What’s a Shelfari?
Want a great way to share book lists?
Carter showed me a site called Shelfari. It is similar to LibraryThing.com (another good service) but I think that the look-and-feel of Shelfari is a better fit when working with my elementary students.
I’ve used Shelfari a few different ways:
- to share book lists with other grown-ups,
- discussing literature through reviews and groups,
- I’ve even used an LCD projector to “display” books during a class discussion.
Take a look at one or more of these Shelfari pages and tell us what you think:
- The Sasquatch Book Award: shelfari.com/sasquatchaward
- YA Books Adults Should Read Group: shelfari.com/groups/10334/about
- IdeasAndInfo’s professional recommendations: shelfari.com/ideasandinfo
- My own shelf: shelfari.com/fullertones (which is a bit of a hodge-podge)
–Sean
collaboration, library logistics | Comments (4)4 Responses to “What’s a Shelfari?”
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I’ve used my account as a reading log, but have more grandiose plans for next year. One thing I do wish the Shelfari folks (who are here in Seattle, incidentally) would do is make the service more usable for librarians. The single change I’d most like to see is the ability to have multiple accounts without the need to link each account to a separate and distinct email address.
Anyway, you can see the (chapter) books I’ve read since 7/1/2007 at http://www.shelfari.com/o1517404290/shelf
Carter,
You could create a new “group” with a distinct group shelf for each of the various purposes you have in mind.
However, it is more difficult to add books and manage a group shelf than an individual one, so whether that’s the best option might depend on how many books you plan to add to a list and how you plan to use the shelf.
As I hinted above, another way I’ve been hoping to use Shelfari is as a motivating way for 5th graders to record their reading. The hitch was that each account requires an email account, and aside from generating functional email accounts for 90 kids, I was leery of putting them in contact with others on the web. Well, it turns out that one can create accounts with fictional email accounts (I just made ‘em up) and they work just fine. It’s still impossible to rule out strangers stumbling upon their page and leaving inappropriate comments but I’m getting bored by the fear surrounding this particular issue- it’s an opportunity to teach attitudes and strategies like anything else. I’ll ask kids to have their parents sign a waiver.
I haven’t yet decided what I will do with Shelfari in the classroom. There are a couple of issues. As I recall, you can see other people’s book reviews when you are looking at the details of a particular book. Since I can’t guarantee that the comments will be appropriate, I’m not sure if I should be letting students see them? (On the other hand, the district filtering should deal with swearing etc.) The other issue is of course the social networking part of it. You would definitely need parents’ permission.
OK, so I should also say that I’ve used it with my own kids (5th grade and 2nd grade) and they LOVE it. They have been so motivated to put their new books on the shelf. They are both huge readers anyway so I don’t know if it makes any difference, but my older daughter recorded over 70 chapter books that she read this summer. Pretty cool.