Flash-Mob Cataloging Party

We're having a "flash-mob" cataloging party November 15th, Saturday, in Beverly, MA (just north of Boston). We'll descend on St. John's Episcopal Church, catalog their 1,200-odd books, eat some pizza, talk some talk and leave them with a gleaming new LibraryThing catalog. Books, bibliophiles, conversation, barcode scanners, pizza! (Not to mention Mike, Sonya, Tim, maybe Abby, with a slight chance of Liam.)

Why: Quite a few small libraries use LibraryThing as their catalog—schools, churches, synagogues, Masonic temples, companies, museums, and even a couple of embassies! They find LibraryThing much cheaper and easier to use than most "library automation" software. (More about organizations using LibraryThing here.)

But it's not always easy for a single overworked volunteer to catalog a big collection. So we thought we'd try a "flash-mob" cataloging party and see how fast we can enter an entire library into LibraryThing. A bunch of us will be there with laptops and barcode scanners in hand—and we're inviting anyone in the area to join us.

Details: Join us..

• The day: Saturday, November 15th.
• The time: TBD, probably starting at 10:00 or 11:00, but come whenever.
• The place: St. John's Episcopal Church in Beverly Farms, MA (Google map)

Talk? Ride? I've started a discussion on the Bostonians group. I'm sure we can figure out how to get even car-less people there.

Come on: Pizza. Laptops. CueCats. Take pictures. Leave after a day's work with a LibraryThing catalog in place. Do good. Have fun.

Just email Abby for details/to RSVP.

Early Reviewers October Bonus Batch

This month we're trying something new with our Early Reviewers bonus batch. Sourcebooks is offering up 2,500 "copies" of In the Land of Invisible Women as an electronic download. The first 2,500 people will be able to download a copy to read and review.

Read a description of the memoir on the Early Reviewers list page:
http://www.librarything.com/er/list

And then you don't even have to bother clicking "request it!" Just click here to download your copy.

You have until Friday October 31st to download a copy.

The author, Dr. Qanta Ahmed will be on LibraryThing doing an Author Chat from November 10-21. Read it now, and save your questions for her!

LibraryThing Reviews in Library Catalogs

We've just released a new feature for LibraryThing for Libraries—Reviews.

LibraryThing reviews will start showing up in library catalogs across the country, and library patrons will be able to add their own reviews directly into a library catalog. But that's not all. Check out this post on Thingology for more.

Bigger than the Library of Congress

LOC photo taken by Abby, two days after LibraryThing
became a "real company" in 2006

LibraryThing now has 32,287,447 books cataloged—finally surpassing the number of books in the Library of Congress (32,124,001 according to the ALA Fact Sheet). We've been waiting for this for years, as we slowly made our way up the list. Alas, now that we've topped it, what have we to aspire towards?

We're not trying to say that LibraryThing compares with the LC, in a "real library" sense. We have, for example, 24,119 copies of Tolkien's The Hobbit in LibraryThing, and 15,545 copies of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (and don't even get me started on the Harry Potter books!* No real library stocks books in those kind of quantities!

But the fun of LibraryThing isn't just in the widely held books, it's in those that are shared by only 10 or 20 other members. It's easy to find someone who has read The Hobbit. Finding someone to discuss your more obscure books isn't quite so simple. But on LibraryThing, you can. There are 8 members who list The National Uncanny: Indian Ghosts and American Subjects—8 members who can find each other and have a common interest. The "long tail" of LibraryThing is long indeed.

*See the top 1,000 books and authors here

October Early Reviewer Books

The October batch of Early Reviewer books is up! We've got 55 books this month, and a grand total 1,670 copies to give out.

First, make sure to sign up for Early Reviewers. If you've already signed up, please check your mailing address and make sure it's correct.

Then request away! The list of available books is here:
http://www.librarything.com/er/list

The deadline to request a copy is Sunday, October 26th at 6pm EDT.

Eligiblity:

Publishers do things country-by-country. This month we have publishers who can send books to US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, France, Germany, and Israel. Make sure to check the flags by each book to see if it can be sent to your country.

Thanks to all the publishers participating this month!

5 Spot	Andrews McMeel Publishing	Avon Books
Ballantine Books	Bantam	Beaufort Books
BelleBooks	Canon Press	Cheops Books
Classical Comics	Delta	Demos Medical Publishing
Faith Words	Frog Books	Hammersmith Press
Hunter House	IAP	Leucrota Press
Loving Healing Press	McBooks Press	McClelland & Stewart
New York Review Books	North Atlantic Books	Other Press
Pantonne Press	Picador	PS Books
Random House Canada	Raven Tree Press	Seal Books
Sourcebooks	South Dakota State Historical Society Press	Spunky Books
St. Martin's Griffin	St. Martin's Press	Summertime Publications
YMAA