Better internationalization
Important! We know that most non-English speakers are not listed under their language. Until translation was added, all members were counted under LibraryThing.com, and a majority of non-English-language visitors still come through the English-language site. You can always come through any site, but if you speak a language besides English, go ahead and edit your profile to indicate what that is. You'll improve the site for yourself and for others.
As many of you know, LibraryThing is now available in more than a dozen languages, from German to Welsh (complete list). The core of this effort was effected by LibraryThing's members, who have translated our 1,500+ snippets in a wiki-like manner. (The work has been shared on the larger sites; the Welsh translation is largely the work of a single, heroic user, Dogfael!)Translation is great—a triumph of passionate users run amock—but it isn't enough. So today I'm unwrapping a bunch of features aimed at "localization," giving members data on the trends in their language community, and giving them tools to find and connect with their linguistic brethren.
- Language-specific Zeitgeist pages. The Zeitgeist tab now includes a "by language" sub-tab, taking you to stats and trends for German, French, Dutch and the other languages. For some the top ones, the statistics are already interesting. For Lithuanian and it's one member, not so much!
- Language-specific Groups pages. The Groups tab now includes a "Language groups" sub-tab, for all the Groups in French, Spanish, Latin, etc.
- Language groups. Groups can now belong to up to two languages—quite a few are already bilingual. Abby went ahead through the existing groups and did some spot assignments, but may have missed some. If they're yours, you can edit your group to change the language. If they're not, and they're not changing, send us a note and we'll see what we can do.
posted by Tim at 11:39 PM
14 Comments:
I'm surprised that there don't seem to be any Japanese or Korean users of Librarything yet...?
I think a friend or two or mine could help translate the site into Korean if you want.
Another thing I've noticed is that Korean ISBNs don't come up when I search for them. Thanks for the exciting news about localization.
Thanks for the french translation of groups and zeitgeist! We feel less lonely on LT!
The idea of multilingual LibraryThing is wonderful. I'm sure that you've ensured that none of the changes will stop us interacting or checking the shared libraries of those who are in the other language sections?
Geophiles: No, that will never happen. It will provide some extra ways to see the data--ways that bring out what's going on in a particular language area--but the system doesn't actually compartmentalize anything. It actually does better than that: one of the points of the works system is to allow the Estonian and Basque Heinlein-lovers to interact. I think we'll add a "your language" section to "Users with your books," so you can find the others, but it won't be the default and certainly won't be the only way to connect.
Quomodo in lat.librarything.com sodales?
This is tremendous work.
That said: for posterity's sake you might want to fix a couple of typos in your post: "amock" (amok) and "it's one member" (its one member).
I probably overlooked something, but LibraryThing appears to have no members that speak English. I had assumed that the main Zeitgeist page listed everything, as in "Members: 165,347" includes all members not just English speakers. If so, then where is the page that breaks down the English speaking stats?
Yeah, at present it does not. Generating the Zeitgeist is VERY hard on the database, so doing it separately for English and for all is not an option. I do see it's a little strange. Maybe English should be in there and link to an explanation.
Anyone have a suggestion? I'm putting my company's library online, and I need to label each of the books to make sure they stay in the right spot. Anyone else putting labels on their books? And what kind are you using? Thanks!
In response to Anna:
For a high-tech solution, you can get proper self-adhesive spine labels from a library supply company such as Brodart. For a low-tech "quickie" solution, you can print your labels out on regular paper, cut them out, and apply them to the spine with clear tape. Best is proper clear book tape, but clear packaging tape would work. Don't use "scotch" tape, it dries out and becomes brittle too quickly.
It's good to have a language option in the profile. However, it only allows for one language. What about those who speak a number of languages?
Anonymous the First said...I'm surprised that there don't seem to be any Japanese or Korean users of Librarything yet...?
Japanese and Korean users would need to enter their data in the roman alphabet to get the full benefit of LibraryThing's interface (author pages) and social connections. Currently, the site isn't fully functional for those whose libraries aren't predominantly western.
interesting
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