September State of the Thing

LibraryThing: State of the Thing Dear {NAME}, Welcome to the September 2019 State of The Thing. This month we have information about our new captcha system, Talk Like a Pirate Day, and more. If you'd rather receive a plain-text version, [edit your email preferences](. You can also read it [online](. Our newsletter archive lives [here](. You can like LibraryThing on [Facebook]( and follow [@LibraryThing]( on Twitter for up-to-the-minute site news and updates. LibraryThing Happenings “Are You A Robot?” We’ve [added a new "Are You A Robot" feature]( to our login page to help defend against the spam bots that are attacking us. Now, every so often when you login, you will be prompted to “prove you’re not a robot” by choosing cookbooks from a selection of covers. Other versions of this have people identify street signs, but we wanted to make it more fun. (We kept in the regular Google reCaptcha for those who want to use that instead.) Thanks for your patience as we keep our servers less overwhelmed by bots. Talk Like a Pirate Day Avast! Our yearly [Treasure Hunt]( for "Talk Like A Pirate Day" is here! Follow our clues to find treasure hidden around the site. Collect all the treasure and be entered into a contest for a tshirt. You can also use our LibraryThing in [Pirate translation]( of the site for the day (or forever). Store Sale Our ongoing celebration of LibraryThing’s 14th birthday includes our month-long store sale. [Stock up]( on CueCats, Barcodes, and $5 T-shirts at a discount through the end of September. New Summaries Feature We are continuing to [roll out features]( for work descriptions in two ways. First, we’ve put in an expandable description at the top of each work page. Second, we’ve added the ability to vote for which description should be used. More on [Talk](. Reorganization We’ve done a bit of staff restructuring. We said goodbye to [Loranne]( and [Kirsten](, and shuffled around some responsibilities. [Kristi]( and I ([KJ]() are sharing the information email and will be a general presence on the site, while [Kate]( is taking over on [Early Reviewers](. I'm going to be sending out the monthly State of the Thing email and you'll see me on social media. Book World News The Fight Over Ebooks between continues, with the ALA petitioning publishers wanting to [restrict purchasing from libraries](. Meanwhile, the European Union is moving to [ban re-selling ebooks](. On our side of things, we’d like to remind you that when you’re adding a book, you can change the media type of each of your books by opening them from your catalog and clicking “Edit Your Book” on the left-hand side. Two books had much anticipated adaptations come out this month: [It]( Chapter Two based on the world of Stephen King, and [The Goldfinch]( by Donna Tartt. [Check out](adaptation) more film adaptations to read, watch, and compare! Talk of the Thing Over on BookTalk, members are [brainstorming Ghost stories]( as the northern hemisphere barrels towards autumn. The Folio Society devotees are getting [excited about Fall Releases](. Fantasy Fans are [checking in]( from their separate worlds. Check in yourself! Did You Know? On [LibraryThing Local](, you can find book-ish venues and places near you. Learn more about your area, or where you’re going on your next trip! Our [widgets]( can bring your LibraryThing catalog to your website or blog. You can personalize it with different styles, show off specific collections, link to your reviews, and more. Early Reviewers Early Reviewers is our program where you can win free(!) advance copies of books to read and review. Sign up, request books, receive books, celebrate by reading them. Books for all ages and interests available. Did we mention free books? The September batch of [Early Reviewers]( has 3,312 copies of 92 books. It closes on September 30th. The deadline to request is September 30th at 6pm EDT. The most requested books of the September batch: TinyCat [TinyCat]( is the online catalog for small libraries, created by LibraryThing. It turns your existing LibraryThing account into a simple, professional, web-based catalog. Check out our Tiny Tutorials on [LibraryThing’s YouTube channel](, where Kristi walks you through various features of TinyCat in 30 seconds or less, including our latest: [Transactions exports](. Wednesday Webinars We offer free, live TinyCat webinars [on Wednesdays at 1pm Eastern (GMT -05:00)]( where you can see everything TinyCat has to offer and ask questions about getting started. To view the full schedule and attend the next webinar, go to [LibraryThing's WebEx page](. Talk to us if Wednesdays at 1pm don’t work for you—we’ll schedule a special session. Other Resources - Email Kristi at tinycat@librarything.com - Follow [TinyCat on Twitter]( Hot Titles This Month Hot on LibraryThing: - [Where the Crawdad's Sing]( by Delia Owens - [The Tattooist of Auschwitz]( by Heather Morris - [Educated]( by Tara Westover - [Becoming]( by Michelle Obama - [There There]( by Tommy Orange - [Circe]( by Madeline Miller - [Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Hammer of Thor]( by Rick Riordan - [Scythe]( by Neal Shusterman - [The War That Saved My Life]( by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley - [The Library Book]( by Susan Orlean Hot on [Litsy](: - [The Testaments]( by Margaret Atwood - [The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo]( by Taylor Jenkins Reid - [The Institute]( by Stephen King - [It]( by Stephen King - [The Whisper Man]( by Alex North That's it for this month. I'll see you all in October! Questions, comments, ideas? Send them my way. —KJ (kj@librarything.com) This message was sent to {NAME}. Click to [edit your email preferences or unsubscribe from future emails](.