Skipping the writer’s bookshelf for the moment to plug an online tool I use all the time: WorldCat (www.worldcat.org). No, it doesn’t have anything to do with cats, unfortunately — the “cat” is short for catalog, and it’s (among other things) an aggregator of information from libraries all over the world about their holdings.
If you read a lot of books and you’ve never used WorldCat, do yourself a favor and go bookmark it right now.
There are citation and bibliography-building tools for students and other researchers, tagging and list-making features and plug-ins of various kinds, but the reason I love WorldCat is that you can look up any book or magazine title and find the closest libraries that have it. You can also search for music and movies, too. Even if I’m not planning on taking a road trip to K-State or Kansas City to get it, it gives me some idea of how quickly an interlibrary loan (ILL) request might get filled if I request it at my own library. (One book I requested through ILL at my library had to come from Australia, so I figured in some additional wait time for it!)
That’s about 1% of the features available, but it’s what I use most. When you find a nearby copy of an item, one click takes you to that library’s record of the item, where you can request it, jot down the call number, et cetera. All in all, it’s a simple, free tool that makes life easier for readers and writers.
There’s also a mobile phone version at www.worldcat.org/m/, if you’re fancy like that.
Thanks for your kind words, Sarah! Glad you find WorldCat helpful for your writing and reading.