A Jetty for Your Books

Video, photo, slideshow enthusiasts use popular social media sites, such as Flickr, YouTube, SlideShare to manage, share, discover interesting works, including their own. The equivalent communities for avid readers are LibraryThing and Shelfari (see The Big List of Bookish Social Networks.

For me, I tried the more popular LibraryThing but moved to BookJetty because of its integration with local libraries, intuitive interface, and inspiring name.

Integrated

Designed and developed by Herryanto Siatono, BookJetty has integrated with more than 300 libraries worldwide, including Singapore’s National Library Board (NLB).

So why do I find this so cool? Because I can conveniently track down interesting books to borrow and read first, without or before buying them. From your BookJetty bookshelf, you can check any book’s availability, its call number, and which library branches carry the book (see screen shot below), using the “List with library search” view (you just need to add your preferred library in the account settings).

Another great feature is the SMS notification service. I can SMS a library book’s call number and its branch locations to my iphone (two things are needed: a Twitter account and a one-time activation from BookJetty). No more copying the details on slips that may get lost. Or if the book is not available from my neigbourhood branch, Sembawang Community Library (SCL), I can head over to NLB’s Public Library website to reserve the book from other branches and collect it at SCL, for a token fee.

Intuitive

Looks and ease-of-use matter. The design of BookJetty has an uncluttered, minimalist feel to it. Its book-tagging feature is intuitive to use, like how tags are assigned to links on Delicious, my favourite social bookmarking site.

In addition to multiple tags per book, you can organise the books on your virtual bookshelf by status categories (Wanted, Reading, Read, Dropped) and personal comments (favorites, ratings, reviews).

Inspiring

Naming things appropriately is an art. I’m not sure how BookJetty got its name but in my mind, “jetty” conjures a calming, soothing image of a humble man-made structure extending from shore into a wide expanse of lake-water.

Image credit: Sam Judson

Better and Better

Three months ago, BookJetty rolled out a new user interface with additional Facebook-like elements. Users can now follow fellow users’ bookshelves, initiate/take part in book discussions, converse via wall posts, etc. Last month, more enhancements were introduced, eg. users can become fans of authors.

So I’m sticking with BookJetty. You can join too, if you are not already part of the community.