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Monday, April 20th, 2020

New Syndetics Unbound Feature: Mark and Boost Electronic Resources

ProQuest and LibraryThing have just introduced a major new feature to our catalog-enrichment suite, Syndetics Unbound, to meet the needs of libraries during the COVID-19 crisis.

Our friends at ProQuest blogged about it briefly on the ProQuest blog. This blog post goes into greater detail about what we did, how we did it, and what efforts like this may mean for library catalogs in the future.

What it Does

The feature, “Mark and Boost Electronic Resources,” turns Syndetics Unbound from a general catalog enrichment tool to one focused on your library’s electronic resources—the resources patrons can access during a library shutdown. We hope it encourages libraries to continue to promote their catalog, the library’s own and most complete collection repository, instead of sending patrons to a host of partial, third-party eresource platforms.

The new feature marks the library’s electronic resources and “boosts,” or promotes, them in Syndetics Unbound’s discovery enhancements, such as “You May Also Like,” “Other Editions,” “Tags” and “Reading Levels.”

Here’s a screenshot showing the feature in action.

mab_screenshot

How it Works

The feature is composed of three settings. By default, they all turn on together, but they can be independently turned off and on.

mab_buttons

  • Boost electronic resources chooses to show electronic editions of an item where they exist, and boosts such items within discovery elements.
  • Mark electronic resources with an “e” icon marks all electronic resources—ebooks, eaudio, and streaming video.
  • Add electronic resources message at top of page adds a customizable message to the top of the Syndetics Unbound area.

“Mark and Boost Electronic Holdings” works across all enrichments. It is particularly important for “Also Available As” which lists all the other formats for a given title. Enabling this feature sorts electronic resources to the front of the list. We also suggest that, for now, libraries may want to put “Also Available As” at the top of their enrichment order.

mab_alsoavailable

Why We Did It

Your catalog is only as good as your holdings. Faced with a world in which physical holdings are off-limits and electronic resources essential, many libraries have discouraged use of the catalog, which is dominated by non-digital resources, in favor of linking directly to Overdrive, Hoopla, Freegal and so forth. Unfortunately, these services are silos, containing only what you bought from that particular vendor.

“Mark and Boost Electronic Resources” turns your catalog toward digital resources, while preserving what makes a catalog important—a single point of access to ALL library resources, not a vendor silo.

Maximizing Your Electronic Holdings

To make the best use of “Mark and Boost Electronic Resources,” we need to know about all your electronic resources. Unfortunately, some systems separate MARC holdings and electronic holdings; all resources appear in the catalog, but only some are available for export to Syndetics Unbound. Other libraries send us holding files with everything, but they are unable to send us updates every time new electronic resources are added.

To address this issue, we have therefore advanced a new feature—”Auto-discover electronic holdings.” Turn this on and we build up an accurate representation of your library’s electronic resource holdings, without requiring any effort on your part.

mab_easyholdings

Adapting to Change

“Mark and Boost Electronic Resources” is our first feature change to address the current crisis. But we are eager to do others, and to adapt the feature over time, as the situation develops. We are eager to get feedback from librarians and patrons!

— The ProQuest and LibraryThing teams

Labels: new features, new product, Syndetics Unbound

posted by Tim @3:12 pm Comments Off on New Syndetics Unbound Feature: Mark and Boost Electronic Resources
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    • Thursday, October 27th, 2016

    Introducing Syndetics Unbound

    oa_logo_425w

    Short Version

    Today we’re going public with a new product for libraries, jointly developed by LibraryThing and ProQuest. It’s called Syndetics Unbound, and it makes library catalogs better, with catalog enrichments that provide information about each item, and jumping-off points for exploring the catalog.

    To see it in action, check out the Hartford Public Library in Hartford, CT. Here are some sample links:

    We’ve also got a press release and a nifty marketing site.

    UPDATE: Webinars Every Week!

    We’re now having weekly webinars, in which you can learn all about Syndetics Unbound, and ask us questions. Visit ProQuest’s WebEx portal to see the schedule and sign up!

    Long Version

    oa_sample2

    The Basic Idea

    Syndetics Unbound aims to make patrons happier and increase circulation. It works by enhancing discovery within your OPAC, giving patrons useful information about books, movies, music, and video games, and helping them find other things they like. This means adding elements like cover images, summaries, recommendations, series, tags, and both professional and user reviews.

    In one sense, Syndetics Unbound combines products—the ProQuest product Syndetics Plus and the LibraryThing products LibraryThing for Libraries and Book Display Widgets. In a more important sense, however, it leaps forward from these products to something new, simple, and powerful. New elements were invented. Static elements have become newly dynamic. Buttons provide deep-dives into your library’s collection. And—we think—everything looks better than anything Syndetics or LibraryThing have done before! (That’s one of only two exclamation points in this blog post, so we mean it.)

    Simplicity

    Syndetics Unbound is a complete and unified solution, not a menu of options spread across one or even multiple vendors.

    This simplicity starts with the design, which is made to look good out of the box, already configured for your OPAC and look.

    The installation requirements for Syndetics Unbound are minimal. If you already have Syndetics Plus or LibraryThing for Libraries, you’re all set. If you’ve never been a customer, you only need to add a line of HTML to your OPAC, and to upload your holdings.

    Although it’s simple, we didn’t neglect options. Libraries can reorder elements, or drop them entirely. We expect libraries will pick and choose, and evaluate elements according to patron needs, or feedback from our detailed usage stats. Libraries can also tweak the look and feel with custom CSS stylesheets.

    And simplicity is cheap. To assemble a not-quite-equivalent bundle from ProQuest’s and LibraryThing’s separate offerings would cost far more. We want everyone who has Syndetics Unbound to have it in its full glory.

    Comprehensiveness and Enrichments

    Syndetics Unbound enriches your catalog with some sixteen enrichments, but the number is less important than the options they encompass. These include both professional and user-generated content, information about the item you’re looking at, and jumping-off points to explore similar items.

    Quick descriptions of the enrichments:

    enrichment-screenshots_0000_1-cover-images

    Boilterplate covers for items without covers.

    Premium Cover Service. Syndetics offers the most comprehensive cover database in existence for libraries—over 25 million full-color cover images for books, videos, DVDs, and CDs, with thousands of new covers added every week.

    For Syndetics Unbound, we added boilerplate covers for items that don’t have a cover, which include the title, author, and media type.

    Summaries. Over 18 million essential summaries and annotations, so patrons know what the book’s about.

    About the Author. This section includes the author biography and a small shelf of other items by the author. The section is also adorned by a small author photo—a first in the catalog, although familiar elsewhere on the web.

    Look Inside. Includes three previous Syndetics enrichments—first chapters or excerpts, table of contents and large-size covers—newly presented as a “peek inside the book” feature.

    Series. Shows a book’s series, including reading order. If the library is missing part of the series, those covers are shown but grayed out.

    You May Also Like. Provides sharp, on-the-spot readers advisory in your catalog, with the option to browse a larger world of suggestions, drawn from LibraryThing members and big-data algorithms. In this and other enrichments, Syndetics Unbound only recommends items that your library owns.

    The Syndetics Unbound recommendations cover far more of your collection than any similar service. For example, statistics from the Hartford Public Library show this feature on 88% of items viewed.

    Professional Reviews includes more than 5.4 million reviews from Library Journal, School Library Journal, New York Times, The Guardian, The Horn Book, BookList, BookSeller + Publisher Magazine, Choice, Publisher’s Weekly, and Kirkus. A la carte review sources include Voice of Youth Advocates: VOYA, Doody’s Medical Reviews and Quill and Quire.

    Reader Reviews includes more than 1.5 million vetted, reader reviews from LibraryThing members. It also allows patrons and librarians to add their own ratings and reviews, right in your catalog, and then showcase them on a library’s home page and social media.

    Also Available As helps patrons find other available formats and versions of a title in your collection, including paper, audio, ebook, and translations.

    enrichment-screenshots_0010_10-tags

    Exploring the tag system

    Tags rethinks LibraryThing’s celebrated tag clouds—redesigning them toward simplicity and consistency, and away from the “ransom note” look of most clouds. As data, tags are based on over 131 million tags created by LibraryThing members, and hand-vetted by our staff librarians for quality. A new exploration interface allows patrons to explore what LibraryThing calls “tag mashes”—finding books by combinations of tags—in a simple faceted way.

    I’m going to be blogging about the redesign of tag clouds in the near future. Considering dozens of designs, we decided on a clean break with the past. (I expect it will get some reactions.)

    Book Profile is a newly dynamic version of what Bowker has done for years—analyzing thousands of new works of fiction, short-story collections, biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs annually. Now every term is clickable, and patrons can search and browse over one million profiles.

    enrichment-screenshots_0012_12-reading-level

    Explore Reading Levels

    Reading Level is a newly dynamic way to see and explore other books in the same age and grade range. Reading Level also includes Metametrics Lexile® Framework for Reading. Click the “more” button to get a new, super-powered reading-level explorer. This is one my favorite features! (Second and last exclamation point.)

    Awards highlights the awards a title has won, and helps patrons find highly-awarded books in your collection. Includes biggies like the National Book Award and the Booker Prize, but also smaller awards like the Bram Stoker Award and Oklahoma’s Sequoyah Book Award.

    Browse Shelf gives your patrons the context and serendipity of browsing a physical shelf, using your call numbers. Includes a mini shelf-browser that sits on your detail pages, and a full-screen version, launched from the detail page.

    Video and Music adds summaries and other information for more than four million video and music titles including annotations, performers, track listings, release dates, genres, keywords, and themes.

    Video Games provides game descriptions, ESRB ratings, star ratings, system requirements, and even screenshots.

    Book Display Widgets. Finally, Syndetics Unbound isn’t limited to the catalog, but includes the LibraryThing product Book Display Widgets—virtual book displays that go on your library’s homepage, blog, LibGuides, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or even in email newsletters. Display Widgets can be filled with preset content, such as popular titles, new titles, DVDs, journals, series, awards, tags, and more. Or you point them at a web page, RSS feed, or list of ISBNs, UPCs, or ISSNs. If your data is dynamic, the widget updates automatically.

    Here’s a page of Book Display Widget examples.

    Find out More

    Made it this far? You really need to see Syndetics Unbound in action.

    Check it Out. Again, here are some sample links of Syndetics Unbound at Hartford Public Library in Hartford, CT: The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, Faithful Place by Tana French.

    Webinars. We hold webinars every Tuesday and walk you through the different elements and answer questions. To sign up for a webinar, visit this Webex page and search for “Syndetics Unbound.”

    Interested in Syndetics Unbound at your library? Go here to contact a representative at ProQuest. Or read more about at the Syndetics Unbound website. Or email us at ltflsupport@librarything.com and we’ll help you find the right person or resource.

    Labels: librarything for libraries, new feature, new features, new product

    posted by Tim @10:45 am 4 Comments »
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    • Thursday, February 5th, 2015

    Subjects and the Ship of Theseus

    I thought I might take a break to post an amusing photo of something I wrote out today:

    subjecttables

    The photo is a first draft of a database schema for a revamp of how LibraryThing will do library subjects. All told, it has 26 tables. Gulp.

    About eight of the tables do what a good cataloging system would do:

    • Distinguishes the various subject systems (LCSH, Medical Subjects, etc.)
    • Preserves the semantic richness of subject cataloging, including the stuff that never makes it into library systems.
    • Breaks subjects into their facets (e.g., “Man-woman relationships — Fiction”) has two subject facets

    Most of the tables, however, satisfy LibraryThing’s unusual core commitments: to let users do their own thing, like their own little library, but also to let them benefit from and participate in the data and contributions of others.(1) So it:

    • Links to subjects from various “levels,” including book-level, edition-level, ISBN-level and work-level.
    • Allows members to use their own data, or “inherit” subjects from other levels.
    • Allows for members to “play librarian,” improving good data and suppressing bad data.(2)
    • Allows for real-time, fully reversible aliasing of subjects and subject facets.

    The last is perhaps the hardest. Nine years ago (!) I compared LibraryThing to the “Ship of Theseus,” a ship which is “preserved” although its components are continually changed. The same goes for much of its data, although “shifting sands” might be a better analogy. Accounting for this makes for some interesting database structures, and interesting programming. Not every system at LibraryThing does this perfectly. But I hope this structure will help us do that better for subjects.(3)

    Weird as all this is, I think it’s the way things are going. At present most libraries maintain their own data, which, while generally copied from another library, is fundamentally siloed. Like an evolving species, library records descend from each other; they aren’t dynamically linked. The data inside the records are siloed as well, trapped in a non-relational model. The profession that invented metadata, and indeed invented sharing metadata, is, at least as far as its catalogs go, far behind.

    Eventually that will end. It may end in a “Library Goodreads,” every library sharing the same data, with global changes possible, but reserved for special catalogers. But my bet is on a more LibraryThing-like future, where library systems will both respect local cataloging choices and, if they like, benefit instantly from improvements made elsewhere in the system.

    When that future arrives, we got the schema!

    1. I’m betting another ten tables are added before the system is complete.
    2. The system doesn’t presume whether changes will be made unilaterally, or voted on. Voting, like much else, existings in a separate system, even if it ends up looking like part of the subject system.
    3. This is a long-term project. Our first steps are much more modest–the tables have an order-of-use, not shown. First off we’re going to duplicate the current system, but with appropriate character sets and segmentation by thesaurus and language.

    Labels: cataloging, subjects

    posted by Tim @7:44 pm 3 Comments »
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    • Tuesday, January 20th, 2015

    LibraryThing Recommends in BiblioCommons

    BibliocommonsLT003

    Does your library use BiblioCommons as its catalog? LibraryThing and BiblioCommons now work together to give you high-quality reading recommendations in your BiblioCommons catalog.

    You can see some examples here. Look for “LibraryThing Recommends” on the right side.

    Quick facts:

    • As with all LibraryThing for Libraries products, LibraryThing Recommends only recommends other books within a library’s catalog.
    • LibraryThing Recommends stretches across media, providing recommendations not just for print titles, but also for ebooks, audiobooks, and other media.
    • LibraryThing Recommends shows up to two titles up front, with up to three displayed under “Show more.”
    • Recommendations come from LibraryThing’s recommendations system, which draws on hundreds of millions of data points in readership patterns, tags, series, popularity, and other data.

    Not using BiblioCommons? Well, you can get LibraryThing recommendations—and much more—integrated in almost every catalog (OPAC and ILS) on earth, with all the same basic functionality, like recommending only books in your catalog, as well as other LibraryThing for Libraries feaures, like reviews, series and tags.

    Check out some examples on different systems here.

    Interested?

    BiblioCommons: email info@bibliocommons.com or visit http://www.bibliocommons.com/AugmentedContent. See the full specifics here.
    Other Systems: email abby@librarything.com or visit http://www.librarything.com/forlibraries.

    Labels: Uncategorized

    posted by Tim @12:43 pm Comments Off on LibraryThing Recommends in BiblioCommons
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    • Tuesday, October 14th, 2014

    Send us a programmer, win $1,000 in books.

    We just posted a new job post Job: Library Developer at LibraryThing (Telecommute).

    To sweeten the deal, we are offering $1,000 worth of books to the person who finds them. That’s a lot of books.

    Rules! You get a $1,000 gift certificate to the local, chain or online bookseller of your choice.

    To qualify, you need to connect us to someone. Either you introduce them to us—and they follow up by applying themselves—or they mention your name in their email (“So-and-so told me about this”). You can recommend yourself, but if you found out about it from someone else, we hope you’ll do the right thing and make them the beneficiary.

    Small print: Our decision is final, incontestable, irreversible and completely dictatorial. It only applies when an employee is hired full-time, not part-time, contract or for a trial period. If we don’t hire someone for the job, we don’t pay. The contact must happen in the next month. If we’ve already been in touch with the candidate, it doesn’t count. Void where prohibited. You pay taxes, and the insidious hidden tax of shelving. Employees and their families are eligible to win, provided they aren’t work contacts. Tim is not.

    » Job: Library Developer at LibraryThing (Telecommute)

    Labels: jobs

    posted by Tim @10:04 am 1 Comment »
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    • Tuesday, October 14th, 2014

    Job: Library Developer at LibraryThing (Telecommute)

    Code! Code! Code!

    LibraryThing, the company behind LibraryThing.com and LibraryThing for Libraries, is looking to hire a top-notch developer/programmer.

    We like to think we make “products that don’t suck,” as opposed to much of what’s developed for libraries. We’ve got new ideas and not enough developers to make them. That’s where you come in.

    The Best Person

    • Work for us in Maine, or telecommute in your pajamas. We want the best person available.
    • If you’re junior, this is a “junior” position. If you’re senior, a “senior” one. Salary is based on your skills and experience.

    Technical Skills

    • LibraryThing is mostly non-OO PHP. You need to be a solid PHP programmer or show us you can become one quickly.
    • You should be experienced in HTML, JavaScript, CSS and SQL.
    • We welcome experience with design and UX, Python, Solr, and mobile development.
    shutterstock_59784454

    The highly-photogenic LibraryThing staff only use stock photos ironically.

    What We Value

    • Execution is paramount. You must be a sure-footed and rapid coder, capable of taking on jobs and finishing them with attention and expedition.
    • Creativity, diligence, optimism, and outspokenness are important.
    • Experience with library data and systems is favored.
    • LibraryThing is an informal, high-pressure and high-energy environment. This puts a premium on speed and reliability, communication and responsibility.
    • Working remotely gives you freedom, but also requires discipline and internal motivation.

    Compensation

    • Gold-plated health insurance.
    • Cheese.

    How To Apply

    • We have a simple quiz, developed back in 2011. If you can do it in under five minutes, you should apply for the job! If not, well, wasn’t that fun anyway?
    • To apply, send a resume. Skip the cover letter, and go through the blog post in your email, responding to the tangibles and intangibles bullet-by-bullet.
    • Also include your solution to the quiz, and how long it took you. Anything under five minutes is fine. If it takes you longer than five minutes, we won’t know. But the interview will involve lots of live coding.
    • Feel free to send questions to tim@librarything.com, or Skype chat Tim at LibraryThingTim.
    • Please put “Library developer” somewhere in your email subject line.

    Labels: jobs

    posted by Tim @9:50 am 8 Comments »
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    • Friday, April 11th, 2014

    Come Learn PHP at ALA 2014

    EnoughLogo_350

    Summary: Tim, LibraryThing’s founder, is going to be giving a one-day, almost-free introduction to PHP programming on Friday, June 27, alongside the preconference day of ALA 2014 in Las Vegas, NV.

    “Enough PHP to Be Dangerous” will cover the basics of PHP, the most common web programming language. It’s designed for people with little programming experience.(1)

    Instruction will be project-based–a series of brief explanations followed by hands-on problem solving. You won’t emerge a PHP master, but you’ll know enough to be dangerous!(2)

    We’ll presume some familiarity with the web, including basic HTML. You must bring your own laptop. We’ll ask you to set up a simple development environment before you come–we’ll send instructions. You should be connected to libraryland somehow. Prepare for a mental workout–there’s no point going slow when we only have a day.

    Where? The session will be held Friday June 27, 9am-5pm at Embassy Suites Convention Center, three blocks from the Convention Center.

    How do I sign up? Email tim@librarything.com. Say who you are and put “Enough PHP to Be Dangerous” in the subject line.

    We’ll close applications on Monday, April 14 at 4:00 PM EST. If more than 30 people sign up, we’ll pick the winners randomly. If fewer, we’ll allow people to sign up after the deadline on a first-come-first-served basis.

    What Does it Cost? On the day of we’ll pass the hat, asking $55 to cover the $45 cost of hotel-provided muffins, coffee and sandwiches, and some of the cost of the room, equipment and wifi. If $55 is a hardship for you, no problem–we’ll waive the fee, and you’ll still get a sandwich.

    Why do I need this? Libraryland needs more programmers, and people who know what programming is. Libary software vendors exert outsized power and too often produce lousy software because the community has limited alternatives. The more library programmers, the better.

    Why are you doing this? Conferences are hugely expensive to exhibit at. They’re worth it, but it’s a shame not to do more. If we’re going to be out there anyway, adding a day, a room and a projector doesn’t add much to the cost, and could help the community. Also, I’m a frustrated former Latin teacher, so it’ll be fun for me!(3)

    Is this officially connected to ALA, LITA, Library Code Year, etc.? Nope. We’re doing this on our own. It’s easier that way. Of course, we love all these groups, especially our friends at LITA.(4)

    Will the class be broadcast? No. That sounds fiddly. Maybe another time.

    Want to help out? If you’re a programmer and want to help make this happen, email me. It would be great to have another programmer or two helping people figure out why their script won’t run. It’ll be fun, and you can put it on your resume.

    1. If you tried to learn something years ago, or do a little cutting and pasting of JavaScript, fine. If you’re a master of another programming language, you’ll be bored.
    2. We’ll focus on the most basic skills–variables, loops, functions, etc. We’ll focus on non-OO PHP. We’ll print up some funny diplomas, so you can show off your new-found dangerousness back at the library.
    3. Alas, the hotel doesn’t provide chalk boards.
    4. We take inspiration from Introductory Python Workshop at ALA 2013, put together by Andromeda Yelton and others.

    Labels: ala, ala2014, instruction

    posted by Tim @10:40 am 3 Comments »
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    • Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013

    The LibraryThing Conference-Pen Olympics

    The New England Library Association (NELA) has come to a close. The final event–not publicized in official documents–was the LibraryThing Conference-Pen Olympics, consisting of Tim taking (sometimes stealing) pens from all the exhibitors and taking them back to the LibraryThing office for a test drive. As regular conference-goers know everyone has pens, but not all pens are created equal. NELA was a low-pen-quality event—no Pilot Precise V5 Rolling balls, no “Wavy Clip Pens.” But some were better than others.

    The Competitors

    The Judging
    Judges evaluated feel, stroke and appearance. Syracuse University wrote well, but twists rather than clicking—life is too short for that. The University of South Carolina achieves a satisfying heft but is too fat to hold comfortably. OCLC’s entrant was cheap–flimsy and blunt, with their logo reduced to black and white–and came with a microprinted “usage policy” on the side, claiming ownership of anything you write with it.

    Second Runner-Up: Access Engineering
    Chosen by Loranne for its heft and grippy-thing. The pen advertises some sort of engineering program available from McGraw-Hill.

    First Runner-Up: ProQuest
    Chosen by K.J., who opines “I chose my pen because I like to fiddle with pens during meetings, and the metal clip is bendable but likely won’t snap.” I appreciate its pleasing kaleidoscopic interior, reliable-sounding “click,” and sharp writing ball. Advertises ProQuest, a major provider of library content and services. (They’re also sister-company to Bowker, who sell our products to libraries—but that’s not why they won!)

    The Winner: Equinox
    Chosen by Tim, Abby and Matt. Matt described it as “wholesome.” I’m not sure what he means by that. I like it for its satisfying click, smooth writing and decent weight. Advertises Equinox Software, a (rather good) provider of open source ILS systems. As the winner, Equinox will be the first pen Tim destroys by chewing on it.

    Labels: conference

    posted by Tim @1:20 pm 5 Comments »
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    • Tuesday, October 15th, 2013

    NELA and a Hometown LibraryThing Party!

    This weekend NELA (New England Library Association) comes to Portland, Maine, for three days of exhibits and talks. We’ll be exhibiting, of course, showing off LibraryThing for Libraries, Book Display Widgets and our other products to librarians around New England. Come visit it at booth 702.

    LibraryThing Hometown Party!

    And we’ll be partying! For Portland, Maine is also home to LibraryThing, and “Castle LibraryThing” (okay, Tim’s house and LT’s office) is just a few blocks down the street from the Conference Hotel. We’re not likely to see another library conference in Portland any time soon, so we’re doing it up!

    And if we’re going to do it, why not invite local booksellers and other members? We’ll even let vendors in. Tim’s lending us his bookish home. There’ll be (real) food and drink, books, music and conversation.

    So, if you’re in town for NELA, or just want to party with librarians, bookish people, LibraryThing members (and most of the LibraryThing staff) visit us this Sunday at 7:00, after the reception and exhibition hall closes, until whenever.

    Details:

    Sunday, October 20
    7:00 to whenever
    286 Spring Street (Green House)

    How to get there:

    Exit the hotel, turn left and walk.
    Or come by car; there’s on-street parking.

    RSVP on Facebook!

    Labels: librarything for libraries, NELA2013, portland

    posted by Tim @1:46 pm 1 Comment »
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    • Wednesday, March 13th, 2013

    New “Check Library” button for LTFL libraries

    We’ve just introduced an exciting new LibraryThing for Libraries product, called the “Check Library” button.

    In brief, the “Check Library” button is a “bookmarklet” that libraries can give to their patrons. It allows patrons to check if your library has a book while on another website, like Amazon.com or anywhere.

    We think it’s nifty and useful—a great way to boost circulation and patron happiness. We really want it out there, however, so every current LibraryThing for Libraries customer gets it for free!

    60-Second Video

    Here’s a 60-second video about it. It’s really all you need. The video is general, but we use the High Plains Library District’s button as an example.

    Other examples:

    Not Using LTFL?

    The “Check Library” bookmarklet comes with LibraryThing for Libraries. If you don’t use LibraryThing for Libraries but want your own “Check Library” feature, email abby@librarything.com. We’d love to give it to you, and won’t charge an arm and a leg.

    Details for the Detail-Oriented

    What is it? The button is a “bookmarklet,” a little button people can drag to their “bookmarks” bar.

    Once you have it, you can use it anytime you’re on a page about books—Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, and more. The bookmarklet pops up a little mini-window on the page. This tells you if your library has the book, and links directly to all the editions your library has.

    Behind the scenes it’s finding the ISBNs on the page, checking them against LibraryThing’s huge editions database, checking those against your holdings, and returning a list of those holdings with links. Although geared to books, it will work with anything that has an ISBN. It works even if LibraryThing has never seen the ISBN, so long as there’s an exact match in your holdings.

    How to Get It. Every LTFL library gets its own bookmarklet that’s set up just for it. To get your library’s, LTFL customers should log in and go to http://www.librarything.com/forlibraries/configure-bookmarklet.php and click “Your bookmarklet page.” That will take you to the “get it” page for patrons.

    Once you have your page, promote it to your patrons. For example, so far, Port Phillips has put it on their home page and Burdekin Library have it on their Facebook page.

    Customize It. Like other enhancements, the bookmarklet is highly customizeable. Go to http://www.librarything.com/forlibraries/configure-bookmarklet.php

    Update Your Holdings. Because the bookmarklet, like most LTFL enhancements, works off your holdings, it’s imperative you keep your holdings up to date. (If it doesn’t find something it suggests the user perform a catalog search, but how many users will do that?) You can upload holdings and review your recent uploads here.

    If You Don’t Want It. If you don’t want the bookmarklet, do nothing. The page you get it from has an unguessable URL. If you want to make sure it’s turned off, go to http://www.librarything.com/forlibraries/settings.php.

    Let Us Know. As a new feature, we’re eager to get your feedback. And if you post about it on Facebook, Twitter, or your blog, we’d love to know.

    Labels: Uncategorized

    posted by Tim @10:29 am 8 Comments »
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