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Creating a Digital Library with Goodreads

Do you keep track of the books that you're currently reading? Goodreads is an excellent option for cataloging books as well as creating groups, blogs, and discussions.


Getting Started With Goodreads

Sign up with your email, Facebook, or Amazon. You'll be prompted to select your favorite book genres. If you already have an account with Goodreads, then you'll all set and ready for the next step!



On the header of the site, there is a tab labeled "My Books". Click on it to navigate to the book section.

Navigating Goodreads

 On the top right of the page, there is a mini-profile of everything combined on the site. You can edit your profile, 
view friends list, discussions, favorite quotes, genres, and more.

The Browse tab is to surf through books by category. You can browse by your favorite genres, lists, interviews, new book releases, recommendations (based on your ratings), giveaways, and awards.


Lastly, the Community tab has some of the same things as the mini-profile, but includes tags of genres or stories, reviewers, quizzes, trivia, upcoming events (created by you), and "Ask the Author".



Bookshelves

If you already have an account with Goodreads, then you might be familiar with bookshelves. If you're not, in the bookshelf section, you can see that you can create a custom shelf.




















You can come up with any title you want for your bookshelves. I've created a generic title, such as "genealogy books". After creating a title, click the add button.





After creating your shelf, you categorize or "tag" books. For example, I searched for the book Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills. Under the book image, there is a mini drop-down menu,  in which you can categorize the book. I categorize it in "genealogy books".






 Goodreads is fairly similar to LibraryThing.  If you want to learn more about LibraryThing, read Linda Stufflebean's post about it on her blog.
Android and Apple users, there is an app of Goodreads and LibraryThing on each of these devices. Do a search, for each of them and download them for free through the App Store.
I hope you found this informational and may consider using it in your own online organization.


Keep calm and,

Read On!


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