We’re having a “flash-mob” cataloging party November 15th, Saturday, in Beverly, MA (just north of Boston). We’ll descend on St. John’s Episcopal Church, catalog their 1,200-odd books, eat some pizza, talk some talk and leave them with a gleaming new LibraryThing catalog. Books, bibliophiles, conversation, barcode scanners, pizza! (Not to mention Mike, Sonya, Tim, maybe Abby, with a slight chance of Liam.)

Why: Quite a few small libraries use LibraryThing as their catalog—schools, churches, synagogues, Masonic temples, companies, museums, and even a couple of embassies! They find LibraryThing much cheaper and easier to use than most “library automation” software. (More about organizations using LibraryThing here.)

But it’s not always easy for a single overworked volunteer to catalog a big collection. So we thought we’d try a “flash-mob” cataloging party and see how fast we can enter an entire library into LibraryThing. A bunch of us will be there with laptops and barcode scanners in hand—and we’re inviting anyone in the area to join us.

Details: Join us..

• The day: Saturday, November 15th.
• The time: TBD, probably starting at 10:00 or 11:00, but come whenever.
• The place: St. John’s Episcopal Church in Beverly Farms, MA (Google map)

Talk? Ride? I’ve started a discussion on the Bostonians group. I’m sure we can figure out how to get even car-less people there.

Come on: Pizza. Laptops. CueCats. Take pictures. Leave after a day’s work with a LibraryThing catalog in place. Do good. Have fun.

Just email Abby for details/to RSVP.

Labels: cataloging, flash-mob cataloging