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With all the academia on Newsvine, it would stand to reason that many have quite a collection of books in their library. Now if you are like me, they would be sitting on the bookshelf and be largely unorganized or catalogued.
Thankfully I found a website today which allows you not only to create a list of your books, but compare them to others, discuss them, write and read reviews on them, and get recommendations according to the books you already hold. And if that wasn't enough, you can also tag your books, view other books with the same tags, and even see a tag cloud.
The site is called LibraryThing, and although is still in beta, has all the web 2.0 goodness you could want. You start by signing up with just a username and password, nothing else required, and from there start adding your books. The way the system finds your books is you enter the title, author, ISBN, LC card number, etc. and it does a search in one of multiple locations of your choice. The sources range from Amazon (.com, .ca, or a few others) to the Library of Congress, and from the National Library of Australia to Bahria University, Pakistan. With so many sources available to search, it is rare to be unable to find the book you hold (down to the exact copy, publisher, etc.) If the book is not available in any of the sources, you are able to add it yourself if you wish, giving such information as the date, the ISBN, and the Dewey number. Even further, you can import books into the system from sites such as BookCrossing, What Should I Read Next, Reader2, and Listal.
So what I propose, and have already started, is a Newsvine group on LibraryThing. Once registered, you can view and join the group here, start adding your own books, and begin browsing the books other Newsvine members have read. The site even allows for discussions, so I am sure we will see a few debates on different books. So sign up and let the games (who has the most books) begin!
