Beyond Method 5

Blog about your experiences . Do you think Goodreads and LibraryThing could be effective readers advisory tools?

I have had an account at Goodreads, since my friend introduced and invited me to join it last year. I mostly use it to keep up with what I have checked out, bought, have read, am reading, or plan to read. It has been a lifesaver for me, because I am great at forgetting about what I am reading. This is usually because I read about 5 or 6 things at one time. :)

I am really glad that I started at Goodreads, because there is no way that I am going to pay to keep up with my books that way. I could use a word document, but instead I choose to use an online too. That means that Library Thing is out. I also prefer Goodreads, because of the ease of the  searches for the books, and I love the fact that at the bottom of the article about the book, it tells you what other readers thought about the book. That has saved me from reading and purchasing what others thought were very mediochre books.

I am not sure how useful either tool would be for reader's advisory, though. First of all, I don't believe that a lot of our patrons are on Goodreads or even know what it is. Secondly, even if they were on Goodreads, I am not sure that having a page that is specific to our library would help them with their reading choices. It might be a good tool to take suggestions for items to add to the collection or to have an idea on what titles are really being enjoyed by our patrons, though. If other libraries know that a large amount of their patrons were on Goodreads and were interested in having discussions about what they were reading, I think it would be a wonderful tool. Patrons could use the opinions of other patrons the way that I do with the readers at the bottom of the pages of the different books.