Suggestions for improvements

LIBRARYTHING suggestions

Jim Controvich


Covers:

Many LIBRARYTHING users add covers for a particular title if one does not come with the entry.

When others add the same title but not same language, editions, the year of printing, that title cover is offered to replace the one that was added by me. The title 10 Days that Shook the World by John Reed has some “million” editions and has been translated into a “million” languages. Exaggerations yes! I must have eliminated more than a hundred different covers from later editions/publisher and especially translations just that book alone, and Clancy titles are the same. It is a real pain in the neck. The cover function option should be screened to ensure that one is referring to the specific title based on language, the year of publication, the publisher, maybe the edition. If the new offered covered doesn’t match more sort criteria it isn’t offered at a replacement cover. Just eliminating non matches for language and date of printing/publishing would drastically cut down the clutter.

Also, related to the cover’s issue. When one adds a cover but later decided to change that cover for a better one, LIBRARYTHING offers the discarded cover back to you as another choice for the particular title. One should not be offered title covers they already discarded.

Search function:

LIBRARYTHING has an extremely large number of duplicate entries for the same title. Some of that is due to lazy users who do not search to see if the title is already in the data base. But often when one does search for the particular title they may get a very large number of titles with the same or similar words in the title. It can be faster just to add the title than to scroll through many screens of possibilities. Most good search engines have the ability to search for specific word in sequence at bulleted search using “ ”. LIBRARYTHING would have less clutter if such an option was added. This is especially true for titles pre-ISBN.

Also LIBRARYTHING does not automatically recognize that 3d and 3rd are the same thing. It would be a useful feature to have since some titles have “2d” and other use “2nd”. If one does ask for the correct option the title doesn’t appear.

Adding a book function:

When one searches for a book and gets multiple screens of listings, one must scroll down the page to search for the entry AND if the title is not there, go back to the top of the page to hit the next page option. You should add the next page option at the bottom of the page for the add book function.

Date of book errors:

I can’t believe I am the only user to add a bad publication date. My bionic typing finger some times type 1888 or 988 rather than 1988 for example. I have found no way to sort/screen out the pre 1800 dates in my entries. It would be nice to have a routine to search for bad dates.

Sort by Type of Media:

One of the great strengths of LIBRARYTHING is its ability to aggregate totals by tags and a number of other attributes. But it does not have a aggregate function for the type of media– hardback, paperback, pamphlet, etc etc. It would be useful routine.

Tags:

LIBRARYTHING uses the word “tags” in place of subjects. I realize it be used for other functions especially location–Living Room Bookcase, Book 6, etc., and other uses. It is one of the greatest features of the system yet many users don’t use it. I must have added hundreds of books before realized that tags were or could be subjects. I admit I can be “slow” but I think changing the tag descriptor to “Tags/Subjects” would be encourage more to use that feature.

Author Descriptor:

I would suggest adding “Compiler” into the choices of author descriptors. It is a common descriptor.


LIBRARYTHING Marketing:

I go to numerous booksales and shows and I volunteer at a museum gift shop that sells donated books. I typically ask people I am waiting in-line with while waiting for it to open or customers how they know what they have. 90 % of the time they never heard of LIBRARYTHING. Most express a real interest in the system. I think if you developed a bookmark flyer describing the system that could be left on handout tables I would increase your number of users.

You can't call tags subjects because a) many tags are not subjects, and b) there is a field called subjects which is filled from library listings.

Charts and graphs will easily show you what dates you have listed for your books.

Covers can't be screened for edition. LT does not have an editions level.

2d and 3d cannot be made to be the equivalent of 2nd and 3rd, because they can other meanings.

If you think some of your suggestions are really helpful, each should be a separate RSI so that they can be dealt with easily.

Bookmarks can be found from https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Printables

>1 ControvichLibrary: Some of that is due to lazy users who do not search to see if the title is already in the data base
Um, this comment shows you don't understand how the system works. Librarything is NOT a source. You add a book to your library from other sources.

Also LIBRARYTHING does not automatically recognize that 3d and 3rd are the same thing. It would be a useful feature to have since some titles have “2d” and other use “2nd”
Why would they recognize 3 dimensional or 2 dimensional as 3rd edition or 2nd edition? That's a user problem not a system problem.

LIBRARYTHING uses the word “tags” in place of subjects.
Uh, no. It doesn't. Tags are a completely different section from Subjects. Tags are personal, subjective, and not focused just on the books contents. They can also note location, reading dates, and a variety of other things. IF you are pulling your details from a source OTHER than Amazon, you'll also get subjects.

I would suggest adding “Compiler” into the choices of author descriptors. It is a common descriptor.

This is a customizable list. You can add it for your own use, though normally Compiler and Editor are interchangeable for most compilations.

I can’t believe I am the only user to add a bad publication date. My bionic typing finger some times type 1888 or 988 rather than 1988 for example. I have found no way to sort/screen out the pre 1800 dates in my entries. It would be nice to have a routine to search for bad dates.
Huh. You make sure publication date is a column in your books, and click on the header to sort by it. I thought that worked still. Did someone break it?

>1 ControvichLibrary: Re covers, I assume you're talking about the Recent Member Uploaded Covers module, because that's the place that offers different covers for your books. Otherwise, a cover is either automatically assigned if there is one that defaults to your ISBN, or you get a generic one if the book has no ISBN or no covers associated with your ISBN. If using RMUC module and overwhelmed with unrelated covers, there's a setting 'my ISBN only' which will cut out the noise.

>1 ControvichLibrary: Just to give you some examples of how tags are not subjects - here are some of mine guaranteed not to have other users:

"When I Was Young before I Became A Snob" - (actually, one person borrowed this from me) This tag identifies books I read as a teenager that I wouldnt be caught dead reading, now. (I was probably more fun then)

"The Lean Years" - books during a certain period of my life, when I had no access to books/ libraries.

"Books That Teachers Forced Me To Read"

"In Memory of Ruth" - books I read because of/ or received from my mother.

>5 EGBERTINA: What about 'Visited by the Suck Fairy"? That ought to be applied to some of the books in my library. I cringe at the thought of some of the books I own which I last read years ago. Mind you, some books should get a "This Sucks" tag on first reading anyway.

>6 Maddz: That is a good one, too.