Archive for February, 2011

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

LTFL new grid display option

We’ve added a new and attractive way to display LTFL enhancements within your library catalog—we call it grid display. Basically, it lets you set a number of rows and columns, and display the data in a grid format. You can also try using  just one row and several columns to create a horizontal look. Ah, the possibilities are endless!

To turn it on: In the LTFL admin pages, click to the Configure page for one of the enhancements (Grid display works for Similar books and for Other editions and translations). Then just click yes to turn it on, and set the number of rows and columns you want. That’s it!

Screenshots: For contrast, below is the same set of similar books, shown in our original classic list view and in list view with covers (Turn covers on!).

Labels: librarything for libraries, ltfl

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

LibraryThing and FRBR?

Jeremy and I just finished writing a long post, LibraryThing dives into editions and expressions, laying out our plans to move LibraryThing to a new structure reminiscent in some ways of the FRBR system familiar to many librarians. Anyone interested in FRBR and cataloging might be interested in checking it out.

LibraryThing has long had a FRBR-like system, with three rather than four “levels,” and some differences in how the levels are conceived. The system is managed by members, and has achieved remarkable results. We believe, for example, that our ThingISBN service, produces better other-edition data for a book than OCLC’s xISBN service, which lacks user input. (Also, ours is free; they charge—but I digress.)

It’s time, however, to move to a more complex system, which can do everything members want to do. Go ahead and check out the discussion.

I posted here because I think the question should engage the larger library world. LibraryThing is a unique test-bed for ideas, and a potential source of both inspiration and actual organization for libraries.

Some questions for librarians:

1. How do you see the system agreeing with or differing from FRBR?
2. What FRBR-related ideas should we take a look at?
3. Which will happen first, RDA or LibraryThing’s new system? (joke)

Labels: cataloging, frbr