The library of Thomas Jefferson, which is the library that made up the backbone of the early Library Congress, has arrived at LibraryThing.
Using E. Milicent Sowerby’s five-volume bibliography as their guide a group of sixteen catalogers took four months to enter nearly 4,900 titles and 187 of Jefferson’s reviews.
Now all the bells and whistles of LibraryThing are available for one of the greatest libraries ever assembled in this country; all those clouds and stats are now in play.
Tim Spalding the founder and guiding light of LibraryThing frames the significance of this best when he says “On LibraryThing it’s not just “friends”—a powerful but rather simple way of seeing the world—but a different set of connections: how you relate to others through taste and interest. We’re aiming for something more than “who are your bookish friends?” or “what are your friends reading?” but “what is the world of books, and how do you fit in?”
This is the technology shining. It adds a whole new dimension to social networking, a more intellectually stimulating and, in some ways, a more intimate experience.
The possibilities are also endless. Think of all the great collections residing at both public and private institutions, all the great collections that pass through the bookselling world, and all the great collections in private hands that could benefit. Granted there is still room for improvement, for it would be great to see images of all the books in Jefferson’s library and to have access to free online digital copies of the books when available, but this is a fantastic start and I trust the technology will eventually revise itself to make the most out of these types of collections.
Applying this technology to these collections instantly increases the value of them and I am not talking monetary, though that is highly feasible , but socially and culturally. It is a new format for the display of information and one, when executed properly, that strengthens and refreshes the material.
Spalding realizes that this impersonal connectivity, this piling up of “friends” is the weak link of social networking and that a deeper connection is possible, a deeper connection that also applies to the material as much as it does to people.
“What is the world of books, and how do you fit in?”
Hats off to fellow blogger Jeremy Dibbell of PhiloBiblos who lead the team responsible for the conversion. Now Jeremy and company are off to John Adams’ library.