LibraryThingTim
@librarythingtim.bsky.social
LibraryThing founder. Father, hacker, bibliophile, ex-classicist, Mainer, Catholic. I tweet books, libraries, technology, culture.
LibraryThing: @librarything.com
LibraryThing: @librarything.com
Pinned
Talpa Search is BETTER! We've released a big upgrade to @LibraryThing's groundbreaking new library search, with significant advances on "What's that book?" benchmark searches. 🧵
FWIW, I'm pretty damn proud of this work. Every percent improvement in the quality score was a struggle. There are some genuinely new ideas underneath here, but also a lot of experimenting, testing, tuning, and running things over and over!
1/ When displaying a row of covers, you have a basic choice, arising for the fact the covers come in different aspect ratios:
1. Crop to a "book" size
2. Fixed width
3. Fixed height
4. Adopt a hybrid approach, with a fixed height or width unless the w-h ratio is too high, then do 1, 2 or 3
1. Crop to a "book" size
2. Fixed width
3. Fixed height
4. Adopt a hybrid approach, with a fixed height or width unless the w-h ratio is too high, then do 1, 2 or 3
February 7, 2026 at 7:20 PM
1/ When displaying a row of covers, you have a basic choice, arising for the fact the covers come in different aspect ratios:
1. Crop to a "book" size
2. Fixed width
3. Fixed height
4. Adopt a hybrid approach, with a fixed height or width unless the w-h ratio is too high, then do 1, 2 or 3
1. Crop to a "book" size
2. Fixed width
3. Fixed height
4. Adopt a hybrid approach, with a fixed height or width unless the w-h ratio is too high, then do 1, 2 or 3
I’ve always been a one-monitor person—one big display, laptop as a occasional sidecar. Working on an iOS app—with two codebases and AI coding tools—is the first time I’ve wanted two full-size monitors.
February 7, 2026 at 4:31 PM
I’ve always been a one-monitor person—one big display, laptop as a occasional sidecar. Working on an iOS app—with two codebases and AI coding tools—is the first time I’ve wanted two full-size monitors.
Apple has a set of icons (SF Symbols) that come built in for iPhone development. Today I found out I can't legally use any of them in web development. So I can't make anything look the same app-to-web, unless I pivot to some third-party set, like Font Awesome. Shooting themselves in the foot here!
February 7, 2026 at 12:38 AM
Apple has a set of icons (SF Symbols) that come built in for iPhone development. Today I found out I can't legally use any of them in web development. So I can't make anything look the same app-to-web, unless I pivot to some third-party set, like Font Awesome. Shooting themselves in the foot here!
One glorious thing about Turkish: Educated Istanbul Turkish is uncannily clear, crisp and articulate. Impeccable vowel harmony, consonants never dropped. Even speed is generally good. It's like they're all conspiring to make language-learners as comfortable as possible.
February 6, 2026 at 9:03 PM
One glorious thing about Turkish: Educated Istanbul Turkish is uncannily clear, crisp and articulate. Impeccable vowel harmony, consonants never dropped. Even speed is generally good. It's like they're all conspiring to make language-learners as comfortable as possible.
Sensational: A newly-discovered early 8c Christian universal chronicle from St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai. Arabic translation of a Syriac original, from Creation to 634. Complete text. Looks like a new, partially independent source for Arab conquest, etc.
February 6, 2026 at 7:47 PM
Sensational: A newly-discovered early 8c Christian universal chronicle from St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai. Arabic translation of a Syriac original, from Creation to 634. Complete text. Looks like a new, partially independent source for Arab conquest, etc.
Reposted by LibraryThingTim
It would be interesting to look at emojis as idiolects/familect. 🫕 means "I love you" (lit. I am fondue you) in my family. And 🕸️ means mesh, which is comes from being autocorrect for mwah. Anyone else?
I enjoyed using fondue as the cooking emoji. Underused emoji, except in my family, where it means "I love you" because my mom once gave me a "I am fondue you" card, and that phrase has stuck around.
February 4, 2026 at 5:07 PM
It would be interesting to look at emojis as idiolects/familect. 🫕 means "I love you" (lit. I am fondue you) in my family. And 🕸️ means mesh, which is comes from being autocorrect for mwah. Anyone else?
First look: LIbraryThing genres on the app. Take a look; question in the next tweet.
February 4, 2026 at 2:49 AM
First look: LIbraryThing genres on the app. Take a look; question in the next tweet.
First look: LibraryThing App "Your Books" pages.
February 2, 2026 at 4:40 AM
First look: LibraryThing App "Your Books" pages.
LibraryThing app first look: Melvil Decimal System
January 31, 2026 at 2:59 PM
LibraryThing app first look: Melvil Decimal System
Icons from the Kijkwijzer DVD rating system, used in Belgium and the Netherlands. You've got to love the "sex" one.
January 27, 2026 at 6:28 PM
Icons from the Kijkwijzer DVD rating system, used in Belgium and the Netherlands. You've got to love the "sex" one.
LibraryThing has a much-loved UI for Dewey Decimals, where you drill down the numbers row by row. This isn't going to work on mobile.
Has anyone seen a good UI for DDC on mobile?
Has anyone seen a good UI for DDC on mobile?
January 26, 2026 at 10:20 PM
LibraryThing has a much-loved UI for Dewey Decimals, where you drill down the numbers row by row. This isn't going to work on mobile.
Has anyone seen a good UI for DDC on mobile?
Has anyone seen a good UI for DDC on mobile?
The libraries (blue) and bookstore (green) of Greenland from @librarything.com's local feature.
January 24, 2026 at 3:15 AM
The libraries (blue) and bookstore (green) of Greenland from @librarything.com's local feature.
When I was designing LibraryThing's "genre" feature, I made a "Falconry" genre to see if my data crunching would work for highly-specific things. So I present to you, the 2025 most-read books on falconry and falcon-related topics in US public libraries!
Eat your heart out, Falconry fans!
Eat your heart out, Falconry fans!
January 16, 2026 at 4:04 AM
When I was designing LibraryThing's "genre" feature, I made a "Falconry" genre to see if my data crunching would work for highly-specific things. So I present to you, the 2025 most-read books on falconry and falcon-related topics in US public libraries!
Eat your heart out, Falconry fans!
Eat your heart out, Falconry fans!
❤️
My twenty-year Thingaversary today! Thanks @librarything.com @librarythingtim.bsky.social for building and maintaining the best site on the web. Here's to many more!
January 10, 2026 at 8:37 PM
❤️
I redid the 2025 stats and forgot to limit it to 2025, so here's the most popular books in US public libraries across the last nine years.*
You may be surprised to see Harry Potter at #2, when it doesn't usually make the top 20. But being around 25 every month for nine years adds up!
You may be surprised to see Harry Potter at #2, when it doesn't usually make the top 20. But being around 25 every month for nine years adds up!
January 9, 2026 at 6:29 PM
I redid the 2025 stats and forgot to limit it to 2025, so here's the most popular books in US public libraries across the last nine years.*
You may be surprised to see Harry Potter at #2, when it doesn't usually make the top 20. But being around 25 every month for nine years adds up!
You may be surprised to see Harry Potter at #2, when it doesn't usually make the top 20. But being around 25 every month for nine years adds up!
1/ This year we did "Art Epiphany"—one hand-made present each, after all the Christmas craziness. I vibe-coded a three-person iPhone app, "Slugstagram," a cross between Instagram and FB Memories. I threw some 2,000 images in a bucket—family photos, GIFs from movies we've seen, poems, etc.
January 8, 2026 at 6:51 AM
1/ This year we did "Art Epiphany"—one hand-made present each, after all the Christmas craziness. I vibe-coded a three-person iPhone app, "Slugstagram," a cross between Instagram and FB Memories. I threw some 2,000 images in a bucket—family photos, GIFs from movies we've seen, poems, etc.
It ain't AGI, but if Claude successfully reads the PDF of the 1905 French edition of the UDC and turns it into structured JSON, well, I'm prepared to update my priors!
December 31, 2025 at 7:12 PM
It ain't AGI, but if Claude successfully reads the PDF of the 1905 French edition of the UDC and turns it into structured JSON, well, I'm prepared to update my priors!
You've never seen an LLM fabricate with more gusto than when you feed it a Judeo-Arabic text from the Cairo Geniza and ask for a translation. Absolute fantasy, confidently delivered.
December 30, 2025 at 6:03 AM
You've never seen an LLM fabricate with more gusto than when you feed it a Judeo-Arabic text from the Cairo Geniza and ask for a translation. Absolute fantasy, confidently delivered.
I found an error in LibraryThing's LCC (Library of Congress Classification) parsing. Enlisting AI to help me fix it and… I think I've found the new test for AGI. (Which it's not passing.)
December 29, 2025 at 10:51 PM
I found an error in LibraryThing's LCC (Library of Congress Classification) parsing. Enlisting AI to help me fix it and… I think I've found the new test for AGI. (Which it's not passing.)
NPR on Baker and Taylor shutting down, with @mbreeding.bsky.social on NPR (!) www.npr.org/2025/12/29/n...
Book distributor shutting down deals logistical blow to libraries
Baker and Taylor is one of very few companies that do book-distribution for libraries — companies that act as the middle man between libraries and publishers. But a few months ago, the company abruptl...
www.npr.org
December 29, 2025 at 6:32 PM
NPR on Baker and Taylor shutting down, with @mbreeding.bsky.social on NPR (!) www.npr.org/2025/12/29/n...
Today was reserved for reading these two enormous books.
December 28, 2025 at 5:04 AM
Today was reserved for reading these two enormous books.
IT'S OUT! The top library books of 2025, from Syndetics Unbound, @LibraryThing and @clarivateag.bsky.social
proquest.syndetics.com/news/2025/12... 🧵
proquest.syndetics.com/news/2025/12... 🧵
December 17, 2025 at 5:49 PM
IT'S OUT! The top library books of 2025, from Syndetics Unbound, @LibraryThing and @clarivateag.bsky.social
proquest.syndetics.com/news/2025/12... 🧵
proquest.syndetics.com/news/2025/12... 🧵
Reposted by LibraryThingTim
Content Café is closing Dec 15, 2025 but Syndetics has you covered with free catalog cover images through Jan 31, 2026.
Seamless setup, no cost, no hassle—just keep your library looking sharp: about.proquest.com/en/blog/2025...
Seamless setup, no cost, no hassle—just keep your library looking sharp: about.proquest.com/en/blog/2025...
December 15, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Content Café is closing Dec 15, 2025 but Syndetics has you covered with free catalog cover images through Jan 31, 2026.
Seamless setup, no cost, no hassle—just keep your library looking sharp: about.proquest.com/en/blog/2025...
Seamless setup, no cost, no hassle—just keep your library looking sharp: about.proquest.com/en/blog/2025...
1/2 All I want is an e-ink tablet. Must be limited—not a general purpose device I can check my email on. Must be very large (letter or larger), so I can read full PDFs comfortably. Must allow me to read SOME proprietary ebook standard. Must convert writing to text and also handle dictation.
December 15, 2025 at 5:39 PM
1/2 All I want is an e-ink tablet. Must be limited—not a general purpose device I can check my email on. Must be very large (letter or larger), so I can read full PDFs comfortably. Must allow me to read SOME proprietary ebook standard. Must convert writing to text and also handle dictation.