I know librarians are supposed to be orderly, organized types, but that’s one stereotype I KNOW is wrong. please tell me I’m not the only one who loses track of books. It’s not unusual to forget the title and author of a book I read a few weeks ago when I’ve read a dozen since then. Is it?

So LibraryThing this terrific web-based resource for organizing your books and your reading. It’s easy and fun and free! Just go to librarything.com, take half a minute to decide your user name and password, and you’re in.

You can use LibraryThing as an actual catalog or as a log for your reading. If you’re on an award or selection committee, it’s a great way to keep track of the books you receive from publishers, the nominations, your own opinions, and feedback from teens.

One of the features I like best about LibraryThing is its “tag” category, which allows you to use any keywords you want to for each book, and then you can search by tag. For example, you could use “arc” as a tag for all of your advance reader copies, and then call up a list of all your arcs. Your tags can be as personal or standard as you like. I also like that you can sort your list as you like, by title or author or date for example.

LibraryThing combines the best aspects of an online book community with a useful organizing tool. Take a look and see if you want to join in the fun.