Online Book Communites

I am learning so much this semester!  It honestly makes me feel a little old and out of touch with technology.  Before this week, I did not know online book communities existed.  I am going to blame this on my lack of time to explore things in my "free time", which does not exist.  That makes it a little easier to take, right??? 

Online book communities is now one of my favorite things.  It is a place to track your reading, including what you want to read.  I was fortunate enough to explore 5 different sites that offer a range of options.  They were all good sites, but there were special features that I liked more than others.  As always, ease of use is a must for me, a mommy to twins with little to know free time.  As you read my opinions, please keep in mind that I teach at an elementary and my heart belongs there.  I like to say that I see everything through the eyes of my little people that I teach everyday.  Do not let that sway you if your heart belongs in secondary.  Some of these are great for you too!

1.  Good Reads

I like the look of the interface for this site.  It is very easy to add books to your shelves.  Not only can you add it, but you can instantly choose which shelf to put it in without having to go to a separate page.  Another feature that I like is that it offers suggestions when typing.  This is a great feature that can cut some time off searching for things.  It does allow you to import books from other web pages or files, which is a great idea when changing communities.  That way you don't have to redo everything you've already done.  The one thing I did not like was that it was difficult to find my friends.  It wants you to connect with Facebook, email or Twitter.  Personally, I don't like to interconnect my accounts and wish the search feature would be a little more user friendly.  This is a great site to use for high school or adults.  I do not think it appropriate for early teenagers and elementary aged children. 
Here is what it looks like if you are interested.

2.  Library Thing

This particular is very buy and not as appealing to me.  However, you can add books to your shelves very quickly and import other lists you may have from Amazon, Goodreads, etc.  Some advantages include the tabs that are located across the top of the page.  One tab, Local, allows you to see local venues and libraries.  You can also find special local events by date, such as author visits or classes offered at the library.  The Groups tab offers many suggestions for thousands of groups.  Some of the ones I liked were Read Young Adults and 1001 Books Before You Die.  A definite disadvantage is that it does not offer suggestions when typing.  That is a feature that I miss dearly.  I would recommend this site to older teenagers and adults.  I believe it would be a little difficult to navigate around as a young teenager. 

3.  Shelfari

First of all, how cool and catchy is that name? Shelfari?  Powered by Amazon, this is a pretty easy to maneuver site.  Because of this, you do not have to create a new username/password.  You simply use your Amazon account to login.  In a world of one thousand different usernames and passwords, this is definitely an advantage to me!  I loved the way the shelves looked and lined up the books.  I appreciate this look much more than a boring list of titles.  Not sure if it was my Internet connection or the site, but it was extremely slow when I used it, even on different days.  Another advantage is the suggested typing, which is a must have to me.  It allows you to set goals and collects your reading statistics, which is great idea.  I believe that middle school aged and up students could benefit from using this site to track their progress and what they want to read.  It is still a little too advanced for elementary aged students. 

4.  Booklikes

The homepage for Booklikes reminds me a lot of Tumblr.  It looks like a blog roll, but you can add your own text, quotes, photos, videos, or URL's.  Using this site, it was very easy to add books to my shelves.  The one thing that I did not like was that there were no typing suggestions when adding books.  The thing I like the most about it is that it puts them into a blog for you.  The blog looks awesome with books sitting on the shelves.  The blog itself reminds me of the look of Pinterest, with followers and following.  The blog is very customizable, allowing you to choose backgrounds, themes, and much more.  This site is definitely user friendly and I could see 4th graders on up using it.  I might give it a try with own kids.  They would definitely love to see their reading progress and timeline on a cool shelf!  Do you like the look of this as much as I do?  It is still a work in progress, but I am liking it!

5.  Biblionasium

As an elementary teacher, I LOVE this site and everything about it!  It is a great way to connect with students and parents outside of school.  The interface is extremely appealing and easy to use.  As a teacher, you can assign required readings, recommendations and your favorites.  There is even a tab for Classroom Wish List, which allows parents to purchase books from Amazon, with the click of a button taking you there.  Students can review books and write recommendations.  This feature makes this site interactive and that is a plus.  The resources page is top notch with many suggestions for articles, useful websites, parent connections, and so much more.  Some disadvantages are that it does not offer typing suggestions and you are not able to load the shelves as quickly as some of the other sites.  It will take some planning time to load your students into the database, but I think it is worth it!  You will be able to run reports and see what your students are reading quickly.  I wonder if it can somehow "talk" to Accelerated Reader and merge the books that students take comprehension tests on so that they are not having to enter their data twice. That would be the one feature that would make this site extremely valuable in my eyes.  Although, not all schools use AR, so I am not sure if it is worth it to the company.

How do you like the look of it?  I love the color scheme.  It is so inviting for children!

As a teacher, I like Biblionasium the best and will continue to use it.  It is very user friendly and pleasing to the eyes.  Not only is it a shelf for books, but it is a way to stay connected at home, which is an important part of teaching that many struggle with.  As I said before, it will be a little extra work on the front end, but it will produce so much more, making it well worth it.  My students will love using this at school and at home.  I can see this being something that they get addicted to and their parents telling them over and over again to turn it off.  When it comes to educational things, those statements make my heart happy.

As an adult, I will continue to use Booklikes.  It is very appealing to me because of the look and blog aspect.  I really like how easy you can add books and change the shelf arrangement.  I am going to keep working on this site to see if I can get my list somewhat updated.  I just hope I make the time to do it. 

Did you notice the screenshots with arrows and extra text?  That is a new software that I learned called SKITCH. It is a simple download and free.  SKITCH allows you to draw out the area you want to take a screenshot of and add text, arrows, highlight, blackout, crop, and add shapes.  I can't believe that I have not used this before.  I cannot wait to introduce this to my students.  The possibilities are endless with this!