Lawrence library staffer builds book lovers’ Web site

Kathleen Morgan has been a book club member for nearly a decade. And there’s one question she loves to ask: “What are you reading?”

So when Morgan built a Web site, she had a greedy goal in mind — she wanted to know what novels other book clubs were tackling.

“It a was selfish undertaking at its basic level,” says Morgan, development director for the Lawrence Public Library Foundation. “I’ve been in a book club for several years, and one of the fun things to do is to look at other book clubs’ lists.”

With a little help, Morgan assembled a Web site that could amass loads of local, state and national book club lists in one place. The site — www.whatareyoureading.com — will be unveiled at an event, “What Do I Read Next?” at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vt.

The library’s community relations coordinator, Maria Butler, hopes to introduce patrons to new technologies that are changing the way people read.

“I’ve got a lengthy list of Web sites that I’m going to walk people through,” Butler says. “This is a new phenomenon for libraries, and I thought it was time we did something about (technology).”

In addition to letting Morgan show off her new project, Butler is going to yank people’s attention toward the database NoveList, a search engine that allows readers to make personal, refined inquiries.

With NoveList, someone who likes Larry McMurtry or Ray Bradbury can pull up a list of every book the authors have written. Readers can also do “read-alike” searches, to find similar authors.

She also plans to show people how to use Web sites like Goodreads.com and Shelfari.com, which serve as virtual bookshelves that track a person’s reading feats.