Online book communities are a great way to keep books
organized. You can create shelves of books you have read, books you want to
read, and books you are currently reading. Librarians can share with their
students shelves that have been created for the school library with book
recommendations. I think an effective way to use book communities is for the
students to add books to the library’s shelf on any of the book communities and
rate the books as they read them. This will give students the opportunity to showcase
the books that they are reading and other students will be able to see what
other students their age and at their school are reading. I had never joined
any book communities until now, but I am glad that I did and I am honestly
surprised it took me this long. In this blog I will discuss several book
communities available and I will recommend the ones that I feel are best for
the students.
Goodreads
Goodreads allows users to create a free account. Once an
account is created the user is prompted to select a favorite genre so that the
program can recommend books to you based on your preferred genre. The user is
then prompted to rate at least 20 books after which the program will begin
recommending books based on what you have read. I thought this was a cool feature
because the other book communities that I joined did not recommend books to me
that I might like. I also really liked this feature because the books that are
being suggested are based on what I have previously enjoyed reading. The basic
shelf categories provided are books I have read, currently reading, and books I
want to read. Goodreads allows users to add other shelf categories which is a
great option because it gives readers other ways to categorize their books in
addition to the categories already provided by the program. Although I liked
that books were automatically recommended to me I would not use Goodreads with
my students. It is not as easy to navigate as the other programs and therefore
would not be appealing to my students.
LibraryThing
LibraryThing also allows users to create a free account. By
far LibraryThing was my favorite book community and it was really easy to use.
I also liked that it allows users to create additional shelf categories. The
categories that are premade are my library, want to read, read, and currently
reading. When users login all they need to do is click on the tab that says add
books. Users then search for the books from sites such as Amazon, The Library
of Congress, or Overcat. When users find the book they want they click on the
shelf category that pertains to their book and then a book is saved on the
specific shelf. For this assignment I added additional shelves which were lower
grade, middle grade, and upper grade which were book levels. Visually
LibraryThing is not appealing it is actually very simple, but the simplicity of
the program is what makes it so great especially for students. I also like that
it allows users to shelf books under more than one category. I would highly
recommend using LibraryThing with your students because it is very user
friendly and it serves its purpose effectively.
Shelfari
Another great free book community option is Shelfari.
Shelfari is brought to users by Amazon and if users have an Amazon account they
can automatically sign in to Shelfari. If users do not have an Amazon account
it is free to open an account and it is very easy. Shelfari was easy to use and very visually
appealing. Users search for a book in the search bar and when their book of
choice appears they simply click to add the book to their shelf. The shelf
options on Shelfari are I plan to read, I’m reading now, and I’ve read it.
Another benefit to using Shelfari is it allows users to rate the books they
have read. The only drawback I found with Shelfari is I was not able to figure
out how to create my personal shelf categories like I was able to do with the
other book communities. Students would really enjoy using Shelfari because it
is visually appealing and very user friendly. I would definitely recommend this
book community.
Booklikes
Another easy to use free book community is Booklikes.
Although I personally did not like it and would not use it with my students it
is easy to use and worth exploring. Users simply search for their books and
once they appear they can add them to their respective shelves of read,
planning to read, or currently reading. This book community also allows readers
to create their own book shelf category which is an advantage as well as allow
users to rate the books they have read. A disadvantage that I found was that I
did not find all of the books I wanted to add to my shelf which was odd because
I was able to find all the books in the other book communities. Visually the
book shelf was very appealing and to visual learners that would be a great
aspect of the program.
Biblionasium
The final free book community that I explored was
Biblionasium. Biblionasium is perfect for teachers to use in the classroom with
their students and the parents. The reason I say it is for classroom use is
because in order to create virtual book shelves teachers need to create groups
and add their students into the program and a librarian would most likely not
have enough time to manually input the names of every single student they
service at their respective campus. This allows teachers to recommend books to
their students. Students and parents have access and view the book recommendations
as well as the teacher’s wish list so parents can help by donating books on the
teacher’s wish list. Students have the capability to create book reviews to
post for the entire class to see. This site is very interactive, user friendly
and visually appealing and would be a great resource for students to have and
to use. I would recommend teachers to create an account and share it with their
students and their parents. The only disadvantage that I saw to this book
community is that it only has books geared for students in grades K-8 so high
school teachers would not be able to share this resource with their students.
Overall all, after actively exploring all the different free book communities I will continue to use LibraryThing. It is so easy to use the students will quickly understand it which is exactly the type of program needed for students who come to the library with a limited amount of time. For classroom teachers though I will recommend that they create an account with Biblionasium so they can recommend books to their students and the parents.
I also liked that you could use your existing Amazon account to log into Shelfari. That is one less password you have to remember.
ReplyDeleteI am surprised you preferred LibraryThing. I guess I am more visual than I thought, but simplicity is ALWAYS great, especially when you are trying to explain it to children.
ReplyDeleteDulce,
ReplyDeleteI agree, for me I had a harder time navigating through Goodreads, perhaps because I'm new to online book communities, but I did find the others easier to navigate through.
I also liked Biblionasium for schools.
I really loved your introduction, it gives the readers of your blog a great deal of information about online book communities and ways to use them. I also agree with you, I loved Biblionasium but I teach at the primary level. It would be something that I would promote with my teachers at the k-8 level if I were in the library.
ReplyDeleteI like that you choose LibraryThing as your online book community of choice. We make choices based on what works best for us and the students we work with. It's funny I had the total opposite opinion of LibraryThing, but then again I don't work with primary students like you do. Like you, I would also recommend Biblionasium for teachers as well.
ReplyDeleteEase of use and the ability to streamline the process-- two biggies! Thanks for this!
ReplyDeleteI liked LibraryThing as well. I think Biblionasium is awesome for lower elementary students.
ReplyDelete