Online Book Communities are social networking sites for book
lovers. They allow you to introduce and recommend books to your friends and
other people with the same reading interest. With a search and a click
of a mouse, you can add books to your personal, virtual book collection. There
are several online book communities available on the web. Check out the ones I
have below.
Goodreads
Goodreads
is one of the first online book community I’ve ever used. Creating a bookshelf is easy to do. You can search for books by title or use the explore tab to find books by genre, popularity, and among others. Once your search is complete, you can add books to your bookshelf. You can create categories to separate books by genre or topics.
You
can write a review and rate the book, then share it with other members.
A huge drawback is not being able to receive recommendations until after rating at least 20 books.
Take a look at my profile page for Goodreads.
LibraryThings
LibraryThing
allows you to search for books and create collections to categorize them by your
choice. They also recommend books based on what you have added to your
collection.
Also,
there are a variety of groups you can join to discuss books with other members.
Books can be searched by title, author, ISBN and even through Amazon.com and the Library of Congress.
This
site is very overwhelming and requires plenty of navigation in order to get used
to the site. The layout of the site is not visually appealing, but it does have plenty to offer.
Shelfari
Shelfari is created by Amazon.com which allows for easy login if you already have an Amazon account. Also, this allows for an easy purchase of a book you like through Amazon.com.
Once
your profile is created, you can add books to your virtual shelf. You can
search your favorite book and/or author, then click add. Once a book is added
to your shelf, you can then categorize your book, add a review, tags and notes.
Check out the Shelfari Community and follow members to see what is on their shelf.
Shelfari only allows you to categorize your books in three different categories, but the site is easy to follow and visually appealing.
Booklikes
Booklikes
allow its members to not only create collection of books of their interest, but also create a personal blog. The main page
features a news feed similar to Tumblr which allows you to see feeds from other
bloggers.
The layout has the same visual appeal as Shelfari. The actual picture of the
book is displayed instead of just the title like some of the other sites. You
can categorize your books after adding them to your shelf.
The downside of the site is their limited book selection
compared to Goodreads making some books hard to find.
BiblioNasium
Biblionasium is geared towards
teachers and students interacting in an online book community. Teachers can separate
students by classes. Each class can have a different shelf.
Book reviews are from students,
which is helpful for librarians when choosing books for your collections.
You can assign reading challenges
to your students by setting up reading list for students based on their
interest and reading level.
A parent letter is already created
for librarians to make parents aware of the program.
The advantage of Biblionasium is
that it keeps the book community closed from outsiders, making it safe for students to browse
the site. Creating classes can be very time consuming and even though it is a
great feature, it is difficult to keep up.
Overall, Shelfari would be my
number one choice for both students and teachers to use. The layout is visually
appealing and the site is easy to use even for the most computer illiterate.
Teachers and students can create their own community to recommend and suggest
books.
Skitch
The notes I created on my screen
shots were made by using the app Skitch. The app can be downloaded on your
computer or tablet. Skitch allows you to focus on key information by drawing
arrows, boxing information and writing text.
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