Archive for the ‘ltfl’ Category

Monday, March 26th, 2012

Custom Branded Library Apps

Branded apps are now available from Library Anywhere: get the power of Library Anywhere along with custom colors and branded apps downloadable under your library’s name in the app stores!

Branded apps have the same base functionality as Library Anywhere (including catalog integration, account functions, OverDrive integration, a custom homepage, and barcode scanning). But they’re also a complete white label solution—the app is yours alone, with no references to Library Anywhere or other libraries. Branded apps give you the ability to set a custom background color, have a custom app icon, a custom app launching screen—and most importantly, they are downloadable under your library’s name in the Apple and Android app stores.

Check out Tulare County’s iPhone app, now available on iTunes (and soon available on Android phones as well).

Learn more
Contact us for more information or to upgrade your existing Library Anywhere to a branded app.

Email me (abby@librarything.com) with any questions about this or any of the LibraryThing for Libraries OPAC enhancements. To subscribe, contact Peder Christensen at Bowker—toll-free at 877-340-2400 or email Peder.Christensen@bowker.com.

To learn more about the ways in which LibraryThing for Libraries products can enhance your catalog, sign up for a webinar. Webinars are held each Tuesday at either 10am or 2pm Eastern.

Labels: app, branded apps, library anywhere, ltfl

Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

LibraryThing at Computers in Libraries

Tim and I are headed to DC this week for Computers in Libraries. We’ll be at booth #323, so stop by!

We’ll be showing off our new custom branded Library Anywhere mobile apps, our newest addition to the LTFL enhancements, Stack Map, AND a sneak peek at a brand new feature, BookPsychic.

Stop by to see any and everything!

Also remember, we do webinars every Tuesday to show off both Library Anywhere and all the LibraryThing for Libraries enhancements for your library catalog (tags, similar books, other editions, series, awards, shelf browse, reviews, and Lexile measures)! Click here to register. On the Browse Meetings page, search for LibraryThing to see a listing of all upcoming webinars.

Labels: BookPsychic, branded apps, CIL, CIL2012, library anywhere, librarything for libraries, ltfl

Wednesday, March 14th, 2012

At PLA in Philly, sneak peek at new features!

In Philadelphia for PLA? Stop by the LibraryThing booth! Kate and Tim are camped at booth number 2312

We have some new improvements and features for both Library Anywhere and LibraryThing for Libraries to show off.

SNEAK PEEK at BookPsychic
BookPsychic is personalized recommendations for your patrons. The more they rate, the better their recommendations become! The more they discover, the more your collection circulates. BookPsychic will be available early Q2 2012.

Click image above to view PDF handout

New for Library Anywhere: Branded apps
Get the power of Library Anywhere along with custom colors and branded apps downloadable under your library’s name in the app stores! Branded apps are a complete white label mobile solution—the app is yours alone, with no references to Library Anywhere or other libraries. Branded apps are available now—contact us for more information or to upgrade your existing Library Anywhere to a branded app!

Click image above to view PDF handout

Read about Library Anywhere and the rest of our LibraryThing for Libraries enhancements, including our newest addition—Stack Map, on the Library Thing for Libraries homepage.

Stop by the booth at PLA to learn more, or email me (abby@librarything.com) at any time!

Learn more
Email me (abby@librarything.com) with any questions about this any of the LibraryThing for Libraries OPAC enhancements, or our mobile product, Library Anywhere! To subscribe, contact Peder Christensen at Bowker—toll-free at 877-340-2400 or email Peder.Christensen@bowker.com.

Labels: app, BookPsychic, branded apps, library anywhere, librarything for libraries, ltfl, PLA, PLA12

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

LibraryThing for Libraries supported in Discovery Layers

We now have several libraries who have installed LibraryThing for Libraries enhancements in their discovery layers!

Enterprise
Check out Mount Laurel Library, with Reviews and Catalog Enhancements (Tags, Similar Books, and Other Editions) in their Enterprise catalog—See Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoneix.

SOPAC
Arlington Heights Memorial Library has enabled Similar books, Reviews, and Lexile measures in their SOPAC catalog—See the record for The Night Circus.

EBSCOhost Discovery Service
Nelson Public Library in New Zealand has our Reviews and Catalog Enhancements (Tags, Similar Books, and Other Editions) working in EBSCOhost Discovery Service—See the record for The help.

VuFind
As we announced last summer, LibraryThing for Libraries also integrates with VuFind!

Learn more
Email me (abby@librarything.com) with questions about any of the LibraryThing for Libraries OPAC enhancements, or our mobile product, Library Anywhere! To subscribe, contact Peder Christensen at Bowker—toll-free at 877-340-2400 or email Peder.Christensen@bowker.com.

We also do weekly webinars to show off both Library Anywhere and all the LibraryThing for Libraries enhancements for your library catalog (Tags, Similar books, Other editions, Series, Awards, Shelf Browse, Reviews, Stack Map, and Lexile measures)! Click here to register. On the Browse Meetings page, search for “LibraryThing” to see a listing of all upcoming webinars.

Labels: discovery layer, EBSCOhost, Enterprise, librarything for libraries, ltfl, SOPAC

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

Heading to Dallas (visit us at ALA Midwinter!)

Kate and I will be at ALA Midwinter in Dallas this weekend, stop by to say hi! We’ll be at booth 1650.

The exhibits are open from the evening of Friday the 20th through the afternoon of Monday the 23rd. If you’re in the area and weren’t planning on attending, we can offer some free passes to the exhibit hall (note, this will ONLY get you into the exhibit hall, not any of the conference sessions). Click here to get a free exhibit pass.

We also have a series of improvements and features we’re adding to Library Anywhere and to the LibraryThing for Libraries enhancements–watch the blog for more, or stop by the booth for a preview!

Labels: ALA midwinter, librarything for libraries, ltfl

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012

New “theme” for Shelf Browse

We recently added a new metal shelf look for our LibraryThing for Libraries Shelf Browse enhancement. Now you have a choice between a wooden shelf and this new silver “metal” one! Because a picture is worth a thousand words, here are a few screenshots of the same shelf in both themes.



If your library already subscribes to the Shelf Browse enhancement for your catalog you can turn it on easily (just use the “Shelf Theme” dropdown on the Configuration page for Shelf Browse).

Learn more
Email me (abby@librarything.com) with any questions about this any of the LibraryThing for Libraries OPAC enhancements, or our mobile product, Library Anywhere! To subscribe, contact Peder Christensen at Bowker—toll-free at 877-340-2400 or email Peder.Christensen@bowker.com.

We also do weekly webinars to show off both Library Anywhere and all the LibraryThing for Libraries enhancements for your library catalog (tags, similar books, other editions, series, awards, shelf browse, reviews, and Lexile measures)! Click here to register. On the WebEx registration page, under Attend a Meeting click “Browse Meetings” and then “Monthly” to register for scheduled webinars.

Labels: librarything for libraries, ltfl, shelf browse

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

LibraryThing for Libraries International

We’ve recently added a series of improvements to the LibraryThing for Libraries OPAC enhancements, in an attempt to make them more useful and friendly to a non-English audience.

Header text
The header for each enhancement (e.g. “Tags” or “Similar books”) has always been editable, so you can label the Similar books enhancement “You might also like” or “recommended books”. Or, maybe title it “Lignende titler” or “Soortgelijke boeken” or “Liknande böcker” or “Obras similares.”

Translation of all English text
We’ve recently added the ability to let libraries translate the entire interface of the LTFL enhancements. All the text in the reviews lightbox, for example, or in the tag browser. See the below screenshot of the tag browser in a German library.

To use the translation feature, log into your LTFL account and click the Enhancements tab. Click on “Edit/Translate Interface” under the Configure section, and start translating!

Language preferences
When multiple editions of a work are available at your library, LibraryThing for Libraries picks the most popular edition. We’ve just added the ability to preference certain languages. This lets you, for example, pick a less popular German edition over a more popular English one. In the screenshot above, note that it’s pointing to “Sakrileg” by Dan Brown (instead of the English edition, “The Da Vinci Code”).

To enable language preferences, log into your LTFL account and click the Enhancements tab. Then navigate to Global configuration, and scroll down to the new field titled “Edition language preference.” Here you can enter a comma-separated list of MARC language names (e.g., ger, fre) that will control which edition of a work is displayed.

About LibraryThing for Libraries: LibraryThing for Libraries (LTFL) is a system of OPAC enhancements, designed to make your OPAC more engaging and informative. LibraryThing for Libraries enhancements include Tags, Reviews, Similar Books, Shelf Browse, Series, Awards, Lexile measures and Other Editions. We also offer Library Anywhere, a full-featured mobile catalog and website for any OPAC.

To subscribe to LibraryThing for Libraries, contact Peder Christensen at Bowker—toll-free at 877-340-2400 or email Peder.Christensen@bowker.com.

If you already subscribe to one of the LTFL enhancements and would like some help configuring translation settings, email abby@librarything.com.

Labels: international, languages, librarything for libraries, ltfl, translation

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011

LibraryThing for Libraries in VuFind

I’m happy to announce that the LibraryThing for Libraries enhancements for your catalog are now available in VuFind.

You can see the LTFL “catalog enhancements” (other editions, similar books (recommendations), and tags) live in the Swansea University’s catalogue.

LibraryThing for Libraries has a total of nine different OPAC enhancements to pick and choose from: Tags, Lexile® Measures, Other Editions, Reviews, Shelf Browse, Similar Books, Series, Awards and QR Codes. It works on a wide variety of systems—all the major OPACs and many of the minor ones as well. See all the libraries using LTFL here.

Labels: librarything for libraries, ltfl, VuFind

Friday, June 24th, 2011

The Perfect Library Catalog?

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the perfect library catalog. That is, it uses all nine LibraryThing for Libraries OPAC enhancements—Tags, Lexile® Measures, Other Editions, Reviews, Shelf Browse, Similar Books, Series, Awards and QR Codes. All together, we’ve turned an ordinary Webpac library catalog into a social, shareable, graphical, informational and mobile beast!(1)

(Click to see full-size)

Great as it is, this catalog doesn’t exist. Abby and I are working on new handouts for LibraryThing for Libraries and Library Anywhere. For the former we needed a library that used all our enhancements, including a new one we’re announcing today (QR Codes). Unfortunately, although more than 200 library systems use LibraryThing for Libraries to make their OPACs better (a full list), none have absolutely every one of them today. So we’ve made our own, leaning heavily on the excellent Chemeketa Cooperative Regional Library Service, which has almost all our enhancements.

If you’re in New Orleans for the American Library Assocation, come visit us at booth 827. We’ll show you how to make your catalog as good as this one! Or better, because it will actually exist. Oh, and pick up one of our nifty badge thingies.


1. If it had a search bar it would be truly perfect.

Labels: librarything for libraries, ltfl, ltfl libraries

Friday, March 18th, 2011

Introducing Series and Awards

We’ve added a new enhancement to LibraryThing for Libraries, which combines two complementary enhancements: Series and Awards.

The Series enhancement draws from more than 50,000 series, and displays it right in the catalog. We provide a short description of the series (where available) and any related series (for example, The Chronicles of Narnia in both chronological order and in publication order).

For a given book, we display the name of the series and then the titles of all the books within that series. As with all the LTFL enhancements, each title links to that book’s page within your catalog.

See, for example, the page for Thursday Next in Lost in a good book in the Chemeketa Cooperative Regional Library Service Catalog. The series enhancement (displayed on the left-hand side) tells you this book is in the Thursday Next series. Click that series name and you see the series browser, which displays all the titles in that series, and links to each book in the library’s catalog.  If a library doesn’t have a given book, we still list it, but without a link.

Chemeketa has chosen just to show the title of the series in the catalog, but you can also configure the enhancement to show a few “preview titles” and then a show more button which launches the series browser (as in the Pink Carnation screenshot to the right).

Some more examples of the Series enhancement in action on these book pages:

The Awards enhancement taps into more than 25,000 awards and honors. It covers a huge range of awards, from the National Book Award and the Booker Prize to the Salon Book Award and New York Times Notable Book of the Year, or even Oprah’s Book Club selections.

See the awards on these books:

Put it in your OPAC
For ordering information contact Peder Christensen at Bowker—toll-free at 877-340-2400 or email Peder.Christensen@bowker.com.

Questions? email me (abby@librarything.com)

Labels: awards, librarything for libraries, ltfl, series