Definition

Sites whose primary purpose is the cataloguing of material owned by its members (books, DVDs, music), while also building a community of users with that shared interest. Above and beyond the standard cataloguing, users build up a vast quantity of social data around the records, such as reviews, recommendations, ratings and tags.

Examples:

• LibraryThing (books - over 20 million catalogued using records from libraries with open Z39.50 servers and from Amazon)
• Shelfari (books)
• Bookjetty (books)
• Flixster (films)
• GoodReads (books)

How can libraries use social cataloguing sites?

Adding books onto sites like LibraryThing gives libraries access to the social data and web 2.0 aspects (blog widgets, RSS feeds), which can be used to promote new accessions, and offer more information to readers about the books arriving in the library.

LibraryThing has just launched LibraryThing Local, with the aim of building up listings of libraries and bookstores which are searchable by location. Adding our library information on to here would be another way of reaching out and giving us more of a presence elsewhere on the web.

Social OPACs

LibraryThing is experimenting with making its social data available for integration into web OPACs with their LibraryThing for Libraries project, and other libraries are also building 'social' OPACs, incorporating tags, reviews, recommendations and personalisation etc into their catalogues. This allows users to contribute to the catalogue and add value, without undermining the traditional functions.

OCLC has launched a web 2.0 version of WorldCat, which allows users to add reviews and information to WorldCat records, as well as create and share personalised lists of records. It's still pretty new, and there's not as much participation so its social data is not as expansive as LibraryThing's, but it has great potential for use by libraries eg with reading lists, new accessions lists, specific subject lists etc.

Google Books' My Library offers similar functionality.

Examples:

• University of Huddersfield
• Ann Arbor District Library
• My WorldCat

Further information

LibraryThing:

• Training exercise
• Evaluation
• Oxford examples: VHL, Law, Language Centre, Nuffield College Library, St Stephen's House

My WorldCat:

• Training exercise
• Evaluation
• Oxford examples: VHL

GoodReads:

• Oxford examples: Linacre