Library Thing

A few years ago (well, in September 2005, when I was newly retired and Library Thing was brand new) I discovered Library Thing, a service that allows you to catalog your library (entering books by ISBN, title, whatever)… says the Wikipedia entry, “a social cataloging web application for storing and sharing personal library catalogs and book lists.” I messed with it a bit and then got ummmm distracted by some other shiny thing. I happened to take a look again the other day, and discovered that they offer (for $15) a USB scanning device called CueCat. Plug it in and swipe it over an ISBN bar code and **PRESTO** the book is looked up (at Amazon or Library of Congress, your choice) and entered into your Library Thing database. In just a few minutes I scanned in a shelf of books, typing in the ISBN if there was no barcode, and searching by title if the book was too old to sport an ISBN. You can eyeball the current state of the project (200 books in, the very tip of the proverbial). Just what I’m going to DO with this is a bit less clear, but possibilities and uses will doubtless emerge to declare themselves.

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