Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Tuesday Thingers: Recently Added Feature

From The Boston Bibliophile - LibraryThing's Recently Added feature: do you look at it? Do you use it for ideas? Is there something listed there now that looks interesting to you? What have you added to your LT library recently?

In order to figure out my answer to this question, I had to go to my home page on LT and figure out what Marie is asking about. On my home page, there are two sections of 'Recently Added'. The first is what I've recently added. Lately I've been adding books to my library of books the blog reviews sound intriguing. I add the book with a 'tbr' tag and also put the link of the review in the comments section. So I do use this section to find books that I've added recently when looking for a book to request from the library or to look for at the book store.

The second section of recently added is one where it shows what others have added. I am guessing this is the area that Marie was talking about in the question. I have never really used that feature for anything, usually not even reading it. Everyone on LT has such different tastes in books and use their libraries in such different ways, so just because a book was added to some one's library does not mean it will be something I will enjoy. That feels like I'd have to look at every book the librarian's buy at my local library or all the books at the bookstore. Just not going to happen. So, for me, this feature doesn't do much except take up space on my LT home page.

What will be interesting is checking out other's answers on the recently answered as maybe I don't know all that the feature can do for me. Entirely possible I missed something! :-)

7 comments:

jlshall said...

I have those features turned off just so they won't take up space! But I can see how it might be interesting to see some of the things other LTers are adding, now and then.

Anonymous said...

I need to go back to LT. All I saw were books recently added by me - maybe the other part is turned off.

Meghan said...

I agree that just because someone else added the book doesn't mean I'm compelled to look at it. I get more value out of the top 10 list of books added and my connections' reads than this feature.

- medieval bookworm

Lenore Appelhans said...

I use the connections feature more.

Joanne ♦ The Book Zombie said...

I add books with a wishlist tag if I see something interesting on a blog, but I hadn't thought of adding a link to where I discovered it. Fantastic idea :)

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty bad about not checking out the new stuff...and that's pretty sad since there has been so many new features added. I really only use LT to post reviews and that's all. It's lack of time more than anything else.

Traci said...

I don't really use the feature for anything much, but I will occasionally look at what others have added. Specifically, there's one person on LT, that I've found to have eerily similar taste to my own. I do look at what she's added sometimes, and if she's rated or reviewed it positively, I might check it out. Even if I never used it, though, I'd keep it up there because I like looking at the pretty book covers.