LILAC catalogue on LibraryThing

The LILAC books catalogue is now searchable on LibraryThing. There you can search the catalogue, browse sections of it, and follow links to book reviews and discussions.

Read the introduction below if you are new to LibraryThing. And come back to it for the help section if you get a bit lost. Note that broadband is helpful but not essential. Also, LibraryThing will not be nice with handheld devices (iPhones, blackberries etc.)

Introduction to LibraryThing

Your first view when you click on our link above may look like this:

The LILAC catalogue screen consists of:

• a button bar across the top -
• a line with a link to the next page of titles
• a table with information about books in the LILAC collection, one row per title.
• The information about each book includes a cover image (usually), title, (first) author, sometimes comments, and the collection the book is shelved in at LILAC. See below for more information about the bits and pieces on the screen.

The books are displayed with the most recent additions at the top of the screen. Click on the "Author" or "Title" column headings to sort by Author or Title.

• If you click on the title of a book you will see more information about the book - but you will need to use your browser back button to return to the book listing view
• clicking on an author name will take you off into the depths of LibraryThing, far away from the LILAC catalogue ...

Searching the LILAC catalogue on LibraryThing

Use the LILAC search box on the left of the LILAC Catalogue page to keep the LILAC catalogue links open.

Type in a word or 2 from a title or an author name or a subject word and press enter.

With luck you will get a result ... and the screen looks different.

Ignore the search box at the top right of the screen - it will take you away from the LILAC catalogue. But if you happen to use it, back track to the LILAC catalogue before you lose it!

Hint - the initial result shown will just be titles in the collection(s) you had displayed when you entered your search. For example, if you were viewing the Humour collection and searched for "gertrude stein" you may get a result like this:

Opening the All collections may be helpful before doing a search.

Search tips:

• Note that little [ x ] marked with a red arrow on the left in the image above - it can rescue you if you seem to be getting a blank screen - it will reopen the Collection you last looked at.
• Use quotes to search for an exact phrase, e.g. "coming out"
  
• Spelling can be a problem especially names - computer programs are darned unforgiving and will search for exactly what you type.
  
• There is more information about search modifiers on the LibraryThing wiki - for online search junkies.

LibraryThing help

Now for some more detail about the screen:

• The - one of the icons at the far right of the line for each book - is a link to the Details page for the title and the shows how many reviews there are.
  A suggestion: open the details page in a new browser tab or window so that you don't lose sight of the LILAC catalogue - PC users click the right mouse button on the link and select.
• The image links to the Work page for the title which is a variation on the Details page. Again open it in a new browser tab or window.

The Details page has enough ... detail to make a librarian run for cover, but take note of the panel on the left of the screen (shown here) which can have links to useful things like reviews, a description of the book (from amazon.com) and online conversations about the book by LibraryThing members.

The Work page has the same panel of links on the left, some reviews waaaay down the page, and a bunch of other stuff to divert you away from the LILAC catalogue.

LILAC's Online collection

These are titles available as full text on the internet - there is a link in the Comments field.

If the title has another collection listed, there is a print copy in LILAC as well.

Adding reviews

If you wish to add reviews on LibraryThing you first need to set up your own account on the website, and then log in. The Sign In/Join button is at the top right of the screen among the LibraryThing website stuff we have ignored so far.

Setting up an account is fairly painless - you need a unique user ID (be creative), don't need to reveal anything whatsoever about yourself, and can make your account private.

Once you have an account it is a good idea to add a few titles to your "library" - otherwise your account will disappear after a couple of months. You can add up to 200 titles with a free account.

When setting up your account Profile, paste the text below into a field:

  https://librarything.com/catalog/lilac_library/allcollections

This will give you a handy link back to the Lilac_library catalogue.

The link to the LibraryThing Help/FAQs section is at the bottom left of LibraryThing pages - try their A very short introduction to LibraryThing.

Please  email us if you have more queries about using the LILAC catalogue on LibraryThing, or any suggestions to share - we would like to improve this help page.