Dear winways,
Welcome to the October 2016 State of the Thing! This month, we're announcing Syndetics Unbound—a new library product—and discussing our upcoming plans and projects for LibraryThing.com. Plus, we're getting ready for SantaThing 2016!
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New Opportunities
(This is Tim.) Today we debuted a new product designed for libraries, co-developed with ProQuest. (See below for more about that.)
The upshot is that, after six months of effort on Syndetics Unbound, developers are free to turn more attention back to LibraryThing.com. We know members have been worried about recent inactivity, and we're looking to correct that.
Our first decision has been to greenlight development on an Android version of our iPhone app. We've committed the resources, but it's likely to take at least four months before we're ready to release it.
Our second decision has been to devote one day a week (Wednesday) to bug fixing. ("Whack-a-Bug Wednesday?" "Whompsday?") With any luck, this will help us get some of the worst offenders under control.
Finally, we have other plans to improve the site. To that end, we're going to be communicating what we're working on more clearly—developer by developer, when possible.
Find out more on Talk.
Meet Syndetics Unbound
We're thrilled to finally announce Syndetics Unbound—a new library product we've co-developed with ProQuest. Syndetics Unbound enrichest library catalogs with covers, summaries, author information, professional and user reviews, tags and other element. Some come from Syndetics, some from LibraryThing and its members, and some are combinations.
You can read more about it on our blog, and see it on its first library, Hartford Public Library in Hartford, CT. When you've taken a look, tell us what you think on Talk.
If you want to help LibraryThing, tell all the librarians you know about it. Casually ask them if they've heard of it. Send them the blog post. Send them text messages at 2am—they won't mind! If you are a librarian, tell your boss. If you are the boss, well, isn't this a great product?
SantaThing Is Coming to Town
I realize it's only October, and I'm already wary of stores putting out their holiday season displays before the Halloween candy is even on sale. That said, every year I hear from folks who missed the boat on SantaThing—our annual "Secret Santa" for book lovers—so I wanted to give everyone a heads-up. We haven't set specific dates in stone yet, but here's where you can keep an eye out for SantaThing:
This will be our TENTH annual SantaThing, so we've got some special plans under wraps for this year.
TinyCat Webinar: Wednesdays at 1pm ET
Check out TinyCat, the online catalog for "tiny" libraries, at our free, weekly Wednesday webinars. Join us this Wednesday, September 21st, at 1pm Eastern (US). Head over to this link at that time, and look for the TinyCat Webinar.
If Wednesday at 1pm doesn't work for you, let us know—we'll be happy to schedule a session for you.
We're here to answer your TinyCat questions via email at any time: tinycat@librarything.com. Stay tuned to our Facebook and Twitter pages for more announcements, or see a recorded webinar from July on our YouTube Channel.
Talk of the Thing
Buried Treasure. I think I speak for all LT staff when I say we had a whale of a time with this year's Talk Like a Pirate Day treasure hunt. If you were stuck on any of the clues, or would like to congratulate our prize-winners, check out our Answers & Winners thread on Talk!
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 October batch of Early Reviewers books contains 2,845 copies of 102 different titles. The deadline to request a free book is Monday, October 31st (Happy Halloween!) at 6pm, Eastern. Look for the November batch around the 7th.
The most requested books so far from the October batch:
Early Reviewers Special
(This is Tim, again.) I'd like to add that my wife, Lisa Carey's new book, The Stolen Child is currently the 6th-most requested book. You should check it out. Also, text your librarian friends about it too, okay?
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
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by Jack Thorne, John Tiffany, and J.K. Rowling
- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
- A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
- Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
- Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
- The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt
- The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Uprooted by Naomi Novik
That's it for this month. I'll see you all in November!
Questions, comments, ideas? Send them my way.
—Loranne (loranne@librarything.com)
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