Monday 2 June 2014

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:
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.

alexdawAnglersRestaudreycollinsausgenjourneysBeckyJamisoncarolerileycassmobcdfhsCMPointerDebbieKennettdougangenedrumcondrajohngassonkingstongenealogyKirstyF.WilkinsonLeslie_AnnLinda.OtterylmdhslovegenealogyMerronNSWGenealogyperkinsy,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.

6 comments:

  1. Thanks Jill, this again is something new for me. I wili have to check it out!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is a fab tool Diane.
    I note since I posted this that I have a new genie follower.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Joined up to Librarything today. As well as updated my twitter, when working full time it is hard to keep up with all the social media. I try to have a catch up session once a week. Thanks again for the Librarything tip.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Librarything is a new tool to me, so thank you for such a helpful introduction.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Diane anad Sue - you will be able to while away many of your precious minutes at Librarything.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is a new tool for me as well. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete

Hello, thanks for leaving a comment on the World Wide Genealogy Blog. All comments are moderated because of pesky spammers!

Best wishes
World Wide Genealogy Team