+SITE MAP alphabetized with links

Last updated 12/22/2026 (getting close to done, just a few more to come)

Here is a simplified SITEMAP of the places new members from GR will likely want to navigate to quickly. When there is no link, a few short navigational steps are provided. For more in depth discussions, see the +HOW TOs in this group's Directory

Books, Add books https://www.librarything.com/addbooks
___Add books to your library directly from book sources like Amazon (both US and UK) or Library of Congress or many, many others. Use title/author or ISBN. (No GR librarian needed, see also "Sources" below.)

Books, Add books with +ADD coming soon.

Books, Add books manually https://www.librarything.com/addnew.php
___Got a book? Any book? A very specific book? You can add it yourself to your library (and it will become available to others as well), upload your own cover image, and include more details than you thought possible for a book.

Books, Your books https://www.librarything.com/catalog/MEMBERNAME
___This is where you browse your library of books, sort them by almost every conceivable option. It's also a place where you can edit your books. To launch edit of a book see the pencil on the right side. To make batch edits on tags, press and activate the lightning bolt icon. Also note the ABCDE option. Each of those letters represent your own customizable way of view your books. There's so much more on this subject, but that is the gist of it.

Checkmarks, green
___Everywhere you see a green checkmark checked on a book being displayed, LT is reminding you that you have that book in your own LT library data.

Compare books
___Click on a member to be taken to their profile page. Scroll down a bit, until you see "Books you share" and click on the "more books you share" link. It takes you to their library, filtered to the books you both have in your libraries. Want to see their reviews or ratings? Change one of the ABCDE settings (it won't change it for the member, it will change it for you and Your library) to include Ratings and Reviews. Don't forget to save and when it takes you back to their books you share be sure to select the letter setting you changed. Unlike GR, you won't see your info, just the other member's.

Direct Messaging (DM or PM) https://www.librarything.com/search.php?searchtype=newwork_titles&term=
___Click the above link. On the left side click MEMBERS, then enter at the top the LT member name you are looking for. Review the results, click on the member you mean. That brings you to their profile. On the right side of their profile is a white button, "Message" click, write a message, press "Send Message" and done! A link of all your messages (to and from) is now on the left side ( https://www.librarything.com/messages )
___Alternatively, anywhere you see a hyperlinked LT member name, you can click on that which will take you to their profile and on the right the same "Message" ability. If there is no "Message" they have turned that feature off in their settings.

Feeds see "Found friends, now ready to do more"

Friends, from GR https://www.librarything.com/topic/375845#n9040362
___Add a message to help facilitate reunions on the link above, you need only note your GR name (see how others have done it in the messages that are there). To look for someone here from GR, click this group's main page, and in the Search Topics box, key in your friend's GR name, the results will show you a link to their message with their LT name. That is, it will if they have left a breadcrumb trail for their GR friends in a message in the "Find friends from GR" topic. (So, be sure to do it yourself for your GR friends.)

Friends, make new ones
___Join a group. Join another group. Join several groups. Read and make comments. Take a look at profile pages. Groups that members belong to are listed on their profile page, yours will be on your profile page too.
___Note: Some people only want to be called by their full membername, or the personal name they have shared in their profile. You can hover over a member name for a small popup to see how you might personally address them, if they shared that.
__Note: In new messages, use the "@" + their member name if you want them to see or be notified you referred to them, not necessarily in a reply to their message.
__Note: In new messages, you can also use ">"+the message number you are replying to, which is extra handy when you want to reply to more than one message number.

Friends, now ready to organize and see feeds
___After you have found a friend, or any person who you want to follow, look on their profile look to the right.
___Interesting library=is like "following" someone on GR.
___Add friend=is the same as GR, they need to accept/approve.
___Connection list=aka "Contacts" functions like "Interesting library" but additionally you can organize additional kinds in named list you create by setting up a list in the drop down, "Add List." E.g. "GR friends" maybe.
___Now are you ready to see feeds of friends/libraries/connections you've made? Go to https://www.librarything.com/connect and there you will see on the left all your "Connections" organized, clickable. In the center you can then view "All activity," "Books recently added," Reviews" (includes ratings), or only "Ratings." And on the far right, you will see the members that are part of that collection of member connections (or all if you selected All Connections).
___Note: you do not have to have any kind of relationship to DM. I think that is, oops, was the same in GR.
___Note: names of your connections will show on your profile page. That is like GR as well.
___Note: if you look at anyone's profile, you can view their Recent Activity, there actions (add, reviewed, rated) are more briefly noted but clickable.

Groups (create new) https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/edit
___In general, LT groups are like GR groups, with two major differences to keep in mind. There is no ability to organize into Discussion Boards, only Topics. Also there is no ability to blast invitations to other members. You'll have to get the word out through messages via other groups or DMs, and also your new group could be discovered with the search. See "Groups (search for)."

Groups (popular, common, helper) https://www.librarything.com/ngroups
___Browse. Especially be sure to check out the Welcome to LibraryThing! group for all your beginner questions. No need to join. Just start a topic with your question.

Groups (search for) https://www.librarything.com/search.php?searchtype=newwork_titles&term=
___On the left side click GROUPS, then enter at the top word(s) you are looking for in a group.

HelpThing coming soon
__ https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Category:HelpThing

HTML https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/MyHTMLReference
___Like GR, you can use html to bold, italicize, etc. The link above is a member's addition to the wiki of the common html to use.

Import books from GR into LT https://www.librarything.com/topic/375859#n9028722
___It will look daunting, but that's because I wrote down every step (with explanations) to first export your books from GR (it's just a copy, it doesn't remove them) and every step for importing into LT for the first time.

Legacy Libraries https://www.librarything.com/legacylibraries
___What books were in the personal libraries of the historic, the creative, the famous?

Lists (create new) https://www.librarything.com/home#lists
__Lists works a little different than GR. In GR, you see what books are in a list in order of how many votes received for it. In LT, you can sort how you want to see the list! By Author, Title, or by Added date. You can also see who added a book to the list, including your own adds.

Lists (search for) https://www.librarything.com/search.php?searchtype=newwork_titles&term=
___On the left side click LISTS, then enter at the top word(s) you are looking for in a list.

Lists (top Lists) https://www.librarything.com/home#lists
___Various lists featured. (This is also where you can create a new list.)

Message, mark for later
___You can mark any message as "Add to Favorites" (it's under the "more" option, below the message). Then, while you are in "Talk", on the left, under "More" heading you can select "Favorited messages" to review those messages you've made favorites.

Notifications
___Up at the top right of every screen, there is an envelop and a bell. Those will change to a number indicating you have a message addressed to you (in a Talk group) or a DM. Clicking that will bring you to a new page listing what you have waiting for you.

Privacy coming soon

Profile, your profile https://www.librarything.com/settings/profile
___Set up and modify your profile. Don't forget to press Save.

Questions?!? https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/8033/Welcome-to-LibraryThing%21
___Welcome to LibraryThing! is absolutely the best place to ask a question and get speedy answers from other members. Just select "Post a new topic" and ask away.

Review comments https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/24622/75-Books-Challenge-for-2025
___Note: COMMENTS DIRECTLY ON REVIEWS IS NOT ALLOWED. Not like GR. The option has been discussed many times and is always voted down. It will be a long time, if ever, it is reconsidered.
___Note: You can give an anonymous thumbs up on a review. There is no thumbs down.
___You can attach your own review right into a message and invite comments. The link above takes you to a group that welcomes your review (start your very own topic, first! one that you will be adding to as you go along, usually one topic per year per person, but not always). Add a message to your personally named topic and then at the bottom of each message is the option "Attach a review."

Stats https://www.librarything.com/stats/MEMBERNAME/bypages
___Have a look at your reading/library stats, in color.

Stats for the year https://www.librarything.com/stats/MEMBERNAME/year
___Although I had only just recently imported my books from GR, the import also captured my reading dates. I was pleased to see statistical representations of what I read this year.

Socializing https://www.librarything.com/talk
___"Talk" is the socializing hub on LT. Talk is Groups. The sky is the limit what a group can be designed to cover (doesn't have to be just books). See also "Groups (create new)" and "Connections."

Sources for book data https://www.librarything.com/topic/376341#9040715
___When you add a book you have an immense choice of sources. In that link, read that message and a few more in that thread by a long-time LT member's explanation of sources you might consider.

Tagmash https://www.librarything.com/tagmash.php
___On the right enter two or more keywords (tags) and commas in between & see what books match.

Tags https://www.librarything.com/concepts#what
___The concept of tags is used on the web elsewhere, but for GR users, think of it as the equivalent to your GR "nonexclusive shelves" where you can organize your books onto multiple shelves that make sense to you. Where is this done? In the "Your books" page.

TriviaThing https://www.librarything.com/trivia
___Daily book trivia question.

"Work pages" concept Click on link "Work" to the right of any book
___LT founder and developer Tim Spalding once described it as if 5 people are at a party discussing a book, it doesn't matter whether they all read the same edition or not--they are discussing the same work. In GR, it was librarians who combined editions under a single work. In LT, the work page can be maintained by anyone who is willing to learn how. For now, though, I suggest if you run into trouble with your book not properly combining with the right single "Work," go to the Combiners group and describe your issue https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/460/Combiners%21

Wow, this is super. I'll probably come back to remember stuff I forgot how to do.

One thing though - using Amazon as a source can cause trouble with covers as they change depending on what Amazon does. Sometimes an ISBN is reused and the cover changes, or a different reprint comes out with new art. I use Amazon as a source for my audio books since they are basically all from Audible, but I go and grab a cover from Audible and add that to my record so that it stays fixed. If you're not fussy about covers, it won't bother you.

>2 Bookmarque: THANK YOU! I've been seeing the problems with Amazon source because that was my source in my import from GR. Is there is a better source solution I should recommend?

Well, Overcat is a good one to start with since it is a combination of hundreds of library sources. Many people then look at which specific libraries are showing the best results for the edition they have. They then can specify that particular library as an individual source by using the edit button under the source list on the left. New York Public library is a common choice for US editions, for example. Folks in other countries can use a large library more local to them, so it's quite flexible.

>3 DebiCates: depends on what you care about. The only true source of accuracy is Manual Addition (under Other options, next to import "Add Manually") where you can enter every detail based on the work in front of you..... the downside is you need to have the book in front of you (and a scanner and) it can take ages.

Amazon.UK strangely has less poor data in it the amazon.com, although the ISBN covers issue remains. Library entries least likely to fiddle with ISBN problems, but they are a varied source, and fiction paperbacks are sometimes hard to find. "Best " very much depends on what book it is you're trying to add.

>4 Bookmarque: Thank you again. I'll try Overcat and New York Public library myself--my imported editions are a mess--and will certainly put that as a suggestion above.

Here's a look at what you get when you click Edit and Reorder under the Search Where list on the Add books page -



I've filtered on featured, but if you want even more choices you can go to all. Of course you'd keep scrolling down to find the UK and all other countries listed alphabetically.

>5 reading_fox: It's so strange how GR is wholly owned Amazon company, but using them as a source has been a hot messl (As I've been reviewing the books that imported, a lot are insanely awful.)

But, in service of trying to get started, I need to suggest the best possibilities to start as a default.

>7 Bookmarque: I did see that at some point...and was overwhelmed. I chose amazon books thinking that would be the most well-matched to GR. How wrong I was.

And of course @reading_fox is right about manual entry - I use it now and again when needed and it's not as onerous as folks think. Usually it connects up to the work itself and I don't have to do much else except choose a cover or upload one.

>9 DebiCates: Yeah, Amazon is a disaster for accurate records.

Choosing Overcat first is probably the easiest and less confusing choice. For specialized books (like medicine or science) a person might see a particular university showing up frequently and then that's a good sign that at least looking at that library as a source would be helpful. This all depends on how fussy a person is about exact matches for their edition. If close enough is good enough, then just grabbing the first book that looks reasonable is fine and Overcat will probably deliver every time.

I do find that for movies, Amazon often has more info than others - like actors and directors named, and that saves time. Yesterday I listed a dozen or so actors for a TV drama, and that took a while. But again, it depends on how nitty gritty you want to be. Most LT folks love the nitty and the gritty, not to mention minutiae and devilish details.

>11 Bookmarque: For me, that's exactly right. I'm not terribly fussy. I just want the books I've read/to read to be in my library with minimal errors and with some basic consistency (title in title, not author and title! Ugh.) I think people coming over from GR like myself have had such limited options that we are use to getting it in the "ballpark." As time goes on and new members learn how particular they can be, they will likely figure out they can tweak their books to get it exact.

Something I wish someone had told me when I first started putting in books is that you can change everything about an entry yourself except for the 'subject' information, which you can look at before adding by clicking the grey box with a question mark. If that data is missing, incorrectly formatted, less specific than you want, too much information, or in the wrong language, the only thing you can do is delete it and make a new entry. Any other information that's wrong can be fixed after adding the book, but LT won't let members touch 'subject' data.

>13 GraceCollection: Thank you for that reminder. On GR, you can change NOTHING about a book, ever. So that has been a great LT boon for me.

>14 DebiCates: If you are a GR librarian, you can change things. I update books all the time in GR.

>15 lesmel: Yes, I've asked GR librarians to change things quite a number of times, even once asked if they would add a book.

Here I guess you could say we are all librarians by default. Of our own libraries.

>16 DebiCates: that is (used to be?) explicitly mentioned somewhere in the about/introduction, everyone's a librarian. Of course I can't find it now - https://blog.librarything.com/2013/04/what-makes-librarything-librarything/ is close.
And with the Common Knowledge areas, it's not just of your own libraries.

>17 reading_fox: Every helper hub page has it I think. "At LibraryThing everyone is a librarian, lending a hand to improve their own catalogs, and others' too."

>16 DebiCates: That's a good point, that some details we add in our own library of books also feed into the greater LT resources!

I just added this. I would appreciate any comments on it--it's still a little bit of a fuzzy area for me.

Work pages
___Each book has an associated "work" page. A work is what every book, every edition, ties into, it's a "literary work." Your book is just one version of it, one edition, one possible translation, etc. For now, you need not worry, only understand that your book will fall under a work page that lists the unchangeable features like author, a version of the title, and when first published, etc.

>20 DebiCates:

unchangeable features like author, a version of the title, and when first published, etc

These are changeable.

>21 lilithcat: I know they can be changed, but as a concept they are the unchangeables that define a "work." Or is there some better way to state that?

>22 DebiCates: I think it will mislead new users to call something unchangeable when it is changeable. I think “shared features” might be a better description.

I think a distinction needs to be made about "shared features" like Common Knowledge and fields like title, author, etc. The first is shared to the work itself and shows up for any edition of the work. This goes also for series information, so please be careful when adding or editing that. When you make a change, you change it for everyone, not just your entry. The second type that shows up in the list view of your catalog or on the edit page, is only for your entry of the item. Changing this won't affect the work or anyone else's entry. Does that make sense or did I just make things worse???

>1 DebiCates:

I believe you have switched up the icons in your profile of Your books:

Books, Your books
___This is where you can browse your books, sort them by almost every conceivable option, launch to editing a book (see the lightning bolt icon) and make batch edits on tags to your books or edit book by book (see the pencil icon on the right).

In fact, the lightning bolt is for batch editing, while the pencil is for editing just one work.

>25 elenchus: Ah! True. Thanks for that. I will fix!

>25 elenchus: Done.

>23 Charon07: I'm going to think about this because I do not want to introduce confusion. I'm going try to find where LT has described "works" and use that explanation.

Anyone know where that might be? ha I'm still a poor pitiful newbie.

>24 Bookmarque: I still get so confused about this topic. But I know it's important to understand. I have been known to cause a helper to want to pull out her hair when I re-added a book she just fixed for me.

I've been changing bad titles that came over from my import (using Amazon as source). Have I been "screwing up the works" so to speak?

I may need to go ahead and take this over to the Welcome to LibraryThings! group as opposed to too much detail here. In fact, I think I've already posted a topic a while back....

>23 Charon07: >24 Bookmarque: I've found the "works page" thread I started (months ago)
https://www.librarything.com/topic/373663#8944592

I'm going to re-read that because I definitely need a refresher. And will pose any questions for clarification there.

Also I saw a link in that thread, which I also need to read carefully.
https://www.librarything.com/topic/368783#n8942458

Do other newbies have problems with the way this works? Are we newbies the source of all the messes made?! ha I'm sure we are.

>28 DebiCates: There’s this in the wiki:

https://www.librarything.com/concepts#works

>31 Charon07: Thank you! Tomorrow I will rework my description.

>32 DebiCates: You need to change your perspective. "'m still a poor pitiful newbie" should be: "I see things with fresh eyes".

Keep up the good work!

>33 bnielsen: That's very nice of you. I appreciate the encouragement.

>23 Charon07: >24 Bookmarque: When you have a minute, I've revamped the "Works page" entry now, and would be glad to have your feedback.

That seems reasonable to me - I think Tim once described it as if 5 people are at a party discussing a book, it doesn't matter whether they all read the same edition or not - they are discussing the work.

>36 Bookmarque: That's a great LT quote. I would love to use that in the "sitemap". https://www.librarything.com/topic/376341#9040454

Wonder if @timspalding would mind?

>37 DebiCates: Go ahead - Tim and LTers have been using variations of that for 20 years. 😊 The cocktail party test is part of the guidelines for combining, too - it's why we keep critical editions like Norton Anthologies, or Latin translations, separate from the main book. (Critical editions were the subject of months of heated debate about whether the additional material is substantial enough to keep it separate... The cocktail party test helped with the final determination.)

>38 keristars: That is extremely informative, the debates you mentioned. Now that I understand (that might be overstating it a bit) Work pages and combining, I see some books from my recent GR re-import need some combining (or uncombining) work.

For example
https://www.librarything.com/work/8195/editions

I have a copy of The Poetry of Robert Frost: The Collected Poems, Complete and Unabridged. And I see this on that edition in works,

Disambiguation Notice
The 1930 edition, Collected Poems of Robert Frost, is NOT the same as The Poetry of Robert Frost: Complete and Unabridged. I have both books and they are not the same: the 1930 book only includes A Boy's Will, North of Boston, Mountain Interval, New Hampshire, and West Running Book, and therefore is NOT complete and unabridged.

From my perspective, I agree. What do you think? Would you say that passes the 5 party test?

I'm tagging books in my collection that need Work page work. I'd like to figure out how to fix them myself, a goal for 2026.

>39 DebiCates: Oh, absolutely, if your copy is complete and unabridged, I would make sure it's part of the complete & unabridged work!

There may be a particular poem you are referring to, and someone with a different Poems collection is missing it. You wouldn't be able to discuss it in relation to the other poems, because they won't have read it. (This is important/a headache for assigned reading, too, lol)

(I think this breaks down with picture books - The Nutcracker work includes several different versions, though imo a watercolor fantasy is very different from photos of ballet dancers is very different from Maurice Sendak, and illustrations are integral to picture books. But we had months of debate about this, too, and I'm on the losing side. EDIT: wait, is the main work just the text?? am i being misled by some of the covers in there?)

>39 DebiCates: I've noticed in LT everything generates long (usually healthy) debates. hahaha

It's not a criticism, not at all. In GR, members have no voice, only the Ama$on powers that be. That's a primary reason I'm migrating to LT being my primary home. That and a zillion other reasons.

>22 DebiCates: How about 'constants'. A mathematical term yes, but meaning the unchanging value. I think that also applies to the author of a 'work' at least.

I gave up using sources to add books a while ago, there was always other info I wanted to add or change. It's taking a long time to add everything into my LT library but I love using the 'add manually' feature. The exactness of it is perfect for me.

>42 TonjaE: Hey Tonja, thanks for the suggestion. I may revisit that whole blurb and will consider "constants." That is a good word for it.

I can see why one would go manual! Of the 2,000 books I imported, I would guess 25% have some issue or another. The interesting thing is that on GR I didn't have the choice to fix any of the issues (wrong original publication year and page count were annoying to me) so I just blithely lived with it. Now, on LT it really bugs me because I know I can fix it. Kind of ironic.

May I suggest adding a RoadMap to your SiteMap.
The RoadMap would list say the top 10-15 topics someone from GR should read first
Applying the Pareto principle the top 20% are the ones that matter and the remaining 80% can be read later.

>44 JonathonL88: I appreciate your input. After I get the Sitemap complete (complete not really being complete but being what I think GR folks would most be interested in), I'll certainly consider adding a shorter Roadmap topic.

Are you finding the Sitemap useful, Jonathon?

>44 JonathonL88: I'm mulling over the Roadmap approach...

I'm assuming your suggestion is something that would cover only the primary needs to getting going on LT? Listed in order of the "road" a person might take to get their first lay of the land?

I don't know if the nomenclature is as important as the content, which is very useful and organized well. In terms of road map, well it all depends on a person's goals, right? If they only want to log what they read, that's one thing, but now precise detail is under user control, they might, like you, want to spend more time with those details. Then there are groups, helpers and adding to Common Knowledge- so many directions.

>47 Bookmarque: Thank you for the kind words. I also am striving to be accurate. I don't want to pass on any misconceptions I might have.

I have an audience in mind. Several GR users have said they'll be trying out LT after the first of the year. Since we are all part of a (large) group that has been crying the blues about GR the last year and I have been telling them about my discoveries on LT, getting their feedback, I have solid idea what their first priorities (and stumbling blocks) will likely be.

You are right. LT can be used in so many ways, and once here a member might find a new area of interest that catches their fancy.

Also, since GR is more limited than LT, they will come here with expectations that are a subset of LT. For one example: I was astounded when I came here and learned that I, myself, could CHANGE everything about a book in my library.

I hope everyone who has been following this thread and the progression of the sitemap will be sure to point out any errors or needed clarifications. At some point I will call it "one step from done" when I'll especially appreciate final once-overs for accuracy.

>45 DebiCates: Yes it is useful. I have already discovered some things I did not know.

>2 Bookmarque: I'll probably come back to remember stuff I forgot how to do.

Agreed! Lots of info here, even for those of us who have been around a while, but so many of us don't use all the different features (or not often enough to automatically remember how to do them).

I'm so glad others are finding this helpful, too. I also find it helpful, ha. I go to this page for the links I put here.