Friday, February 6, 2009

Examples of Social Networking Add-ons to Library Site

We have received suggestions from both inside and outside D&D that the library feature one or more book-centered social networking sites within our libraries' presence. Such sites allow users to read about books and discuss them with others. Our approach is to link to some of these sites via the UVM Libraries' Facebook page. We hope that you will explore one or more of these sites and let us know what you think.

One such site is called Goodreads, and it allows one to write reviews of books you're reading or have read, and engage in conversation with friends about them. One can also look at what others have said about books you're thinking of reading to get a sense if it's a book you might like.

Similarly, LibraryThing serves as a social networking site for books and their readers, allowing one to rate books, write reviews, read others' thoughts about books, etc. but it also serves as a tool to catalog one's own personal library.

Metacritic serves as a social networking site for films, DVDs, music, and television, and thus might appeal to the users who frequent our media holdings. Metacritic compiles published reviews from significant reviewing sources (New York Times, Salon, New York Daily News, etc.) in addition to allowing one to write reviews and read those of others.

Finally, within Facebook itself, Visual Bookshelf and weRead can be added to one's page to easily engage in interactive discussion about the books you're reading.

Please explore these tools and let us know if you find them useful.

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