso k is already had of
biZs.n mendations, and the ability to connect
with others. The majority of the students
Figure 1. Group journal responses to teacher prompt. enjoyed the online aspect of the class
and wanted to enter all of the books they
read into their library. Ah, to be a teen-
H,w-Ii • oob i Addrtýorv
1r7r3a iiziitoui ager and be able to recall of the books
Profel[e I Rncommenodattor erersen s I Stat[Mtias I Clouds I Gallery read!
Member: bowlerdude248 _7
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authors
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None specff0ed
What's Next?
A-oot tle• prtVate, free
I have worked with four English
ConoN-
00 ContnctioonNewms classes on LibraryThing,and I plan to
Hembn e Sep 12, 2008
work with several more next trimester.
Leave a comment There is another English teacher who is
interested in setting up a book group. It's
definitely worth a try, and I think it's an
exciting tool for teachers, students, and
library media specialists. And, it's not
really cataloging-or at least that's what I
tell myself£-o

post comn'ept t21 m3k, hrsets Roberta Sibley is a library media specialist
at Birmingham Groves High School Media
Figure 2. Student page with place for teacher comment and privacy Center, Beverly Hills,,MI. Email: rsO2bps@
check. birmingham.k]2.mi.us

School Library Media Activities MonthlyNolume XXV, Number 8/April 2009 21

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TITLE: The Librarian Who Loves LibraryThing

SOURCE: School Library Media Activities Monthly 25 no8 Ap
2009
PAGE(S): 20-1

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