A few months ago we introduced a new search syntax, allowing you to execute complex searches like:
tag: history author: gibbon
We’ve now added a handy, “Advanced Search” feature, more like that offered by many traditional library catalogs.
You can find it in the search options in “Your Books”:
It opens up a box like this:
When you search it converts your advanced search options into the text syntax, so it’s also a way of showing how that works.
Let us know what you think on Talk.
Labels: new feature, new features, search, small libraries
We’ve updated how you can arrange the fields in your catalog. What was formerly a collection of drop-down menus has been converted to a drag and drop method. Questions or comments? Tell us all about it on Talk.
Test it out and update your catalog styles here!
Here’s what it looks like now:
Details
You’ll still have up to five customizable display styles, A-E as pictured, with a maximum of 14 fields in each style. Now, instead of having to adjust five or six drop-down menus in order to add a field to the middle of a style, or completely rearrange the order in which the fields appear, all you have to do is drag and drop!
You can drag fields over to a style from the collapsible menu on the right side of the page. This menu categorizes various fields according to type/function: “Physical” contains all the options for dimensions of the book, “Classification” features call numbers, Lexile measures, and so on. You can even drag fields from one display style into another, although doing so will remove that field from the original style.
You can reach your Display Style Settings from either the handy little “Settings” button at the top of Your Books, or by clicking the “Settings” that appears in the upper-right corner, just below the site search bar, when you’re signed in and on the LibraryThing home page, or your profile.
Go see it in action and come tell us what you think on Talk!
Labels: new feature, new features, Uncategorized
I’ve added a feature so members and small libraries can record your own primary call-number system–the one that you actually use, if you use one.
You can then add a new field, “Call number” to your display styles:
You do this here, at Settings > Other settings.
Why do this? Well, a few reasons.
Here are the options. Feel free to suggest others. Note that nothing has been taken away here. You can continue to use DDC, LCC and now a new private call-number system without obstacles.
Come talk about this on Talk.
Labels: new feature, new features, small libraries, Uncategorized
We’ve just released a major new feature: lending tracking, or, as libraries call it, “circulation.”
Why are we doing this?
Regular members have long called for a simple way to track lending. But the strongest calls have come from the many small libraries that use LibraryThing–community centers, classrooms, museums, churches, synagogues, ashrams, health centers, masonic temples, etc. We’ve got a list of some our favorites.
Simple but Strong
Although simple to use, “Lending” was designed to be powerful enough for small libraries. Rather than just a field for a name, it’s a full system, with:
Here’s a video I made explaining it:
If you don’t want to watch the video, or want more information, here it is in text.
Come talk to us about it here on Talk.
Where can I find it?
Members who haven’t changed their catalog display styles will find the “Lending” column on style “B.” To add it to a style, go to “Settings.” (This used to be just a “cog” graphic next to the styles.)
You can find Lending summary information as a mode, together with tags, authors, etc.
Here’s how it looks in the catalog. Double-click to add or change a book’s lending status. Although there are a lot of fields, everything is optional. If you just want to track in/out, with no names or dates or due-dates, that’s fine:
Here’s what lending looks like on book pages–a little “book-pocket” icon (
) to edit lending status, and, if the book has a status, an area for showing it.
Here’s what it looks to add a status:
Selecting the “Lending” menu within the catalog (
) shows you summary and transaction information.
There are a lot of options here:
There’s also a “Lending Summary” section for your home page, available under Home > Books:
Thanks. Come talk to us about it here on Talk.
PS: This was a joint effort between myself and Ammar, who did great work, with some help from Chris Holland and others.
Labels: libraries, new feature, new features, small libraries
Over the next week or so we’ll be talking a lot about recommendations on LibraryThing and LibraryThing for Libraries. We’ve been doing a lot of work on this part of the site, and will be rolling out a number of improvements.
Today we’re debuting a new system for showing recommendations on works.
Check it out:
And come talk about it on Talk.
Details. The first change is to the “brief” display on work pages. We have a new way of showing a “shelf,” with both cover and title. We think this is more appealing—to more users—than the previous text-only system.
You can expand to “see more,” to get two more rows, then “see all” to get ten or more. The deeper you go the less confident we are that the recommendation is a good one. But our recommendations are often quite good deep.
If it’s not more appealing to you, you can see the recommendations as text, with series “tucked under.”
If you want to keep it that way, click the “edit” pencil. To keep the number of icons down, you’ll only get this if you click to change views. (Not everyone will like this. I do.)
Besides “covers” and “text” you can also choose to vote on recommendations, as before.
The new way of seeing recommendations has transformed the “All recommendations” subpage. (Here’s the ugly, list-y thing it looked like before.) To the various recommendation types we’ve added “More by this author,” which sorts the authors books by their algorithmic similarity to the book in quesiton, and “‘Old’ Combined Recommendations” for members seeking to compare the old algorithms with the new.
As before, this page shows all the different elements that make up LibraryThing’s “main” (or “combined”) recommendations.
And come talk about it on Talk.
A note on authors and repetition. Algorithmic recommendations are something between a science and an art. There’s a lot of math involved, some of it very complex indeed. But the mathematically “right” answer isn’t much good if it’s boring. So, mathematically, one James Patterson book is statistically most similar to two dozen other James Patterson books before and other author can contribute a book. But who wants to see row after row of that?
Turning math into something stimulating and diverse, yet credible, is complex process. In this case, the same-author problem is addressed not in the initial data, but “at display,” by limiting how many times an author may appear on a given line. You can see this, for example, in the recommendations for The Fault in Our Stars, which restrains John Green from taking over, or Horns, which restrains Joe Hill, but also Steven King, Justin Cronin and others.
Because of differences in screen size, members will now sometimes be presented with slightly different recommendations lists, as books get pushed between rows. We think the drawbacks there are outweighed by the visual benefits of not overloading members wih repetitive recommendations.
Labels: design, new feature, new features, recommendations, Uncategorized
