Will LibraryThing continue to exist?

ForumBooks in 2025: The Future of the Book World

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Will LibraryThing continue to exist?

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1_Zoe_
Dez. 13, 2010, 4:47 pm

Tim raises this question in the group description: Will sites like LibraryThing continue to exist, or will ereaders leverage their advantages to make book discussion a platform-dependent activity?

Personally, I don't see why readers would want to make book discussion a platform-dependent activity. Why would we restrict ourselves? I can certainly see user interest in LT continuing to 2025 and beyond.

My concern is more from a financial perspective, since I think LT gets a fair bit of their revenue by selling data to libraries. I'm not confident about the future of libraries, and any problems there could translate into revenue problems for LT. I hope LT data could be sold to other sources as well.

2thebeadden
Dez. 13, 2010, 7:40 pm

You said:
Personally, I don't see why readers would want to make book discussion a platform-dependent activity. Why would we restrict ourselves? I can certainly see user interest in LT continuing to 2025 and beyond.

I agree.

If you don't mind my asking. What are the various ways LT generates income? (Other than membership) I'd focus more time in those areas, if I knew what they were.

3_Zoe_
Dez. 13, 2010, 8:25 pm

I don't know the details of LT's finances or their library applications, but I think LibraryThing for Libraries includes both tag data and reviews.

4timspalding
Dez. 13, 2010, 8:34 pm

LibraryThing finances

I think we'll be fine. LibraryThing is a real company. We make money. We pay money. Of course, businesses die, but we're not a venture-capital falling-rock. There are lots of opportunities.

Personally, I don't see why readers would want to make book discussion a platform-dependent activity. Why would we restrict ourselves? I can certainly see user interest in LT continuing to 2025 and beyond.

Really? They already are. The fringe screams and yells about porting books between platforms but most readers don't give a damn. They've given the least portable format and vendor 75% or more of the market. Kindle readers don't care. Nor has anyone worked on making such social features as have been grafted on cross-platform.

I'd start the question from the other end. Social reading is like Facebook with the added lock in of formats and vendors. The burden of proof should be on anyone who thinks the situation will NOT resemble Facebook.

5_Zoe_
Dez. 13, 2010, 8:38 pm

Yeah, I don't mean to say that LT has unsound finances right now. I just thought that a significant amount of your income was coming from libraries, which may not be a reliable source of money in the future.

Maybe I'm not familiar enough with the social features the Kindle offers. What do you mean by "social reading"? What do you mean by the Facebook comparison? Etc.

6timspalding
Dez. 13, 2010, 8:51 pm

Right now, social reading is in its infancy. The only real example is Copia, although Kobo is doing some interesting things. The basic idea is to have a service like LibraryThing embedded within the reading experience. Ebooks obviously make this possible in unique ways.

7_Zoe_
Dez. 13, 2010, 8:57 pm

That seems like a completely different thing, and not necessarily a threat to LT. What is "a service like LT"? Something with book forums? Recommendations? I'm not convinced that embedding those things into the book itself would be any sort of improvement. Do you think ereaders will supersede the internet in its current form?

8timspalding
Dez. 13, 2010, 9:06 pm

What do you think of the Copia demo?

By the way, I am limited in what I can say about them--the usual agreement not to speak about each others' product without showing it to the other first. Copia purchased some of our data.

9_Zoe_
Dez. 13, 2010, 9:36 pm

I've only looked for a few minutes, but it's very pretty. My first thought was that it might fill some key gaps of LT's--it focuses on reading categories, and it posts basic stories to FB--but the FB story it posted turned out to be ridiculously lame, so I think I'm done with them for now.

The tagged notes feature is extremely attractive as a research organization tool, but I don't trust them enough to use it for anything serious. Also, if they're restricting their catalogue to books that are available electronically, then it will always be seriously incomplete. The second book I tried to add (Reading and Writing in Babylon) just doesn't seem to be there, although it's a new book available in print from Amazon. I don't want to fragment my reading by platform. If I'm going to keep notes, I want notes about all my books in one place.

I can see the value of connecting the tagged notes feature to an ereader in order to take notes on the spot, but the kind of books that I most want to take notes on aren't ideal for reading electronically anyway.

And then, there's the whole "social reading" part. I apparently failed at exploring the website, because I'm still not sure what this is or what value I'm supposed to get out of it. I despise the fact that they don't have a text-based explanation of what the site is about; I don't want to watch a video.

These are very preliminary thoughts, obviously; I'll have to look at the site more closely later.

10VisibleGhost
Dez. 14, 2010, 2:58 am

Copia- Hey! They offered me seven free books. I think the philosophy of 'good enough' applies to reading devices. A device will ship with a couple of social reading apps. For many users that will be enough. They won't go searching for other apps. Connoisseurs will look for richer sites or apps. But good enough will work for many. Social reading apps will tend toward good enough, I imagine.

LT might not face many competitors on the cataloging end. I have a feeling there will be oodles of competition on the social reading side. I'm not a group reader (more of a lone wolf reader) but group reading is popular on LT and elsewhere.

11jjwilson61
Dez. 14, 2010, 11:21 am

So a social reading app has to do with group reads? Is it like a discussion group?

12timspalding
Dez. 14, 2010, 12:30 pm

No, it's a blanked term for everything LT and its competitors do, plus some things possible or easier when the reading is digital and the social-reading application is tied to the digital book.

13VisibleGhost
Dez. 14, 2010, 10:35 pm

jjwilson61, not really. It focuses more on groups, connections, friends, currently reading, and the social side of things. Cataloging is pushed into the background. If the site is going to specialize in ebooks, how robust does the catalog part need to be? I don't know where the percentage of ebooks will settle at in 2025. It doesn't seem to me that everyone that has a ecopy of War and Peace are going to care about their catalog record like many print owners do. They just want somewhere to record that they have War and Peace in their digital library. And a place to see their social connections concerning W&P.

14timspalding
Dez. 14, 2010, 10:51 pm

I suspect that it goes both ways. A majority care less, a minority care more.

15ed.pendragon
Dez. 15, 2010, 10:14 am

If ebooks are still around in 2025 (and I suspect that, like cassette tapes, VHS and floppy disks now--though not vinyl records--most 20/30-somethings then won't know what you're talking about) will they not lose out on the desire for visual identity? I'm thinking CD artiwork, rather like LP sleeves, being distinctive labels and part of the concept, rather like book covers are for the LibraryThinger now.

If most reading matter becomes digital will it matter if, say, War and Peace comes with one bit of artwork or another, indeed will it be marketed with artwork at all? Part of the current joy of books is the sensual aspect--the touch, the look, the smell, the mass--which adds to the enjoyment of pure reading which ebooks don't seem to me to address. Or do they? I wonder if this is just the reactionary in me: I resisted migrating from the green screen of my ancient Amstrad word processor to a full-colour PC (why would I need colour for word-processing?) until the machine gave up on me, and have not now looked back at all, let alone with nostalgia. It may be the same with ebooks etc...

16ed.pendragon
Bearbeitet: Dez. 15, 2010, 10:15 am

Diese Nachricht wurde vom Autor gelöscht.

17elenchus
Bearbeitet: Dez. 15, 2010, 12:08 pm

I suspect the question about artwork (>15 ed.pendragon:) and social reading will dovetail, with the static cover art substituted if not replaced by the work's dedicated page on the publisher's server, including talk forums, edited introductions, and other interactive features.

I'm curious whether illustrations will remain "bound in" the eBook, or supplied by links requiring internet access.

If any of that happens, I'd want to link each of my eBook editions to LT. I'm sure the publisher won't support me replacing the links to their online content, but suspect customizing would be allowed a la "create your own homepage". So while my Penguin eBook of Lautreamont's Maldoror would always link to the Penguin site, I'd also have ready links to LT's work page, and possibly also to relevant LT Groups such as Chapel of the Abyss ....

ETA touchstone

18SomeGuyInVirginia
Jan. 4, 2011, 4:08 pm

>>15 ed.pendragon:- What impact eBooks will have on covert art and illustrations is a very interesting question, ed.p. The golden age of cover art probably coincided with the rise of the paperback in the 30s. I'm just going off the top of my head, but from what I remember of hardbacks the last time I was in a bookstore (months ago), the art was less about making the book pop on the shelves and more about setting a mood or tone. Does anyone know if someone has done a study on book art and readership? Children's books are endearing because of their art, graphic genre books probably benefit from lurid or catchy art, but the classics all have staid cover illustrations. I wonder if mixing it up would help sales? (I remember seeing pb copy of the Decameron with a line drawing of a naked lady on it, but that's a risque as I've seen.) Then again, when I've lived in Europe a lot of the books didn't have any art on the cover at all. Who knows.

All I can say is, LT better continue to exist because I paid for a lifetime membership. Lifetime.

19brightcopy
Bearbeitet: Jan. 4, 2011, 4:50 pm

18> What, you missed the fine print that said it was for the lifetime of LibraryThing? ;)

20bernsad
Jan. 4, 2011, 6:12 pm

When you see the hit squad of abby and cD on your doorstep, you know your in trouble! ;)

21SomeGuyInVirginia
Jan. 4, 2011, 6:36 pm

If LT folds I shall demand redress! I don't know why that's the first thing so many people think of in situations like that, but it it. I'd like something with a high collar because I don't want to have to shave my chest, preferably black so I can add an accessory and wear it out evenings.

Having conducted a brief and totally unscientific survey of books in the joint, I can report that fiction has more graphic covers than non-fiction (intuitive) and Penguin has the least labor intensive covers-often only a photograph- of the major houses.

I think a survey of cover design would be telling. It would be interesting to see which houses put the most into cover art, and if art affects sales of fiction and non-fiction. Hawking's A Brief History of Time (a Bantam) pops because of the dramatic author photo and enlarged type. In addition to staid covers, the font size on Penguin books is never out of proportion to the cover size. Dull.

I'm going to start paying attention to the publishers of the books I read, as well as the design. Might yield interesting results.

222wonderY
Bearbeitet: Jan. 27, 2011, 10:59 am

I just want to correct your provincial understanding of book cover art, SG. ;)

see here:
http://bindings.lib.ua.edu/

or easier to search:
http://bindings.lib.ua.edu/gallery_art.html

Now these would be worth wearing.