Last Saturday Tim Spalding, from LibraryThing, posted about how you can use Google Book Search as a source of cover images. You can read all about it at the Thingology blog. Tim says that the code is a little rough, but it does provide a working example.

With this technique for getting book covers from Google Books, and the other well known techniques for getting book covers from Amazon, I have to wonder whether libraries will continue to pay for this type of functionality from vendors. The
Some probably will, because for reasons that still confuse me “Vendor Supported” is a phrase that carries a great deal of influence. Others won’t though.

If I was a vendor relying on this type of functionality to have customers, I’d be quite worried.

The State Library of Tasmania has recently introduced LibraryThing tags into their next-gen OPAC TALISPlus

Try it out – go to Bridget Jones’s diary and click on the Similar/Other/Tags tab – you can then choose a tag like ‘chick lit’ and see the State Library’s holdings in that genre – lots to explore!

Initial feedback has been both positive (on having the tags) and negative (on specific tags). One comment, from a librarian, said that having tags not controlled by the library (some of which ARE a bit strange) reduced the authority of our catalogue. We feel that the benefits outweigh the negatives – what do you think?