Translations:Handbibliotheek beschrijven met LibraryThing/21/en

In order to ensure this reference library can be used internally, it’s useful to have an overview of what your organisation has in house, and to make your collection searchable. Library or collection management systems are currently generally much too extensive, unworkable and costly for the needs of arts organisations. As a centre of expertise, PACKED faced this same problem, so it tested how useful the online platform LibraryThing was for describing its collection. This system offers a number of interesting benefits:

• You can make the metadata for your collection available online, so anyone can see what you have in house.
• If a piece of work has already been described in LibraryThing by someone else, you can simply copy their description (including assigned tags) and possibly improve and/or expand it. Users include individuals, small organisations and large libraries such as the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It also provides links to Amazon, Google Books, WorldCat, etc.
• LibraryThing is completely free for registering up to 200 pieces of work. You can describe an unlimited number of works for $10 per year or a one-off payment of $25.
• The interface is available in various languages.
• There are good online tutorials available via the LibraryThing YouTube channel.
• It uses TinyCat as a simple online search portal for your own collection.
• LibraryThing allows you to export your own collection’s data. This is useful in case you ever want to use a different system or if LibraryThing should cease to exist. You can export to Excel, TSV, JSON and MARC. You can also set a number of parameters to determine what data you want to export.