Library Technology: Beyond Method #5

Method #5 in the State Library webinar "Beyond Two-Steppin'" looks at social sites for reading lists and book reviews. I was already familiar with "LibraryThing" and have an account there although a seldom used account. I am not personally a list keeper. My husband however, always a list keeper, would love some of these sites. I set up an account in "Shelfari." I like the ability to link to it from my blog and have book covers of my favorite reads show up on a shelf in my blog. it was very easy to set up the widget. I can see where this would be a useful link to have on a library website where librarians and patrons both could link to their favorite books and recommend them. "Goodreads" helped me decide if I wanted to pursue the reading of other books since there are plenty of pro and con reviews available. This is also a very useful tool for a library webpage. So far I have only rated a few books with stars and not written any reviews myself.

I tried "What Should I Read Next.com" also. Of the book titles I searched, only one showed any recommendations other than other titles in the series. I would hope this site would grow in size so it could become a useful tool for helping readers find similar books to the one they are researching. "Answerboards" is a great showcase for reference librarians. I can see a lot of potential uses for that link on a library site. "BookLamp" analyzes the structure of a book and its language, then recomends books on a similar level. Reading teachers might find this useful in prescribing reading lists for challenged readers.