LibraryThing and Our Catalog Part 2

What are tags?
Tags are a way to categorize things. In the case of LibraryThing, it's a way to categorize books. The tags you see in the library catalog are created by LibraryThing users. Unlike subject headings, any LibraryThing user can add their own tags to a book.

Tags are particularly useful for genre fiction where subject headings don’t always match common usage. For example, the term “cozy mystery” isn’t an official subject heading. Yet, users often add the tag “cozy mystery” to books such as Aunt Dimity's Death and Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth. Here is an example of the tags for Murder with Peacocks.

Within a tag cloud, the larger the tag, the more people have used it. In this case, more people consider Murder with Peacocks a mystery rather than a romance. See Wikipedia for more information about tag clouds.

Using Tags to Search
Clicking on a tag within the catalog will pop up a window that displays all the other books in our collection with the same tag. For instance, clicking on amateur detective on the Murder with Peacocks tag cloud retrieves books such as Dying for Chocolate and The Mummy Case. Clicking on any of the resulting titles will redirect you to more information about that book.

It is also possible to search for multiple tags at a time. For instance, let’s say I wanted a list of books with the tags young adult and space opera. Here’s how I would search:

1. Go to http://catalog.mylibrary.us/ and search for any popular book (Kite Runner is a good choice)
2. Click on a title to bring up the detailed information page
3. Click on any of the tags that appear on the left. If a tag cloud does not appear, search for another book
4. Within the tag browser search box, enter the tags you wish to search for separated by a comma. In this case, I enter young adult, space opera
5. Click the Search button to retrieve your results

To exclude a specific tag from your search, preface it with a double dash. For instance, if I wanted young adult space opera but did not want any books dealing with the military, my search would have looked like this: young adult, space opera, --military. To just "demote" military titles from the results, use a single dash.

Reviews
Another feature LibraryThing provides is the ability to view and write reviews of books. If reviews exist, you can read them by going to the detailed information page for a book and clicking on see reviews/add a review. A window will pop up that displays the reviews. These reviews come from both LibraryThing users and High Plains Library District’s borrowers.

To write a review:

1. Go to the detailed information page for the book you wish to review. I'm going to look up Boneshaker by Cherie Priest.
3. Within the detailed view of the book, click on see reviews/add a review.
4. Click Review this Yourself.
• If you have not reviewed items before, click next to Start a new reviews account and enter your username, password, email address, and click Submit.
• Otherwise, enter your existing username and password.
5. If desired, choose a star rating, enter your review, and click save.

Reviews must be approved by library staff before they are posted.

Brochure
Click here if you would like a brochure, in PDF format, that covers LibraryThing widgets in our catalog.