LibraryThing for Libraries Adds User-Generated Reviews
RSSJosh Hadro -- Library Journal, 10/23/2008
- OPAC enhancement product allows patrons to add item review directly
- Reviews aggregated across libraries; 200,000 to start
- Users can view and share reviews via Facebook or blog
LibraryThing, the social cataloging site that offers features to libraries like tag clouds and book recommendations, is expanding further into the social OPAC arena with the introduction of user reviews into LibraryThing for Libraries (LTFL). The new Reviews Enhancement package gives patrons at subscribing institutions the ability to both read book reviews from other library users as well as add their own, all without leaving the item page in the library’s online catalog.
More than 70 libraries have added the Catalog Enhancements package to their OPACs, and a handful have been testing the new product, including the Mount Laurel Library in New Jersey. It features an initial outlay of 200,000 general user reviews loosely vetted for length and coherence ported over from LibraryThing.com, the original enterprise of the social book cataloging site. This starter set responds to problems facing many online social ventures: too little user-generated content to get off the ground. As LibraryThing founder Tim Spalding puts it, “Nothing kills people's incentive to review than a desert—like restaurants, emptiness begets emptiness and success success.”
More reviews coming
More reviews, written by other patrons across the number of institutions subscribing to the LTFL Reviews Enhancement package, will be added into the mix as more content is contributed.
For years, libraries have been enhancing their catalogs by adding participatory Web 2.0 features, but only relatively recently have we seen libraries and companies attempting to aggregate and share user-contributed data across institutional borders to make this content more readily useful.
The move by LibraryThing follows this growing trend of OPAC-based collectivized data distribution, also seen in other new catalog interfaces like BiblioCommons and SOPAC 2.0, as well as in the subscription distribution model of the competing reviews provider ChiliFresh.
Facebook and blog role
End users and patrons who have added reviews through LTFL at their local library's online catalog also will be able to view and share those reviews via a Facebook application called “Reviews at My Library,” as well as through customizable blog widgets, described as a "chunk of code patrons can add to their blog to show off the reviews they've written."
Offering a realistic view of the motivations behind many users' participation, Spalding commented, “People don't review books to help a library, or even their community. They do it to get something back—a record of what they read and an opportunity to express themselves—and express themselves to the people they know.”
The cost for the Reviews Enhancement package is determined by a “subscription fee based on book circulation and other factors relating to OPAC use,” with a $1000 minimum for all libraries, not counting consortial discounts.
See related stories:
- Darien Library's Open Source SOPAC 2.0 Emphasizes Patron Content
- BiblioCommons Emerges: “Revolutionary” Social Discovery System for Libraries
