Week 8 #19 Library Thing

Library Thing is not something I would be interested in, especially since I don't care anything at all about cataloging books and I am not thrilled at the idea of social networking about books in general. While Library Thing could be of use for small libraries where each library catalogs its holdings so that other libraries would know what those holdings are, there is no reason for me to list the holdings in my own personal library. I am surrounded by those books that I am extremely interested in every time I enter my computer room; I don't need a list to remind what I have. In addition, I'm not particularly interested in social networking with other people who might share similiar interests in books that I like to read. In addition, I seriously doubt that anyone could get freshmen in high school to catalog any books they may have in their personal library, nor do I suspect that they would be remotely interested in sharing ideas about those books using the Library Thing format. This idea would be least attractive to them since they would more than likely use some other social networking tool such as Facebook or MySpace, etc.
While there may be some useful academic purpose in Library Thing, I'm not convinced that one could not find that same academic information using another source. However, the main reason for Library Thing doesn't appear to be academic per se; it seems to be a tool whereby one can get his library holdings cataloged so that anyone else may see what is in his library while at the same time affording that person the opportunity to get in touch with someone else with similar interests. That way anyone could read about books that someone else has already read and decide for himself whether or not he would want to check out another book that deals with that subject.