LibraryThing Tags : Implementation at Two Organizations

1. LibraryThing Tags : Implementation at Two Organizations Jenny Schmidt, SWITCH Library Consortium Ingrid Lebolt, Arlington Heights Memorial Library Doug Danley, Arlington Heights Memorial Library

2. What is LibraryThing? • “Bring the Power of Library 2.0 To Your Catalog”

3. LibraryThing • “World’s Largest Book Club” • Database of 25 million books (print only) • LT Public members • Tags are monitored by LTFL but come directly from LT public members • New tools & widgets for LT members • Search widgets for blog, LT API’s, SelectThing Firefox Extension • See: http://www.librarything.com/tools

4. LibraryThing for Libraries (LTFL) • “Social Book Cataloging” Web Site • For-Feeservice based off of LT for public, academic and special libraries with existing library systems • Lets libraries enrich their online catalog with three Library 2.0 features • Patrons or staff cannot ADD tags at this time

5. Tagsortag cloudsarekeywordsandlabels used on theInternet to categorizebooks,articles and other items. Tags?

6. Recipe for LTFL • Take your library catalog • Insert LibraryThing

7. And you get… • An enriched online catalog with Library 2.0 features • Book recommendations • Tag-based discovery • Other editions and translations • Works with any OPAC and requires little technical expertise

8. Cost of LTFL • LibraryThing for Libraries is free to try for 60 days • After that a yearly subscription • There is a $1000 minimum for all libraries • No service fees

9. Coming Soon from LTFL… • User Reviews • User Tagging • User Ratings

10. Two Institutional Experiences How We Made This Project Happen

11. SWITCH Library Consortium WHO ARE WE? • Southeastern Wisconsin Information Technology Exchange (SWITCH Inc.) • 8 small-sized academic libraries in the Milwaukee area • Staff FTE at member libraries • Range from 1.5 (SFS) to 14 (AC) • Patrons FTE at member libraries • Range from 143 (SHST) to 5148 (CSU) • Our shared collection for 2007 • 726,534 - Number of Items in TOPCAT • 356,626 - Number of those items that are unique to one library • 35,005 – Number of items added in FY07

12. SWITCH – Our Experience • Consortium office took idea to library directors for approval • Set up a FREE trial in Staging while researching cost • One SWITCH staffer runs LTFL Project for all members • Manually run MONTHLY lists for all SWITCH bibs with ISBNs • Exports & uploads .txt files with record data to LTFL site • “Turn on” desired features in LTFL Admin web page(one time) • Insert LTFL code into tabbed bib_display.html file(one time) • Edited styles.css to format features in the WebOpac(one time)

13. SWITCH – Our Experience • Asked staff for feedback on the placement and look of features in the Staging catalog • Trial & error to improve display of features in multiple browsers • Went live in March 2008 & pay an annual membership fee • SWITCH will report LTFL & Google Analytics stats to all staff on a quarterly schedule

14. TOPCAT Example (Match Rate for LT is 66%)

15. The variation in tag font size reflects how often/how many LibraryThing members have assigned that tag to titles in LT.

16. Are Tags Keyword-Searchable in TOPCAT? • No. • Patrons can browse LibraryThing tags using the tag links provided in a full TOPCAT record (where there is an ISBN match with the LT database). • Patrons can also search for TOPCAT items by tag using the search feature that is available within the LibraryThing popup box. (This is the box displays after one clicks on a tag.).

17. “More Info” on Tags in TOPCAT

18. Arlington Heights Memorial Library • Arlington Heights is a suburb northwest of Chicago with a population of about 67,000 • We have 455,000 items in our collection about 328,00 of which are books • About 250 staff, 80 of which are full-time

19. AHML – Our LT Experience • 4 people involved in the project • Idea/Investigate Costs • Investigate Technical Implications • Upload data • Reformat Catalog

20. Arlington Heights Memorial Library Tag Cloud Related Editions Similar books

21. Steps for Adding LT Features to the Web Opac

22. Steps for LT Features • Create a LTFL Account & Log In • Read the Technical FAQ (very helpful) • Create a review file of bibs w/ISBNs • ISBN10 & ISBN13 work • Use “Export Records” to export ISBN, title and author in a tab-delimited format • Field delimiter is 9(control character for tab-delimited) • Repeated field delimiter is 32(control character for space) • Text qualifier is none or 32 (space) • Save .txt file to your desktop • Upload .txt file(s) to LTFL web site

23. Search Criteria for LTFL List Use the ! to search on MARC fields. The system lets you specify tag, indicator and subfield. ! 020|a > “” means ISBN field is NOT blank. Bibs must have ISBN, applies only to books and is NOT suppressed. I sorted by ! 020 to see if any empties were found.

24. LTFL Libraries Account Page MULTIPLE TABS display at the top of the page. Check out the FAQ and Tour early on. ISBN Upload Information Displays here.

25. Done Uploading. 1. Upload another file. 2. Sign out. You’ll receive an email when indexing is complete. Upload ISBNs Tab • Second Tab is Upload ISBNs • IMPORTANT: • To add new records each month, choose UPDATE. This will not affect any current records. • To delete all your current records and upload new ones, choose REINDEX. • Go to the DESKTOP to select and upload your text file.

26. Steps for LT Feature These are done only ONCE • Using LTFL’s GET HTML tab, get HTML & Javascript for the Web Opac • Add few lines of script to BOTTOM of your bib_display.html file before </body> • Place <div> tags for each feature in the bib_display.html file (where you want them) • Go to CONFIGURE tab in LTFL site to “turn on/off” & configure each ‘widget’ • Edit your css files (styles.css) to tweak • Check how the widgets appear in different browsers 10. Test in Staging; ask for feedback; then… go Live!

27. LT code in bib_display.html file Add a comment in your code

28. Configure Tab CSS styling seems to be more tricky for the Web Pac Pro TABBED full record display, than for the bib_display_simpler_version.html

29. LT Now Has Statistics

30. AHML Usage Statistics TAGS PER POPUPS Number of tags searched each time the of the tag browserlaunched BROWSE PERCENTAGES what % of the time a link was followed COVERAGE Number of pages visited that have a given feature.

31. SWITCH Usage Statistics TAGS PER POPUPS Number of tags searched each time the tag browser islaunched BROWSE PERCENTAGES what % of the time a link was followed COVERAGE Number of pages visited that have a given feature.

32. Resources

33. Installation Wiki & LT Blogs • Installation Wiki (very helpful) • http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/Installation_instructions#III • Screen captures for III Libraries showing how to export review file data to text file for uploading! • LibraryThing Blog • http://www.librarything.com/blog/atom.xml • LTs features and announcements blog. • Thingology Blog • http://www.librarything.com/thingology/atom.xml • LT blog, covering ideas on the philosophy and methods of tags, libraries and such not.

34. Take the LT Tour List of LTFL Sites (as of 5/2008)http://caspian.switchinc.org/~tutorials/staff/help/ltfl_libs.pdf http://www.librarything.com/forlibraries/tour/1