Arrr! Bookins joins the crew

Swap site Bookins has joined our piratical crew—swap sites listing their inventories on LibraryThing, and enabling users to move books back and forth with ease. (See original post.)

Although I am not releasing inventory numbers—I don't think the sites would want me announcing them—Bookins' stock and wishlist is a major addition. It's getting easier and easier to swap your books with LibraryThing and its swap partners. And it's great to see websites confident enough in their services that they're willing to be listed alongside their competitors. (Besides LibraryThing users are such book-freaks, they'll probably end up with accounts on all of them.)

Bookins bills itself as "easy, automated and fair." Its unique features include an algorithm for assigning points to books, so a new hardcover of Freakonomics is worth more than an old paperback Tom Clancy novel, and a $3.99 flat shipping rate, with package tracking right on the site. Again, it's nice to see that the dozen or so swap sites aren't just copying each other, but trying out different ideas.

Although fourth to get their data up for LibraryThing's use, the founder, Mitchell Silverman, expressed interest very early. The little matter of getting married and going on honeymoon got in the way.

So, congratulations to him, and to LibraryThing/Bookins users!