Librarything for Genealogy

 I love Librarything the online social media tool that serves as my reading log, personal library catalogue, book recommendation tool and conduit to other booklovers with similar interests.

Although I use this tool for all things bookish I find that it is a wonderful tool for genealogy. As one enters books into the database one can tag them with descriptors. The tag "Genealogy" has been used 54,779 times  to date to describe works in the database.

The top ten books tagged genealogy are:

• Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian by Elizabeth Shown Mills (428 times)
• Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace by Elizabeth Shown Mills (273 times)
• The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy by Val D. Greenwood (269 times)
• The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy (Revised Edition) by Loretto Dennis Szucs (266 times)
• The BCG Genealogical Standards Manual by Board for Certification of Genealogists (251 times)
• Professional Genealogy: A Manual for Researchers, Writers, Editors, Lecturers, and Librarians by Elizabeth Shown Mills(243 times)
• The Handybook for Genealogists : United States of America by George B. Everton (225 times)
• Ancestry's Red Book: American State, County & Town Sources, Third Revised Edition by Alice Eichholz (218 times)
• Unpuzzling Your Past: The Best-Selling Basic Guide to Genealogy by Emily Anne Croom (185 times)
• The Genealogist's Companion & Sourcebook by Emily Anne Croom (180 times)

The Librarything member who has used the genealogy tag the most is Robin from Westchester, PA. You can see her profile and list of books in her library here: http://www.librarything.com/profile/arjaygee


Librarything for Genealogists is the title of one of the talks I presented earlier in the year on the 4th Unlock the Past Cruise. I was pleased to have an opportunity to tell a few people about this product because it is one of my all time favourite sites and I was even more pleased when I had a sizeable audience who appeared to be most enthusiastic after the talk.


I don't use all of Librarything's social functions because I just don't have time but I do have a favourite.

Librarything Connection Page

On the Connections Tab of Librarything is "Interesting Libraries";  this is one element of Librarything that I love because I can follow what other people are adding to their personal collections if I add them to my list of "Interesting Libraries".  Most of the interesting libraries I follow are those of other genealogists and bookish friends. I like to see what they add, rate and review and to compare their libraries with mine. I could even check to see if they own a hard to find title and plead with them to do a lookup for me.

Among the "Interesting Libraries" I follow are those belonging to these genealogists (some of whom contribute to this blog). If you want to take a peek into their libraries here are some links for you.

alexdaw, AnglersRest, audreycollins, ausgenjourneys, BeckyJamison, caroleriley, cassmob, cdfhs, CMPointer, DebbieKennett, dougangene, drumcondra, johngasson, kingstongenealogy, KirstyF.Wilkinson, Leslie_Ann, Linda.Ottery, lmdhs, lovegenealogy, Merron, NSWGenealogy, perkinsy, ,pschultz, sheenatait, smbrennan. 

Librarything membership is free for your first 200 books added and a lifetime membership is $US25. 

Librarything is a fantastic tool to organise your personal library and record your reading. I suggest you give it a try.