Online Book Communities

For this I was unsure how to use SKITCH to draw, type, or point out things on my screenshots. Therefore, I have included screenshots of parts of my book shelves on the following book community websites: Goodreads, LibraryThing, Shelfari, Booklist, and Biblionasium.

First, I enjoyed exploring and using Goodreads to create a book shelf. This website was basic and easy to use. The book title, short 1 to 3 sentence summary, book information (ISBN, number of pages, where to purchase, and more), other book titles related to subject/awards/author, and reviews. The home page of this website is kind of plain (maybe a little boring), but my books area made up for the background and site colors by including book cover, title, author, and more. The only disadvantage that I found with this site was that it needed to be made more children friendly so that it could be used in school classrooms or libraries to help students keep a log of what they have already read, are reading, or would like to read in the future.

Second, I explored and used the website LibraryThing. An advantage was that the site offered five different book shelf format styles. One disadvantage of this site is that the book cover shows during the search, but not when placed into the book shelf area. However, the book cover reappears when the user clicks on the your books area. When entering multiple book titles in a row this could become confusing to young or new users. Another disadvantage, for users who are required to have a certain number of books on their book shelf, is that the user must enter books and count or click on their book shelf area regularly to get the total number of books they have already entered.

Last, I explored and used Shelfari. I thought negatively of this site from the start due to being required to use amazon.com login. I don't mind creating login accounts for useful websites, but I don't have an amazon.com login so I have to use and edit my husband's amazon account to be able to use this site. Another disadvantage is that the site requests that the user input several pieces of information about the book that that they have selected to shelf. Like the other sites I have explored, this site asks if you have read the book yet. However, the user is also asked the date completed, personal book review, share on Facebook or Twitter, and add character description (or other information about the book). Shelfari has the following information areas available for each of the books: 1. simple synopsis 2. character synopsis 3. setting/location 4. first sentence 5. table of contents 6. glossary 7. series and lists 8. author and contributors 9. first edition 10. awards 11. classification 12. notes to parents. However, many of the books don't have this information completed. One of the advantages is that when the user checks I plan to read, reading now, or I've read Shelfari creates a basic reading timeline. Another advantage of Shelfari is that the user can create a reading goal for the year, "Your goal is to read ____ books in 2015."

Booklists was basic and contained a plain white background. This has been the trend with all of the online book communities that I have explored and used. Personally I would like to see more color on these sites while making them easier to use and include all necessary book information. On Booklists, I was unable to find the book Me...Jane by Patrick McDonnell. I believe that an online book community should be up-to-date and contain a majority of the books available to general public. Like LibraryThing and Shelfari, I will most likely not be using Booklists again. However, the next online book community (Biblionasium) that I explored and used was wonderful.

After exploring Biblionasium I began to prepare using it in my classroom with my second graders. As a teacher, I believe that Biblionasium is the best of the online book communities that I explored in the past few days. This site is easy to use and children friendly. The site provides an area to create groups of readers/students which includes the child's reading level. A teacher can assign reading challenges, set up reading lists, and print the recorded reading progress. Students are able to log on at home to record any book titles read outside of school. Parents are also able to log on to check their child's reading records. This particular online book community still had the white background, but there was a touch more color added. One disadvantage is that the user is unable to find, read, and record a book on just one site. I think that Biblionasium would be one more step above the other online book communities if there was an area where the user could purchase and read the online copy of a book. However, this site is colorful, user friendly (even for children), and contains several wonderful book titles that can be placed on the user's shelf.