Tips for Finding Requested Books

LibraryThing Tools:
- AI search assistant
- List: Frequently Requested Books
- LT tags & tagmashes
- Other LT lists

Internet search sites (general):
- Google using keywords
- Google images (book covers)
- WorldCat.org search tags
- Google Books (good for proper character names, unique phrases)
- Internet Archive
- Openlibrary.org
- Kirkusreviews
- Library Journal
- Goodreads (e.g. lists)

Genre-specific internet sites:
- Romance: Eye on Romance

Searching tips:
- search using the description's most unique feature(s)
- record where you have searched already so you don't duplicate your work

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Please add to this topic with any other tips you have about responding to 'name that book' requests.

I don't think I'm an expert, but my top tips:

Sometimes just looking through tagmashes helps me a lot!

If there are specific names or terms the poster remembers, I'll do a google search with general info with those terms in quotes, (i.e. YA fantasy book "Francis" "Australia").

WorldCat searches for a few tags can also be helpful.

My first stop is usually Google Books. Not every book has preview or full view of the text available but it's still the most useful tool in my opinion, especially because you can filter by publication date. This method is most successful when the poster remembers proper names of characters or specific unique phrases that I can put in quotation marks.

Internet Archive also allows you to search text of their digitized books but is a little more difficult to use.

My tips mainly based on finding children's/YA fiction (main interest).

Write your post including as much as you recall. Keep searching as persistence is key and sometimes people find their book themselves by recognising something.
Year range is always helpful. If you read it in the 1980s or 90s but were not sure when published, I tend to use 1950 as the lower limit, unless you think lower.
Use keywords from query.

- Google Books advanced search.
- Openlibrary.org search inside feature (search keywords together or phrases in quotes, only works if text searchable, likewise for Google Books snippets/previews.
- Google search keywords kirkusreviews (or library journal, Bulletin center children's books or blog) can bring up book reviews. Alternately Google Books can be more useful for library journal or school library journal etc.
- Google Images, abebooks.com and book sites for cover images.
- worldcat.org used to be my go-to but since the site change less useful to me and recently stopped working for some reason ... useful for basic subject keywords and book descriptions. I used it as a process of elimination to find an elusive book. If you know the topic it should be there.
- Vary search tactics every time (brings up different books, familiarises with what is published).
- Elimination list (what the book is not, as you search).
- Post on more than one book search forum.
- Book lists on a topic (similar to elimination), saves time searching as most of the work has been done. See my profile for examples). Offer links to book lists on LibraryThing, Goodreads, blogs, any may be useful.
- Don't just rely on the one site.

One thing that's personally worked well for me (because a lot of the books I've forgotten I know I found on a new book's shelf) is looking at lists of books from a certain genre published the year I think the book was published (e.g. "fantasy books from 2014"). There are a lot of lists like that on Goodreads and I've found quite a few books that way.

I've pinned this thread. One of these days I'll update the group wiki to include a good tips section.

I've found several books by using tagmashes.

A tip specifically for romance novels: Eye on Romance has lists of books by hero and heroine's names, theme, and character type.

LibraryThing now has an AI-assisted search option aimed at helping identify books:

https://www.librarything.com/search.php?searchtype=ai

>8 beyondthefourthwall:, good one, added it. Also added a link to the list of Frequently Requested Books, the ones that seem to come up multiple times. Must be something especially memorable about them.

>9 Cecrow: Fantastic! Chuckling at the frequently requested ones - that's such a good guide to distinctive children's books!

The frequently requested books were often titles noticed on more than one name that book forum, asked for multiple times. They were obviously memorable to those who read them especially when growing up.

>11 bookel: I added a couple more books that I've noticed get asked for a lot as long as that's okay!

Anyone can add to the lists.

I'm done with assisting in "Name That Book" and this brief explains why; I do not expect sympathy, understanding or agreement from readers of this group--but, here, despite that, is why I'm all through wasting my time trying to help the thankless. Some might take a fucking clue and consider the following a "helpful tip":

"Thanks in advance" is easy, cheap and not sufficient. You come here to mine the resources of others who've read more and remembered better what they've read than you're able to do.

FIRST, before anything else, announce that you shall thank each contributor--successful or not--for trying to suggest tips. AND that, when your precious little tome is identified you'll show the minimum in grace to come back and post a message to that effect.

Then, when others turn their search-skills and memory-skills to your failing memory's vague recollections of (usually) some minor piece of Young Adult literature which once captured your youthful imagination, and find your book searching by well-known standards which anyone who actually gave a good goddamn in the first place could do for himself, then let those who offered help know.

I'm sick of reading lazy assholes' claims "I've tried everything!" when, they've "tried" virtually nothing; in fact, they're coming here and plopping down the meagre set of details and crossing fingers hoping someone else shall do the work for them; but worse is that, after this, there's not so much as a "that's what I hoped to learn, thank you!", "Yes, you've identified my long-forgotten book. (Thank you)".

Can't remember your book's correct title and author? and don't have a clue about how & where to go searching for it?

You think this is rude, impolite? It has everything in courtesy which the literally ungrateful slobs I describe here deserve

Tough.

In over 20 years' book search experience including my own few queries, I've had many thank upon finding it. I try to limit searches to a few minutes on queries I am likely to be able to help with. I have in the past spent days searching to come up with the answer only for the person to disappear for weeks or months, but we do not live online and life gets busy. So am just trying to limit to what I can assist with now or know off the top of my head of children's/YA fiction. Many are looking for others (adult fiction/nonfiction, biographies etc). Basic tips are above and if it helps, fantastic! Writing out queries does help, posters can search themselves given the sites they would otherwise not know about, and sometimes objective assistance is very helpful indeed.

>14 proximity1: Wow. There's a really simple solution for this which is... stop participating in the group. Nobody is asking you or requiring you to give up your precious time searching.

For my own part, if somebody comes back and thanks me? That's lovely! If they don't? Well, I had fun trying to figure it out.

>15 bookel: I try to limit searches to a few minutes on queries I am likely to be able to help with. Much the same for me. If I can't help with likely ones, I just go on.

I journal what I recall about the book, making note of things I’m absolutely positive about, maybe and I have no clue. This helps with recalling more specifics and discovering key words or phrases that I can use when searching.