I can't resist not to explore this site because the LibraryThing is quite difficult to use. I want to see how easy this site is for building online personal library.
According to Gurulib, it claims to provide home library cataloguing and organising application. Users can catalogue books, music, movies, software and games. I haven't tried to use LibraryThing to catalogue music yet, and I doubt it can. I was pretty happy with Gurulib's music and movie cataloguing ability because I need that to catalogue my personal collection of music scores, classical music DVD and CD.
Signing up was very easy and free. Adding book is simple and straight too. I can choose to use ISBN or manual cataloguing. I have tried to add one book that I just finished reading recently, "Google Blogger For Dummies". This is what it looks if I choose to do manual cataloguing. Please see the diagram below.
I found that it has simpler setup compare to LibraryThing. I think this is better for general public without cataloguing training to use the tool to record their home based personal libraries.
Here is the manual cataloging page in LibraryThing. It offers more links to other sources which users can import the copy cataloguing from. The setup looks more like cataloguing tool used in professional library cataloguing system.
Do you think home library need such a detailed level of cataloguing? Plus, do you think general public has more time to search other libraries for detailed bibliography records?? I don't think so. Therefore, I will recommend Gurulib for setting up home library.
Back to Gurulib, here is another diagram which shows how bibliographic record is arranged in the book details section. The layout is simple with the most important details located at the centre of the page. While further information such as DDC, ISBN is gathered at the right column. There is ad at the left column which I found that is annoying. But those are what you will get for free online service.
Now, going back to my gurulib homepage, here is my virtual bookshelf with only 1 book at the moment. When I put cursor over the bookcover, it will open a box with brief description of that book. Cool tool.
There are a lot of other functions embedded in Gurulib, such as barcode reading ability through web cam (I haven't tried this out yet!!), note taking ability, cataloguing research papers online, facebook application, iGoogle Module, blog widget, graphical RSS (Wow, I don't even know what this is) and etc. So, yeah!! It is a cool tool. I will continue to use it.
According to Gurulib, it claims to provide home library cataloguing and organising application. Users can catalogue books, music, movies, software and games. I haven't tried to use LibraryThing to catalogue music yet, and I doubt it can. I was pretty happy with Gurulib's music and movie cataloguing ability because I need that to catalogue my personal collection of music scores, classical music DVD and CD.
Signing up was very easy and free. Adding book is simple and straight too. I can choose to use ISBN or manual cataloguing. I have tried to add one book that I just finished reading recently, "Google Blogger For Dummies". This is what it looks if I choose to do manual cataloguing. Please see the diagram below.
I found that it has simpler setup compare to LibraryThing. I think this is better for general public without cataloguing training to use the tool to record their home based personal libraries.Here is the manual cataloging page in LibraryThing. It offers more links to other sources which users can import the copy cataloguing from. The setup looks more like cataloguing tool used in professional library cataloguing system.
Do you think home library need such a detailed level of cataloguing? Plus, do you think general public has more time to search other libraries for detailed bibliography records?? I don't think so. Therefore, I will recommend Gurulib for setting up home library.
Back to Gurulib, here is another diagram which shows how bibliographic record is arranged in the book details section. The layout is simple with the most important details located at the centre of the page. While further information such as DDC, ISBN is gathered at the right column. There is ad at the left column which I found that is annoying. But those are what you will get for free online service.
Now, going back to my gurulib homepage, here is my virtual bookshelf with only 1 book at the moment. When I put cursor over the bookcover, it will open a box with brief description of that book. Cool tool.
There are a lot of other functions embedded in Gurulib, such as barcode reading ability through web cam (I haven't tried this out yet!!), note taking ability, cataloguing research papers online, facebook application, iGoogle Module, blog widget, graphical RSS (Wow, I don't even know what this is) and etc. So, yeah!! It is a cool tool. I will continue to use it.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment