Dear winways,
Welcome to the June 2015 State of the Thing! This is an exciting month for LibraryThing—we've unleashed a slew of new features, plus a brand new product: TinyCat, an online catalog for small libraries. Read on for details.
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TinyCat for Small Libraries
TinyCat is a brand new product from LibraryThing, built for small libraries. It turns your LibraryThing catalog into a simple, powerful online catalog (or OPAC).
Small libraries in churches, classrooms, community centers, etc. the world over have been using LibraryThing to catalog their collections for almost a decade. TinyCat offers a new way to view your catalog that's cleaner, patron-friendly, and mobile-ready. Come join the discussion on Talk.
It's no coincidence that we've released lots of new features lately—many of which make TinyCat possible. More details on those below!
If you're in charge of a small library and might like to be one of our beta testers for TinyCat, let us know! You can reply to Loranne via this email (loranne@librarything.com), or reach out to us at info@librarything.com.
TinyCat Demo at ALA
TinyCat isn't quite ready for prime time across LibraryThing just yet. Don't worry—we'll be sure to let you know when it is! If you'd like to see it in action, and are heading to San Francisco for ALA's Annual Conference this weekend, stop by Booth #3634 for our demo. We've even got some free exhibit-only passes if you're not already registered.
New Features
MARC Import. MARC is the library gold standard for bibliographic records. You name it: if it's in a library, it can be cataloged in MARC format. We introduced the ability to export your LibraryThing catalog as MARC records a few years ago, and now we're completing the circle, with MARC Import. Take it for a spin and join the discussion on Talk.
Barcodes. Not only have we added barcode support to your catalog, but now you can order printed library barcode labels for your catalog—directly from LibraryThing! They're acid-free, archival quality and safe for your books, too. Questions or concerns? Tell us about it on Talk. Now you can lend books the right way, and use them alongside our (also new) Take Inventory feature.
Take Inventory. Check your physical collections against your LibraryThing catalog with our new Take Inventory feature. See what books have gone missing, and make sure all your books have been cataloged. Search manually or scan with a barcode scanner (both ISBN barcodes or LT's new barcode labels will work). Come tell us what you think on Talk!
New Identifiers. We've added three new identifiers to help you with your cataloging: ASINs (Amazon Standard Identification Numbers—most commonly seen on ebooks), UPCs ("Universal Product Codes), and EANs (International Article Numbers). You can add one or all of these to your catalog, if you like. We've already done the hard work for you and added these identifiers to your data. Questions? Let us know on Talk.
Group Read: The Night Watch
We're about half-way through our current edition of One LibraryThing, One Book.
In honor of LGBT Pride Month, our June-July pick is Sarah Waters's The Night Watch. We're doing things a little differently this time, and breaking the book up into more manageable chunks. On the 29th, we'll begin discussion for the second half of the 1944 section. Anything up to and through that section is fair game in the discussions.
Interested in joining in on the fun? Introduce yourself to your fellow readers on this thread, and be sure to stay tuned to the One LibraryThing, One Book group on Talk for updates!
If you're unfamiliar with One LibraryThing, One Book, be sure to check out the blog post that started it all.
Free Books: Early Reviewers
You are not currently signed up for LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program. You are missing out!
Early Reviewers offers free books to members—about 100 titles a month! Since 2007, we've given out over 160,000 books. The catch? Publishes want your honest review. How you review a book won't help or hurt your chances of winning books in the future, but not reviewing your winning will.
» Sign up for Early Reviewers
The June batch of Early Reviewers books contains 2,935 copies of 97 different titles. The deadline to request a free book is Monday, June 29th at 6pm, Eastern. Look for the July batch around the 6th.
The most requested books so far from the June batch:
More free books: Member Giveaways
At any given time, there are hundreds of books available from our Member Giveaways program. It's like Early Reviewers, but isn't limited to select publishers—any author or member can post books. Request books, or offer your own!
Hot titles this month
- The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
- Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
- The Martian by Andy Weir
- The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
- The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
- The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
- We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
- Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
- I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
That's it for this month! I'll see you all in July.
Questions, comments, ideas? Send them my way.
—Loranne (loranne@librarything.com)
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