I hope it isn't tacky to post about LibraryThing here. (:

I just read about a new feature on LT called Local Book Search. Since I spent several minutes trying to figure out how it works, I thought I'd post here.

The idea is to be able to find a copy of a title for sale locally. What's weird about how it works is the way you get to it. There's no search box where you enter a title. Instead, you do a search for a title as you would normally at LT. Then look on the right-hand side of the page for the Local Book Search link. See this example.

When you follow that link, you then get local bookstores. LT also tells you if it's in stock at Borders. Some booksellers have opted out, which I think is shortsighted. Still, hundreds participate.

For the book in the example link, I'm told that it is not in stock at the nearest Borders locations to my home. Not surprising since the title is OOP.

A list of used bookstores appears with their geographic distance from my home. You have to click through to find out if they have the title in stock. Hopefully, LT will improve this so that it doesn't require a clickthrough.

Anyhoo, it's an interesting development with lots of potential. I don't think it's particularly useful for OOP books as it stands right now. But if it improves to provide results where the book is currently in stock, well then, that would be quite an accomplishment.

Oh, that is nice! I live in a tiny town with not even one bookstore, so I have to make a long drive to the nearest larger town to find books. I usually go to the BOM, but if they are out of the book I need, I then have to drive even more. I usually call around to make sure someone has the book before I leave home, but I'd much rather do an internet search before I ever leave the house. This could be really handy!

You, tacky??? Never! I'm glad you posted!

Genie, it even tells you which libraries have the book you want! Awesome!

That feature wasn't working for me last night. I hope their intention is to show you the libraries that have the books you want. But I got the same libraries no matter what books I tried, and the link took me to the library home page. That's it.