As an academic librarian, I don't get much chance to help people find books to read just because they want to--mostly they're looking for books for class assignments. Those students who are looking for books for pleasure are thrown off by the fact that all our fiction isn't in one place like at their public library, and they don't want to browse huge chunks of the P call number range to find a book. (Or sometimes they want audio books to listen too as they drive home for vacations. We don't have any of those.) This is changing, though. We're trying to foster "extracurricular" reading on campus by beginning a browsing collection. A small portion of the book budget is now dedicated to purchasing books for pleasure reading, and these books are shelved in a prominent place at the entrance to the main stacks area. No confusing LC call numbers, instead it's alphabetical by author. I'm interested to see how much that collection will be used once students really discover it.
Our library also has a collection of juvenile books. These are to support the Education department, but they are also used by students, faculty, and staff with children. I was interested if the sites listed for this Thing under Children's Books would be useful for the Children's Literature Guide I maintain for the Education department. I already link to International Children's Digital Library, and was disappointed to see Lookybook no longer online.
I spent a lot of time looking around BookCrossing to if any books had been released near me, and viewing the histories of books that had several entries. I will definitely keep this site in mind the next time I have books I no longer want to keep. I also looked at BookStumpers. This site would have been useful a couple of years ago when I tried, unsuccessfully, to discover the name of a book a friend remembered from her childhood.
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