Category: Tuesday Thingers

Tags – Tuesday Thingers

Published on by Margaret10 Comments

Today’s Tuesday Thingers question is about tags- do you tag? How do you tag? How do you feel about tagging- do you think it would be better to have standardized tags, like libraries have standardized subject headings, or do you like the individualized nature of tagging? What are your top 5 tags and what do they say about your collection or your reading habits?

My answer:

I’ve been thinking about tags recently, both on LibraryThing and on my blog because I’m not very good at doing either. On LT I tag by genre and roughly by subject, but it’s very general eg Fiction, Biography, Cookery etc. I also use TBR, although LT has a tick box for status – Currently Reading or To Read and D Read (my husband).  Most of my books are tagged as I try to remember to include a tag when I add a book. I’ve not been very consistent with tags and looking at them now I see I’ve used Non-Fiction for just one book! I would like to go through my catalogue and be more specific, but then I think I’d end up reading the books to decide what to tag them and really I’d rather spend the time reading them anyway. 

I wouldn’t like to have standardized subject headings as these might not match what I think of as the subject of the book, nor where I would look for it. I like seeing all the different variations other people have chosen to tag a book, so I wouldn’t want the tags to be assigned automatically.

Not counting the TBR or D Read tags (which are in the top five) my top five tags are:
Fiction (424), Cookery (64), Christianity (40), Biography (30), History (29). That’s not really representative of my books as most of the non-fiction is not in LT yet!

Why LibraryThing? – Tuesday Thingers

Published on by Margaret14 Comments

Today’s Tuesday Thingers question is:
Why LT?
Why did you choose to open and maintain an LT account? Do you/did you use other online cataloging/social networking sites, like GoodReads or Shelfari? Do you use more than one? Are they different or do they serve different purposes?

My answer:

I knew about LibraryThing from other people’s blogs and had looked at it but decided not to use it myself because I had catalogued most of my books in a database on my laptop. Then we were burgled and one of the things stolen was the laptop.  I was devastated. The laptop could be replaced but not its contents and I had spent a long time entering in all the details of both my books and my husband’s and did not have a saved copy. I expect the thief was surprised to see my catalogue.

The thought of starting again was depressing and then I thought of LibraryThing. It’s better than the database I had used and I like having an image of the book. It’™s easy to add in books as LibraryThing does all the work for you using data imported from booksellers and a long list of libraries and I like seeing other members’™ listings and reviews. And Early Reviewers is a brilliant idea, although I’ve only had one book so far.

I haven’t used other online cataloguing or social networking sites. I hadn’t heard of GoodReads before, but I’m not tempted – LibraryThing and blogging take up plenty of my time as it is!

Tuesday Thingers

Published on by Margaret15 Comments

Marie at The Boston Bibliophile asks this week’s question – How many books do you have catalogued in your LibraryThing account? How do you decide what to include- everything you have, everything you’ve read- and are there things you leave off?

I’ve catalogued 815 books so far, including books I’ve read and have yet to read. Nearly all the fiction books are in and I’ve started on the non-fiction. I’m aiming to include all the books I own and my husband’s as well.

I spent about half the day today sorting out some books to give away as there is no more room on the bookshelves to keep them all and I was tired of seeing all the piles of books all over the house. They’re still double shelved and there is still one pile of oversize books that just won’t go on the shelves. It looks like we need at least one more bookcase – but where to put even one more is the big question.

Now I have several piles of books on the dining room table waiting to be boxed and taken to the charity shop and I’ve been wondering about deleting them from LibraryThing first, so this question is very appropriate. I see that Marie keeps books in her LT catalogue even if she’s got rid of them if they have reviews attached. I don’t think I’ve reviewed the ones I’ve weeded out today but I think it’s a good idea to keep them in LT if I have. I’ve only written a few reviews and rated only a handful. I hadn’t noticed the rating system at first in my rush and enthusiasm to add books. I don’t include wish-list books.

Tuesday Thingers

Published on by Margaret6 Comments


Marie, an Early Reviewer for LibraryThing, has started a weekly online get-together of LT book bloggers at her web site, The Boston Bibliophile. She says, “anyone is welcome to participate but the idea is to catch up with each other on what’s new in our LT libraries- new books, books just finished, thoughts, anything like that.” To participate, simply write a post in your blog, then go to her entry Tuesday Thingers and leave her a comment containing the link to your post.

This week’s topic is: Discussion groups. Do you belong to any (besides Early Reviewers)? Approximately how many? Are there any in particular that you participate in more avidly? How often do you check?

First a little bit about LibraryThing and me. I’™ve been adding our books (that’™s mine and my husband’™s) to LT for a while now. It’™s very time-consuming but most rewarding, coming across old favourites I haven’™t read for years. I’™ve been doing in sections and I think most of the fiction is on there now and I’™m working through the non-fiction.

Books have always been part of my life as long as I can remember. It was my father who suggested I could be a librarian and I can’™t think why I hadn’™t thought of it myself. I went to Manchester Library School at what was then Manchester Polytechnic (now part of Manchester University) and worked for a while for Manchester Public Libraries. I haven’™t worked in a library since I left to start a family, although I did have a spell in a bookshop working as a cataloguer, in pre-computerised cataloguing days. When I found LT at first I thought I wouldn’™t use it ‘“ after all I used to be a cataloguer. But I soon realised its benefits and signed up.

I have looked at the Discussion groups but have only joined the Early Reviewers group. I have had one book to review ‘“ Our Longest Days, which I wrote about in my last post. There are only a few books available through Early Reviewers for UK members, so I was really pleased I got a book at all. I do hope some more will come my way.

I suppose I check LT about once a week, more if I’™m adding books. It all takes time. I’™ve found that writing a blog and reading other people’™s blogs is also more time-consuming than I’™d realised and it all cuts into reading time.