State of the Thing

LibraryThing: State of the Thing Dear {NAME}, Welcome to the February 2017 State of the Thing! This month, we're bringing back our group read project, One LibraryThing, One Book; a security update for non-English LT domains; celebrating Black History Month, and more. Read on! If you'd rather receive a plain-text version, [edit your email preferences](. You can also [read it online](. Our State of the Thing archive lives [here](. You can like LibraryThing on [Facebook]( and follow [@LibraryThing]( on Twitter and [LibraryThing]() on Tumblr for up-to-the-minute site news and updates. Group Read: Interpreter of Maladies s been a while since our last [One LibraryThing, One Book]( (OLOB) read, but we're bringing it back finally! If you're unfamiliar with our OLOB group reads, you might want to check out the [blog post]( that started it all. For March, we'll be reading and discussing [Jhumpa Lahiri's]( Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of short stories, [Interpreter of Maladies](. [» Check out the blog post to read along!]( The basics: Preliminary discussion will start Wednesday, March 1st. Every week after that (starting with Wednesday, March 8th), we'll discuss a chunk of three out of the nine total stories in the collection. We hope you'll join us! If you have any questions about OLOB, feel free to email me, or post them over in the [One LibraryThing, One Book group]( on Talk. HTTPS Across All Domains In a recent [security update](, our Sysadmin has updated all non-English LT domains (LibraryThing.de, .es, .nl, .it, .fr) to include valid TLS certificates. You likely won't see much difference at all in the ways you interact with LibraryThing, though you might notice URLs showing up that begin with HTTPS, rather than just HTTP. TLS certificates are a security measure that encrypts your data as you enter it into LibraryThing. If you have any questions or thoughts you'd like to share, join the discussion on [Talk](. Black History Month Legacy Libraries year, we honored Black History month by cataloging the libraries of two great historical figures, [Martin Luther King, Jr.](, and [Louis Armstrong](. We believe that a person's library says a lot about them—what were you interested or surprised to find in these libraries? We discussed Dr. King's collections [here](. So, who should bet next? Whose library would you like to see cataloged as a [Legacy Library](? We've had some requests for Malcolm X, but aren't having much luck with a source for that one just yet. See current suggestions, and let us know whose bookshelves you'd like to browse in the [Legacy Libraries group]( on Talk. Talk of the Thing [LibraryThing Loves Reading.]( This Valentine's Day, we celebrated our favorite (and for some, our first) love, reading! What are you favorite quotes about reading? Come share yours and see other members' favorites on [Talk](. [LT Employee Statement.]( A first for LibraryThing, LT staff got together to write a statement about Trump's Executive Order containing travel restrictions for citizens of seven countries. You can read our statement [on the blog](. This is a first for us, and, to reiterate, a statement from LibraryThing's employees—we do not presume to speak for the whole of the LibraryThing community. You can join the discussion on Talk [here](. TinyCat News [TinyCat]() is the online catalog for small libraries, created by LibraryThing. It turns your existing LibraryThing account into a simple, professional, web-based catalog. Tiny Tutorials Check out our new video series, [Tiny Tutorials](. Every other week, we'll highlight a different TinyCat feature, and walk you through how to use it in 30 seconds or less. Feedback Wanted As we gear up to implement a report feature for TinyCat, we want to make sure we do it right. We'd love to hear what info you'd like to see in TinyCat reports and statistics. Come tell us about it on [Talk](. TinyCat Webinars We also offer free, weekly webinars giving an overview of TinyCat every Wednesday, at 1pm Eastern. Join us for our next one, next Wednesday, March 1st, at 1pm Eastern. Head over to [this link]( at that time, and look for the TinyCat Webinar. If Wednesday at 1pm doesn't work for you, let us know—we'll be happy to schedule a session for you. We're here to answer your TinyCat questions via email at any time: [tinycat@librarything.com](mailto:tincyat@librarything.com). Stay tuned to our [Facebook]( and [Twitter]( pages for more announcements, or see a recorded webinar from July on our [YouTube Channel](. Hot titles this month - [The Underground Railroad]( by Colson Whitehead - [When Breath Becomes Air]( by Paul Kalanithi - [Harry Potter and the Cursed Child]( by Jack Thorne, John Tiffany, and J.K. Rowling - [A Man Called Ove]( by Fredrik Backman - [Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind]( by Yuval Noah Harari - [It Can't Happen Here]( by Sinclair Lewis - [Six of Crows]( by Leigh Bardugo - [Library of Souls]( by Ransom Riggs - [A Court of Thorns and Roses]( by Sarah J. Maas - [My Name is Lucy Barton]( by Elizabeth Strout That's it for this month. I'll see you all in March! Questions, comments, ideas? Send them my way. —Loranne (loranne@librarything.com) WHY YOU GOT THIS: At some point you signed up for LibraryThing's monthly "State of the Thing" email. If you'd like to unsubscribe, [edit your profile preferences](. This message was sent to {NAME}. Edit your [email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from future emails](.