Getting Started with Librarything as a family cataloguing effort
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1Natty916
Hi, I’m getting started as a family effort together with a tech averse elder. We opted for librarything over libib because both of us are on fixed incomes. Because of masochistic tendencies I chose to start by building a pre-ISBN collection, so I find myself using the browser to enter the book and having to jump over to the app to take photos. What other challenges will I have to look forward to if I’m doing this together with family who also have their own Librarything accounts?
2SandraArdnas
>1 Natty916: More often than not, there is an aproprirate cover to choose uploaded by some other member. You'll just not be offered any automatically since that is tied to ISBN. No ISBN, no 'most common cover for the iSBN'. Go to 'change cover' and see if there's something that fits.
3MarthaJeanne
If you create a family group, you can see your combined catalogues.
4LeslieWx
>1 Natty916: I find myself using the browser to enter the book and having to jump over to the app to take photos
Welcome! I have a lot of oddball books, as well as many too old to have ISBNs, but I'm trying to enter books shelf by shelf so the pain is usually spread out a bit.
My first suggestion is to save the entry without the photo and then take a look at the book again (e.g. click the title or the "open book" icon in YourBooks to get the so-called "Work" page). Then in the right nav bar, look for the "Covers" section and if there are any, click "see all" and then look at all the member uploaded ones (which Amazon can't change on you!). There are often decent versions of old covers in there that you can use.
If you don't find one you're OK with, my second suggestion is spend a few minutes on a web search. Try searching for the title; for the title and the publisher; or for the title and Publishers Weekly (which often has reviews that include a cover image). If you find one you like, you can go back to the book on the webpage and upload the cover via the link. To get a good link for just the book image, try 2 different things: (1) control-click on the image to get it to open in its own browser tab, and use that address as the upload link, and/or (2) if it's an expandable ,i.e. zoom-in-able, cover go ahead and click the "expand" or "magnify" icon and then control-click on the pop-up book cover that appears. That's often a higher resolution than the one embedded in the basic page.
If any of the web links to an image cause LT to chew on the upload for a while and then announced it wouldn't upload, try saving the image to your computer and then uploading from there.
p.s. For manual entry, if you want to be picky about any of the metadata about the book, worldcat.org is your friend! You can create a free account and then do searches to find libraries that have the work you're trying to load. A lot of times, you can add that library to your list of LT sources and then get LT to upload it 😁, even if it's a pre-ISBN book. Worst case, you can check several libraries and pick one whose metadata matches the book in your hand, then copy/paste all the metadata into your LT entry!
Welcome! I have a lot of oddball books, as well as many too old to have ISBNs, but I'm trying to enter books shelf by shelf so the pain is usually spread out a bit.
My first suggestion is to save the entry without the photo and then take a look at the book again (e.g. click the title or the "open book" icon in YourBooks to get the so-called "Work" page). Then in the right nav bar, look for the "Covers" section and if there are any, click "see all" and then look at all the member uploaded ones (which Amazon can't change on you!). There are often decent versions of old covers in there that you can use.
If you don't find one you're OK with, my second suggestion is spend a few minutes on a web search. Try searching for the title; for the title and the publisher; or for the title and Publishers Weekly (which often has reviews that include a cover image). If you find one you like, you can go back to the book on the webpage and upload the cover via the link. To get a good link for just the book image, try 2 different things: (1) control-click on the image to get it to open in its own browser tab, and use that address as the upload link, and/or (2) if it's an expandable ,i.e. zoom-in-able, cover go ahead and click the "expand" or "magnify" icon and then control-click on the pop-up book cover that appears. That's often a higher resolution than the one embedded in the basic page.
If any of the web links to an image cause LT to chew on the upload for a while and then announced it wouldn't upload, try saving the image to your computer and then uploading from there.
p.s. For manual entry, if you want to be picky about any of the metadata about the book, worldcat.org is your friend! You can create a free account and then do searches to find libraries that have the work you're trying to load. A lot of times, you can add that library to your list of LT sources and then get LT to upload it 😁, even if it's a pre-ISBN book. Worst case, you can check several libraries and pick one whose metadata matches the book in your hand, then copy/paste all the metadata into your LT entry!
