Good news for Goodreads and Amazon users. You can now connect to our catalog directly from these sites.
Goodreads.com is a social media site for book lovers. You can create virtual bookshelves, connect to other readers and authors, rate and review books, add quotes, play trivia games, and join discussions. One feature lets you search for titles at different sites, like Worldcat.org or Amazon.com. Now you can use it to connect to our catalog by following these simple steps:
1) Log into Goodreads.com.
2) Click on edit profile.
3) Click on book links.
4) On the right side of the page, you’ll see a list of links you can add. If you sort by alphabetical, you’ll find us on page 4. If you sort by popular; page 7. (The more people who add us, the more popular we’ll become.)
5) Click add.
6) Lynchburg Public Library is now in the list of book sites on the left side of the screen. There are several other default book links in this list. You can rearrange them by clicking on the up and down arrows or delete them by clicking remove.
So now, on any page with Get a Copy options, you will see a button that says book links. Hover over this button to see your link options. If you moved Lynchburg Public Library to one of the top two spots, you will see the link here. If not, click on more. Clicking on Lynchburg Public Library will take you directly to the title in our catalog, where you can then check for holdings and make requests.
Connecting to us in Amazon.com is simpler then Goodreads.com, but also more limiting. There is an app called Library Extension, but it only works in Google Chrome. If you try this in Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, it will not work.
1) In Google Chrome, go to www.libraryextension.com
2) Click on Install Library Extension from Chrome Web Store
3) When it has successfully installed, you will see a pop-up on your address bar showing you where the icon will appear when its active.
4) Go to Amazon.com and search for books.
5) On the title information page you will see a box on the right hand side stating the library’s name and how many available copies there are. Clicking on Reserve Your Copy (or Add to Waitlist) will take you directly to the title in our catalog, where you can check locations and make requests.
For a printable copy of these instructions (with screenshots) please click here.
There is one small caveat I must advise you of. These tools use ISBN searches to match book titles. Different editions of books have different ISBNs. While this shouldn’t be a problem with newer titles, it can be with older ones that have had many different editions. So don’t despair if the Amazon or Goodreads links can’t find Jane Austen, Agatha Christi, or Mark Twain titles, we probably just have a different edition. If they can’t find it, you can always do a title or author search straight from our catalog.
Did it. Pretty snazzy!!