Archive for April, 2014

Wednesday, April 30th, 2014

Congratulations to Our Edible Books Contest Winners

Thanks to everyone who entered our Third Annual Edible Books Contest! Once more, you’ve left your judges impressed, and in serious need of cake we can eat right this second. Edible Books would be impossible without you. You can see all submissions for the contest in the EdibleBooks2014 tag gallery.

The Winners

The grand prize goes to LT member nk1271’s collection of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy cake pops. Made for a “geeky” potluck, these strawberry cake pops were accompanied not only by proof that nk1271 really knows where their towel is, but also references to the ill-fated whale and pot of petunias. We loved those additions.

Along with fame and glory, nk1271 will be receiving $50 worth in books, hand-picked for them by LT staff! Additionally, we’ll be sending the following LT swag their way: a LibraryThing t-shirt, stamp, sticker, CueCat, and three lifetime gift memberships to share.

Our first runner-up (and all attendant prizes) goes to Agailbee, for this charming take on the children’s classic, Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Comprised of a whopping 21 individual cupcakes (plus a single larger cake for the head), this confection bears a striking resemblance to its inspiration. He even has feet (chocolate chips), antennae, and branches (both licorice) to climb on. Well done!

3rd Place—We have a tie!

Kudos to our second runner-up (and winner of great prizes), WildNelly, for splitting the vote. We liked two of their creations so much, the judges here at LTHQ just couldn’t decide! One the left, this delicate birthday cake was accompanied and inspired by Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds’ Nests. Below and on the right, we have WildNelly’s homage to the American Girls Mystery series. Made for a daughter who’s a fan, they also held a mystery party, at which guests were challenged to solve the cake’s inspiration, The Curse of Ravenscourt.

Honorable Mentions

The competition was very close this year, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t also tip my hat to jessipete, for their impressively intricate rendition of of Smaug the Golden, from The Hobbit. The level of detail was incredible. I’m also really curious about the Elvish-inscribed cake in the background!

Thanks, everyone!

To all our contestants, congratulations! You all did amazing (and delicious-looking) work! Thanks so much for joining us, and I look forward to seeing more scrumptiously literary creations next year.

To our winners, be sure to check your profile comments shortly for details on claiming your prizes!

Labels: contests, fun

Tuesday, April 29th, 2014

Book Display Widget Improvements

You have asked, and we have answered! We recently added a few improvements to our popular LibraryThing for Libraries product, Book Display Widgets: easier sizing options, a new drop-down menu for multi-widgets, and showing Book Details when you hover on an item.

Easier Sizing Options

White-space got your webpage looking a little empty? Before, re-sizing a widget on your page involved some fancy CSS footwork. But, at the request of several libraries, we have made it easy for you to change the height and width of your widget. You can see instructions here.

Before and After resizing

Drop-Down Switcher for Multi-Widgets

We have added another display option for your Multi-widgets, which allows you to choose either tabs or a drop-down switcher to change between widgets.
Try the new drop-down here:

Show Book Details When Hovering

We added an option to show our new Book Details when hovering over a book (you can also stick with clicking). One click closer to your catalog!

We will be rolling out other improvements to Book Display Widgets in the coming month. Stay tuned!

Labels: Book Display Widgets, librarything for libraries, LTFL, Uncategorized

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2014

Vote for June’s One LibraryThing, One Book

It’s time for our next round of One LibraryThing, One Book! Just like our selection process for the February and March picks, we’re asking for your input.

We had so many great books on our list this time that we couldn’t pick only three, so we’ve got a slate of four. Come rank the titles you’d like to see, and discuss with the community! The winner will be set and announced on Thursday, May 1st, at 11am Eastern.

» Go here or click on any of the covers below to vote!

More Info

We’ll be announcing our winner in another blog post on May 1st. You’re encouraged to start reading right away!

Official discussion will begin on Monday, June 2nd, at 12pm Eastern. As always, we’ll have the “Introduce Yourself” and “First Impressions” threads, for those who’d like to share their thoughts while reading. Stay tuned to the One LibraryThing, One Book group for updates!

If you’re new to One LibraryThing, One Book, be sure to check out the original blog post that started it all.

Questions? Comments?

As always, general questions/comments about One LibraryThing, One Book, are welcome on this thread.

Join us here to discuss the titles up for vote!

Labels: One LibraryThing One Book

Thursday, April 17th, 2014

Welcome Kirsten

We’re delighted to welcome Kirsten Griffith to the LibraryThing team! Kirsten will be working with Abby, Kate, and KJ in providing technical and customer support for our LibraryThing for Libraries products. She’ll be working from the LibraryThing HQ in Portland.*

Kirsten is a longtime LibraryThing member (member GlitterFemme), and an avid reader and book collector. She was born in Massachusetts and lived in Virginia and Puerto Rico before landing in Maine, where she has spent most of her adult life. She lived in San Francisco from 2007–2010 and did her best to clean out the Bay Area’s many independent booksellers, requiring an upgrade from a 10′ box truck to 16′ when she moved from California to Maine.

Kirsten lives with her 16-year-old brother who is a computer and video game aficionado, and their two very spoiled cats. She studies belly dance and ballet, rides a metallic purple beach cruiser, and enjoys trying to make complicated dishes in her tiny, ill-equipped kitchen.

Her favorite authors include Roald Dahl, Brandon Mull, Mercedes Lackey, and Sarah Waters.

You can follow Kirsten on Twitter at @Glitter_Fem.


*For the longest time we were a completely virtual company. We now have enough employees in town to justify the occasional pizza or—today—donuts from The Holy Donut. Progress!

Labels: employees, LTFL

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