Thread: Organizing Micro- and Pico-Libraries Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.
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Posted by Barefoot Friar (# 13100) on
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I've got a very small library -- 300 volumes or so. However, I'd like to find a way to organize it in a way that is easily maintained and expanded as I get new books. I'd also like to label them all in some way so that when I loan them out I can keep tabs on who has them and how long.
I took a look at the Dewey Decimal Classification standards and the Library of Congress Classification and on the surface it looks like neither one will fit my needs -- both of them seem to assume you have a full size, thousands-of-volumes library.
I'm not so much interested in an actual number or code to put on the spine of each book (although I'm not opposed to it), but more a way of organizing my shelves so that the items I have are in the best order. If/when I move, I'll be able to pack, move, and unpack my library with a minimum of fuss and confusion.
Does anyone have any tips to offer or links to suggested reading?
Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Barefoot Friar:
I'd also like to label them all in some way so that when I loan them out I can keep tabs on who has them and how long.
Do your books all have UPC codes? You can read them with a smartphone camera and hook into a database.
Posted by Barefoot Friar (# 13100) on
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I'd say the majority of the ones I'd be loaning do. The ones that don't are primarily things like word studies and commentaries -- reference, in other words.
That's a great idea. Thank you.
[ 30. April 2015, 17:17: Message edited by: Barefoot Friar ]
Posted by Doublethink. (# 1984) on
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Librarything is very good, and they sell a mini-barcode scanner that allows you to catalog your books really quickly.
Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on
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If you are a member of Goodreads, and if you link your membership to your smartphone or tablet, you can scan the bar code of a book and it will automatically load up to the shelf on your Goodreads account. You can then organize the virtual shelves any way you like.
Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on
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If you want free for an Android phone, https://github.com/eleybourn/Book-Catalogue/wiki is excellent.
I added the f-droid repository to Android and got it from there: https://f-droid.org/ . F-Droid is FOSS (free and open software).
I just checked and it is also available from the Google playstore. Author Evan Leybourn. Search for Book Catalogue. You will also need the free app, which is from either f-droid or google called Barcode Scanner. It will also scan codes for other purposes. Possibly just try to install the catalogue if using google, YMMV.
You scan the books ISBN barcode or enter it manually, it looks up the book on the net and you get a picture of the cover, author, pub date etc. There is a "loan" button where you can enter the name of the person you loaned it to. I have about 600 books in it, organized in bookshelf topics, like 'history', 'philosophy' etc, which you as a user can create.
(I'm kind of an anti-google phone user, because I don't like being tracked so much, so you can ignore the F-droid stuff if you prefer)
[ 30. April 2015, 19:34: Message edited by: no prophet's flag is set so... ]
Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on
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That is interesting because it is something I have been meaning to do for ages. I used to have a thing called BookCat on my PC which was a sort of basic database but I never got on with it.
I like the idea of being able to scan the book's barcode with a phone and getting the information from the internet rather than having to enter all the numbers manually. But how do you get the information from your phone onto your PC, assuming you want to keep the database on your PC?
Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Sparrow:
But how do you get the information from your phone onto your PC, assuming you want to keep the database on your PC?
The program no prophet mentioned will export its data to a csv file. Whatever database you want to use on your PC will be able to import that.
Spreadsheet programs are usually very bad at dealing with numeric text data with leading zeros, as they like to automatically interpret them as numbers and throw the leading zero away, so if you want to use a spreadsheet, make sure you've turned all that nonsense off.
Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on
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Tangent alert, but book related.
One DIL sent me a link to Booklit.
You take a picture on your phone of a shelf of your library and send it to Booklit. They let you know which of those books they have as ebooks. In return, you send them photo of the book title page or similar with your name to prove your ownership and you get ebook of the title. Handy for tablet or laptop portability.
She remarked that I may not find many of my books in their stock. After searching for a word, she decided my books were rather eclectic, mostly theology. She borrowed such books from Moore library when she needed them and has a wide range of other books than I have.
I thought some may be interested.
End tangent.
Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Lothlorien:
Tangent alert, but book related.
One DIL sent me a link to Booklit.
You take a picture on your phone of a shelf of your library and send it to Booklit. They let you know which of those books they have as ebooks. In return, you send them photo of the book title page or similar with your name to prove your ownership and you get ebook of the title. Handy for tablet or laptop portability.
I thought some may be interested.
End tangent.
Yes indeed. I wonder though what qualifies as proof of ownership? I certainly don't keep receipts of all the books I buy. And what about second hand, presumably they wouldn't count.
Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on
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Many, many years ago, I was briefly responsible for a small specialist part of a library which was catalogued according to the Dewey Decimal system. That system was such a bad fit to the particular specialism, that we reorganised the books according to our own system.
I can understand that the Dewey system is easy for librarians. They can buy a directory which will give them the standard code for each book. However, for our purposes it did not put books on shelves in a way that remotely resembled how we mentally classified the subject matter. So books classified according to it seemed to be randomly scattered though the shelves, with books that were on related topics nowhere near each other and impossible to find.
So we designed our own. It took a bit of work, but not that much.
Posted by Jane R (# 331) on
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The problem with Dewey is that it was invented in the 19th century when a lot of things we take for granted now either weren't considered important or simply didn't exist - for example, ecology and computers. Ever since it was invented, librarians have been tinkering with it and shoehorning new subjects in wherever there's space in the numerical sequence.
If it's just your own personal library you want to organise you could go for colour-coding different subjects - history, cookery, biography, science/technology - and then arranging them within the categories by author or title. We don't bother with labels; we have fiction subdivided roughly by genre, history, film and TV, cookery, gardening, theology, aviation, humour, books related to my job (in a bookcase in my office) and a miscellaneous shelf of things that don't fit anywhere else. Within each category we arrange things by author's name (or title if there isn't an author), except for cookery (one shelf kept in kitchen, arranged by frequency of use) and history (arranged chronologically).
At least, that was the idea... but we keep buying books and shoving them in wherever there's space, which messes up the system. And the music doesn't really fit anywhere, so that's mostly kept in a heap on the piano.
Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on
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Actually, that wasn't in this case what was wrong with it. The specialism isn't a modern one. It's been around for centuries. Nor is it particularly obscure. It was more that the Dewy system didn't understand how people doing it think about it.
Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on
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What I am looking for is a simple catalogue that I can keep on my Windows PC, and add items to it by scanning the ISBN barcode with my Windows phone.
Posted by Barefoot Friar (# 13100) on
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Thank you ALL for your help so far. I am especially interested in the app No Prophet mentioned, as I do have an Android phone. I'll take a look at it.
I also have a database app on my Ubuntu computer. It's called... er, something I'm not remembering. Anyway, it will hold the info I want, but it requires entering every book manually. Thus I think the apps mentioned here are a better choice.
It looks like the actual cataloging will be straightforward. Now does anyone have any ny ideas about the classifications themselves?
Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on
:
quote:
Originally posted by Sparrow:
quote:
Originally posted by Lothlorien:
Tangent alert, but book related.
One DIL sent me a link to Booklit.
You take a picture on your phone of a shelf of your library and send it to Booklit. They let you know which of those books they have as ebooks. In return, you send them photo of the book title page or similar with your name to prove your ownership and you get ebook of the title. Handy for tablet or laptop portability.
I thought some may be interested.
End tangent.
Yes indeed. I wonder though what qualifies as proof of ownership? I certainly don't keep receipts of all the books I buy. And what about second hand, presumably they wouldn't count.
You write your name on title page of your copy. Photograph it and send photo back. Or perhaps page with print details and dates etc.
Posted by TurquoiseTastic (# 8978) on
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Books are about the only thing I have a system for.
I classify by nature and subject.
So:
Fiction
- Prose
- Poetry/Drama
Non-Fiction
- Religious
-- Christian
-- Other Religions
- Philosophy
- Mathematics
- Science
-- Physics
-- Chemistry
-- Biology
- Social Sciences esp. Economics
- History
- Lit Crit
- Biography
- Travel (widely defined, any exploration of a new milieu would be included)
- Sports, Games, Pastimes
And I have separate shelves for technical books
This seems to work quite well as neighbouring subjects tend to shade into each other.
[ 02. May 2015, 09:32: Message edited by: TurquoiseTastic ]
Posted by Hilda of Whitby (# 7341) on
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Take a look at LibraryThing. It's free, very easy to use, and might have the things you are looking for.
Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on
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I searched on "library supplies" last night. Lots of sources, even for check-out cards and pockets, and catalog cards.
(Oh, how I miss the smell of old-school catalog cards! Texture, too.)
ETA: also search on "personal library supplies". There are kits and such.
[ 03. May 2015, 01:59: Message edited by: Golden Key ]
Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Golden Key:
(Oh, how I miss the smell of
And the wooden boxes they were used in!
Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on
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There was a distinct pleasure in finding the book you wanted on the library shelf and surveying the names written on the lending card with the dates.
(The drill was your name was written on the lending card, the librarian stamped the date borrowed and the date due. )
Posted by Pearl B4 Swine (# 11451) on
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Am I alone my unknowing of what the prefix "pico" means? I did finally look it up, and it refers to a trillionth of something. Now don't you all pretend that you knew what it is, and have for known for ever. ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on
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Pearl--
I didn't know. From the context, I figured it was some kind of "very small". I know there are such things as "pico engines" or motors.
You aren't the only one! ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Posted by Curiosity killed ... (# 11770) on
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Sorry, I knew what pico meant but I read chemistry at university and atoms are measured in pico metres.
Posted by leo (# 1458) on
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The trouble with Dewey is that it gives a very tiny opening for 'other religions' and most of my books fall into that category.
Very Eurocentric.
Posted by Garasu (# 17152) on
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Dewey was never intended to be a specialist classification scheme. Specialist libraries have been devising their own schemes for years! I'd add the slight caveat that I've seen lots of attempts to improve on Dewey (generally, other schemes have also been bastardised) and they generally start to fall apart fairly quickly as the collection grows. Without knowing your specialism, it's difficult to advise on the best published scheme but if you're only talking a few hundred books I'm not sure it's going to be a big problem.
Since you seem to have an idea of the conceptual structure of your discipline, you can presumably enumerate some main classes along with an "other stuff" class for anything not in your specialism...
Posted by Jay-Emm (# 11411) on
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quote:
pico...[/QB]
Likewise knew, but in Uk and did Physics A-level (where it was in the 1st lesson). And as it's used as a metric/SI prefix and as I don't know what comes before and would be in the same position if you talked about whatever makes up grains. Nothing to feel bad about.
But also Piccolo (the little recorder) is related, and I'm sure other words based on the diminitive exist, so that gives a less artificial avenue for you to recognize the word.
[ 04. May 2015, 19:53: Message edited by: Jay-Emm ]
Posted by Barefoot Friar (# 13100) on
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Okay, so much useful information! Thank you all so much!
As for the Pico reference: It's an exaggeration of course. I've seen it used in connection with home brewers to teasingly describe their one-gallon-at-a-time approach. It seemed to fit.
I will post my new system as soon as I get it finished. Thank you all again!
Posted by leo (# 1458) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Garasu:
Since you seem to have an idea of the conceptual structure of your discipline, you can presumably enumerate some main classes along with an "other stuff" class for anything not in your specialism...
Indeed, that's what i do.
The reason why Dewey doesn't work for me is that ‘Religion’ comes in at 200 and it’s only the last 10 that cover ‘other’ religions – with only one digit – 297 – to cover the whole of Islam and Bahai.
Posted by Fr Weber (# 13472) on
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Dewey and LC are both classification systems. Both have their pluses and minuses, but IMO LC is more flexible.
It doesn't really matter what size your collection is, you could make either work if what you want is to organize them sensibly on a shelf. On the other hand, if you just want inventory management then they won't do anything for you; you need sites or apps for that (or maybe an Access database).
Posted by The Rogue (# 2275) on
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Make a big pile and when you read one put it to the bottom so that there will always be something you haven't looked at for a while near the top.
There may be some gravity-inspired problems with this system.
Posted by The Rogue (# 2275) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Lothlorien:
Tangent alert, but book related.
One DIL sent me a link to Booklit.
End tangent.
Am I missing something? This link takes me to a review site.
Posted by Lothlorien (# 4927) on
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I have no idea how that happened. It's a while ago now, but I thought I checked link.
Have another go here.
This certainly goes where I intended it to go.
[ 10. May 2015, 05:12: Message edited by: Lothlorien ]
Posted by Chorister (# 473) on
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For many years, I have followed a system that was recommended to me - put all your books in the bookcase all higgledy-piggledy (you do have a bookcase, right?). Then you can regularly have many hours of pleasure just having a really good browse, just as you would at a jumble sale bookstall, surprising yourself at what you find, and what you'd forgotten you had.
Works for me.
Posted by Adeodatus (# 4992) on
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quote:
Originally posted by Chorister:
For many years, I have followed a system that was recommended to me - put all your books in the bookcase all higgledy-piggledy (you do have a bookcase, right?). Then you can regularly have many hours of pleasure just having a really good browse, just as you would at a jumble sale bookstall, surprising yourself at what you find, and what you'd forgotten you had.
Works for me.
I have about 600 or 700 books these days. When I moved into my present flat a couple of years ago, a friend advised me to put them on the shelves any-old-how, then spend a boring winter evening sorting them out. I did the first bit, but have never got round to the second, and looking for books has become a source of minor entertainment.
I've often thought I would like to come up with a system that's roughly analogous to the Celestial Emporium of Benevolent Knowledge "system" for animals.
Posted by Ariel (# 58) on
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Over the years I've arranged the books on my shelves in various ways:
By author name
By theme and topic
Alphabetically
By size
By colour
Deliberately random distribution
I've stuck with DRD for the past few years. Periodically, I shuffle them round because you get used to looking at things being in the same place, and redistributing them gives them a new lease of life.
I quite liked sorting them by colour but tend to find there are disproportionately large groups of white, orange and black.
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on
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quote:
Originally posted by TurquoiseTastic:
Books are about the only thing I have a system for.
I classify by nature and subject.
So:
Fiction
- Prose
- Poetry/Drama
Non-Fiction
- Religious
-- Christian
-- Other Religions
- Philosophy
- Mathematics
- Science
-- Physics
-- Chemistry
-- Biology
- Social Sciences esp. Economics
- History
- Lit Crit
- Biography
- Travel (widely defined, any exploration of a new milieu would be included)
- Sports, Games, Pastimes
We have books in every room of the house except the bathrooms and garage! To your list, I need to add college textbooks and books suitable for my wife's students. I don't even have the fiction alphabetized! Aaaargh! My wife hoards books as do I and also we need to organise records and CDs! Wish we could get motivated to sort things out in the summer when there is no full-time work as we are both teachers!
My wife, Z, has a smart phone. Maybe she could organize the novels.
Posted by Sir Kevin (# 3492) on
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I think we have fewer than a thousand books, but I am not sure! We also have dozens of old magazines, many of which are trade journals that Z can use for teaching high school.
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