Getting started with Library Thing

By Roberta Sibley

Library Thing can be used to keep track of the books you read. It allows for tags, reviews and private comments
for each book in your library. The first 200 books are free, upgrade is $25.

Library Thing can be used with classes as a place where students keep track of what they read, write reviews &
participate in book groups. Teachers can go paperless in keeping track of student reading & reviews.

Library Thing groups can be used to create topics (prompts), and then have students respond to one or several
threads.

Users need to be 13 years old to have an account..

To begin:

1. Go to the Library Thing page at http://www.librarything.com

2. On the right pane, click the JOIN NOW button
3. Create a username and password. Email is optional. If email is not entered forgotten passwords can’t be
retrieved!
4. Leave the photo, about me, my library, real name, etc. blank. For school purposes, we want students to
be anonymous. This account is theirs when they leave the class.

5. Make the account PUBLIC and ALLOW COMMENTS. Comments must be allowed to be in a Group. The
public account allows the teacher to see student libraries.
6. Students should uncheck the boxes with the *email settings,and in the book review section restrict the
reviews to Library thing. Under Miscellaneous, check the Automatically show member contributed book
covers, and always alphabetize your tags.
7. Hit the Save Button and students have an account!
8. Students can start adding books. To add, click the Add books tab at the top of the page. Books can be
searched by title, author, ISBN, etc. Click search after putting title in box.

9. On the right pane, there are a number of choices. Choosing the book with the same cover helps with
visual recognition.

*Students can check the Check email comments posted on profile if they want an email generated when
they get a comment.
10.Click the title to be added to the library. Once it’s added there can be a quick edit to get the basics, or a
full edit for a more extensive record. The quick edit allows tags, reviews and star ratings.. TAGS must be
separated by commas.
11.The full edit screen allows for choice of covers, adding reviews, comments, private comments (I use this
one a lot), dates of starting & ending the book, getting bibliographic info, including MLA citatations, etc.
 Comments
Private comments Save

12. Teachers can look at student reviews by searching for student’s screen name.
To search for the screen
rd
name, go to the SEARCH tab, and in the 3 column, go to MEMBERS and LOCATIONS.

13.What can you see of someone else’s screen? Here’s an example:

You can see their library, their reviews, groups, and URLs.
 GROUPS

14. Groups can be used to have a conversation about books with selected LT
members. Teachers can post topics, and have students respond to the the topic.
The teacher invites the students to the group by username, and the students
would have to go to their Profile page and accept the invitation. Once accepted,
they are members of the group. They reply by clicking Post a Message.

15.Another way groups could be used would be to have a pre-arranged time and have
everyone respond during that time to the individual topics, creating a virtual book
group. This could be at class time or after school.

16.Settings for Groups:

CREATE A NEW GROUP (on the right pane of the Groups page)
Group Name: Give the Group a name (Mr. Jones class 4th hour)
Local? Click Not a local group
Group Options: Who can view this group? – click members only
Who can join this group? - click special people

FORUM: Include a group discussion forum? Click Yes.

Who can post to the forum? Members only. Click MAKE IT! Button.
17.To access groups, go to the Groups tab, OR to your profile page. On the Groups
page right hand pane, there is a link to your groups.

18. If a group is made private, no outsiders can join. The number of read/unread
messages for a group are posted. It is important when working on the Groups page
to refresh the page or you can miss someone who is currently responding.
19. The conversation has some lags, but could be useful if a teacher wanted students
to respond to specific topics, or have a “conversation” in a lab during class by
posting messages. The page must be refreshed to see responses.
20. Click Username to make a private comment to a student or group member.
Options for responding to Group members

21.The teacher can respond to students who have posted to prompts by clicking their
username. This will take the teacher to the users Profile page. At the bottom of the
page the teacher can post a comment. If the Make Private box is checked, only the
teacher and student can see the comment. If the box isn’t checked, all of the
members of the group can see the comment.

22. In Profile settings under EMAIL , check email comments posted on profile, to
get an email every time a group member receives a comment. This does not make the
email public, it generates an email to notify the member that there is a comment.

rev. 10/27/2008