Excerpt from our May ’08 Me and My House musings email newsletter:
We love books! So we have bookcases in every room of the house – including the bathrooms! and a “library” room, too!
So, how do I keep track of all these books? Well, when children sneak them off and don’t return them, I have been known to buy duplicates. I see a book, and think, “Hmm, I know that’s been on my to-buy list for several years, but I thought I bought it.” I look on the shelf, where it should be, and it isn’t there, so I buy it again. Only later – usually much later – to have the original show up in some child’s possession. Actually, maybe this is their way of ensuring there is an extra copy of the book for them to take with them when they are grown. Hmm.
My first tactic for keeping track of our books, is having a place for each kind. Yes, there is a method to my madness. Different types of books are in each room, and our library is organized, not by the dewey decimal system, but by my own system. But even if you don’t have as many books or bookcases as I do, grouping them by type will help you organize your books.
But, I have one more invaluable method for helping me keep track of all we have. The not-so-secret answer is a computer database. I used to have a file sheet I made (in Access), but now I have a much easier option – software called Booxter. Booxter is a database for books! Enter the ISBN number and it will look up and fill in all the other information about your books (if you have access to the internet, and if the books have an ISBN. Of course my old books don’t, so I have to enter them by hand.) You just add any other notes you care to make – about the location of the book, where you bought it, price paid, notes, etc. – or nothing at all!
You can also, in Booxter, organize your books into files, for easy browsing through various categories, and of course you can search your list. You can even export your list to your iPod, so you can carry it with you! I haven’t tried that yet, but it will be invaluable when we go to homeschool conventions! [Update: I have and it is.]
Booxter is only for Mac computers. But I just did a google search for “book organizer app” and “book database software” and found several for PC. Give one a free trial and see if it will help you with your book collections.
LibraryThing does that, too, except it is online. I haven’t used it much yet, because it would be much easier to enter books with a laptop next to the bookshelf. It would be so helpful to search my own library.
Another good online library organizer that I love is Shelfari.com
I personally use a flic barcode scanner and software called Book Collector (they also have movie, game, & comic collector) for PC’s.
This is a huge, but worthwhile project when you have thousands of titles in your library. I can now keep track of what I loan out, and even give “due dates” to remind myself where my books are.
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