

The Thingology Blog

The Thingology Blog
	New Syndetics Unbound Feature: Mark and Boost Electronic Resources
ProQuest and LibraryThing have just introduced a major new feature to our catalog-enrichment suite, Syndetics Unbound, to meet the needs of libraries during the COVID-19 crisis. Our friends at ProQuest blogged about it briefly on the ProQuest blog. This blog post goes into greater detail about what we did, how we did it, and what [&#8230;]
	Introducing Syndetics Unbound
Short Version Today we&#8217;re going public with a new product for libraries, jointly developed by LibraryThing and ProQuest. It&#8217;s called Syndetics Unbound, and it makes library catalogs better, with catalog enrichments that provide information about each item, and jumping-off points for exploring the catalog. To see it in action, check out the Hartford Public Library [&#8230;]
	ALAMW 2016 in Boston (and Free Passes)!
Abby and KJ will be at ALA Midwinter in Boston this weekend, showing off LibraryThing for Libraries. Since the conference is so close to LibraryThing headquarters, chances are good that a few other LT staff members may appear, as well! Visit Us. Stop by booth #1717 to meet Abby &#38; KJ (and potential mystery guests!), [&#8230;]
	For ALA 2015: Three Free OPAC Enhancements
For a limited time, LibraryThing for Libraries (LTFL) is offering three of its signature enhancements for free! There are no strings attached. We want people to see how LibraryThing for Libraries can improve your catalog. Check Library. The Check Library button is a &#8220;bookmarklet&#8221; that allows patrons to check if your library has a book [&#8230;]
	ALA 2015 in San Francisco (Free Passes)
Our booth. But this is Kate, not Tim or Abby. She had the baby. Tim and I are headed to San Francisco this weekend for the ALA Annual Conference. Visit Us. Stop by booth #3634 to talk to us, get a demo, and learn about all the new and fun things we&#8217;re up to with [&#8230;]
	New &#8220;More Like This&#8221; for LibraryThing for Libraries
We&#8217;ve just released &#8220;More Like This,&#8221; a major upgrade to LibraryThing for Libraries’ &#8220;Similar items&#8221; recommendations. The upgrade is free and automatic for all current subscribers to LibraryThing for Libraries Catalog Enhancement Package. It adds several new categories of recommendations, as well as new features. We&#8217;ve got text about it below, but here&#8217;s a short [&#8230;]
	Subjects and the Ship of Theseus
I thought I might take a break to post an amusing photo of something I wrote out today: The photo is a first draft of a database schema for a revamp of how LibraryThing will do library subjects. All told, it has 26 tables. Gulp. About eight of the tables do what a good cataloging [&#8230;]
	LibraryThing Recommends in BiblioCommons
Does your library use BiblioCommons as its catalog? LibraryThing and BiblioCommons now work together to give you high-quality reading recommendations in your BiblioCommons catalog. You can see some examples here. Look for &#8220;LibraryThing Recommends&#8221; on the right side. Not That Kind of Girl (Daniel Boone Regional Library) Carthage Must Be Destroyed (Ottowa Public Library) The [&#8230;]
	NEW: Annotations for Book Display Widgets
Our Book Display Widgets is getting adopted by more and more libraries, and we&#8217;re busy making it better and better. Last week we introduced Easy Share. This week we&#8217;re rolling out another improvement—Annotations! Book Display Widgets is the ultimate tool for libraries to create automatic or hand-picked virtual book displays for their home page, blog, [&#8230;]
	Send us a programmer, win $1,000 in books.
We just posted a new job post Job: Library Developer at LibraryThing (Telecommute). To sweeten the deal, we are offering $1,000 worth of books to the person who finds them. That&#8217;s a lot of books. Rules! You get a $1,000 gift certificate to the local, chain or online bookseller of your choice. To qualify, you [&#8230;]