For the past few years people have been working on the concept of master databases of titles and authors, something like the IMDB for movies, with the collaborative twist of Wikipedia. A community created master booklist.
The Internet Book List database is now very large with over 45,000 book entries and over 10,000 members. Many of the entries are small with minimal information, but the genre tags can lead to interesting places e.g. "Science Gone Wrong"
See also:
Internet Book Database of Fiction which is a part of IBList.
Internet Speculative Fiction Database, a wiki hosted by the Cushing Library at Texas A&M. Any member can edit.
Want to collaboratively catalog books? Try Library Thing. As soon as it gets cold and rainy, sit down with your own books and start cataloging. For a given book you will find both a page of bibliographic information and one of social information. The later contains tags, ratings and reviews. If you see something you don't have but want to read, please check our catalog.
Want to share books and trace their peregrinations? Join Bookcrossing. Over 3 million books have been registered.
Posted by library at August 26, 2006 05:57 PM