Goodreads

I have been navigating and exploring the website Goodreads this week to determine it's usefulness in a school library and classroom setting. Goodreads is on online literary social media, centered around reading. The main functions are to connect readers to one another, through the option of following other accounts and groups people can join, and allowing user to keep lists of books for many different purposes.

Goodreads has several main areas of the website. The main screen, or home, is an update feed, where any updates for people you follow appear. It also had a progress section for any books you are reading, a yearly reading challenge ticker that shows your progress toward your goal, selected books from you "want to read" list, and your personal "bookshelves" which are lists of books you can create such as "read," "want to read," and even specific custom shelves like "epic fantasy."

The "My Books" tab allows you to access your bookshelves and allows for quite a bit of customization for the user. I use the "want to read" bookshelf the most because I am constantly adding to it. However I do like to use the shelves to keep track of different kinds of books I want to read, so if I am in the mood for something specific I can find it easily. Once you read books you can rate them and write a review. These can be helpful for other users to decide whether of not they want to read a book.

Another helpful part of Goodreads is the browse tab. Here you can find book lists, recommendations, giveaways, new releases, and more. I particularly like the book lists for finding books similar to something I have previously enjoyed, or finding a book that fits a certain genre and age group.

The last big part of Goodreads is the community area. There are a lot of things that fall under this category, such as groups, discussions, quotes, author questions, trivia, user profiles, and more. The groups are a wonderful place to find like-minded readers and fans of books.

One of the drawbacks to Goodreads is that users need to be at least 13 years old. Because of this, it rules out a good portion of the school aged population. However I think this could be a wonderful resource for teens and educators. Having a place for teens to keep track of the books they read and interact with others can be very encouraging, however I would hesitate to mandate the use of this resource as it is a type of social media, and it is not exclusive to teens and educators. I think educators especially can benefit from this website. Having access to all the curated lists (some made by teens and younger readers) can help them give good recommendations to students. The trivia could also be a fun activity to pepper into classes. Lastly, entering the giveaways is a free way to possibly get new books for you or your students.

In closing, I feel that Goodreads can be a beneficial resource to educators, and that older teens could benefit from utilizing it with proper guidance and caution.