LibraryThing utilization in the classroom

How do you utilize LibraryThing in your classroom (if you do at all)? Do you use it just as an organizing/inventorying aid for your own use or do your students use or browse the catalog also? If students use the catalog, how do you manage it?

I've seen different classroom groups set up libraries and threads on LT, probably more for the example of what can be done; I suppose if/when I ever have my own class, and they were old enough, we could use it to catalog our reading and also for reference material...

I do have a library thing widget on my class website. I let the kids know that it is there so that if they are looking for something and I have it, they can borrow it if they ask. I have discussion boards on my website, so using librarything for that is not necessary. I would love to hear any other suggestions anyone might have.

If you're using LT in the classroom (college preferred, but not necessarily) in a practical way -- whether it was successful or not -- please message me. I'm researching this topic for a potential essay for publication.

Hi. I just wanted to let you know I have been using LT in several children's literature classes (English 540 and Education 490) at University of Michigan since 2008. I've been having students log texts for current and future teaching ever since I began teaching these courses, and once it became clear that social media networks such as LT and GR existed and could be used, I have wanted students to know and explore them.

Hi, I teach second grade, and I am fairly new to LT. I have been entering my personal library since early spring. My plan is to not only be able to locate books that I know I own and frequently have trouble locating, but also share my books by theme and author with my students. As I have entered each book, I have used address labels to tag each book as I have in my LT library. I am going to use those tags to print just the covers of those books with the same tags. For instance, in the Fall I will print on tag board my book covers tagged apples, pumpkins, and Fall. Then I will laminate these picture sheets with those themes. Each of my students is assigned a number on the first day of school. It is determined by where their names fall in ABC order in the class list. This is important because at the beginning of each week, each student will choose several (exact number yet to be determined) of my books and find those book covers on my laminated sheet and write their number on top of the picture of the book cover. They will use an expo marker so it can easily be erased. I will spend a few minutes collecting the books every couple of days and erase their numbers as books are returned. Since each book cover is labeled on the back, each child should be capable of matching the picture on the back of each book with the picture on the basket so that students can shelf them without much help from me. I don't know how much sense this makes to anyone reading this, but I am very excited to have found an easy way to share books, keep them organized, make my kiddos responsible, and do it all quickly.

That sounds fantastic! I am a student of elementary education at UMW and I've seen what can happen to personal library collections. I am determined to keep books easily accessible and enticing. I am copying your post and keeping it in my classroom management folder so that when I have my own classroom I can use it. Thanks for sharing!

I teach ESL K-5 and like to offer books for students to borrow. I have leveled all of my classroom library books (1000+) using Lexile numbers. Each book has the Lexile level inside the back cover in pencil. I made shelf markers for each of the Lexile levels and sorted the books in baskets, somewhat by genre, or series. Picture books are separated from chapter books, etc. Students can search my library titles on Librarything by Lexile level, or by title, or author. They can select a book from the shelf easily, because they are sorted by Lexile level (and returned to the shelf easily). Books are checked out by typing in the comments box on Librarything. Students type their name, the date they checked out the book, and then later, the date they brought it back. I can search the comment box by student name to see who has checked what books out. Also, a book without a checkout date means it has not been returned. They can also type short comments to review the book, if they like. The kid's love using this system! I think it's an amazing and super efficient way to keep my classroom library functioning, for everyone!