Solving the Home Library Problem?

zgrossbart asks: "My wife and I have about 3,500 books. We can't find anything. All the books are in random order. We want to find a solution for organizing our books. We have a barcode scanner, but I'm not sure the best way to use it. I want a solution that is easy to maintain going forward and makes books easy to find. I also want the data in an open format. I'm think about using MySQL right now, but I'm open to other suggestions. What software do other people use to organize their home libraries?"

The Dewey Decimal System

[Shimdaddy]

Seriously, the Dewey Decimal System has always worked for me. Unless you're running an actual "Go-ahead-and-check-stuff-out" library out of your home, the barcodes and MySQL seem like total overkill.

Three answers

[gowen]

Pick one of these methods of classification.
i) LoC classification.
ii) Dewey-decimal.
iii) Alphabetised by author.

I'd recommend (i).
Given the small number of fields (Author, Title, Year, Publisher, LoC shelfmark), you can store the information in a flat text file.

Start with Fiction Vs. Non

[StandSure]

Crazy High Tech Solutions pale in comparison to old - school ones. Divide your book cases up Fiction and Non and categorize from there. Put the books most commonly read on easy to reach shelves. My parents have easily that many and don't run into any problems looking for the book they want to read. It is enough to have a vague idea of where the book is, History of Computing - Non Fiction around shelf 3 and call it a day. How do people find books at a bookstore anyhow?

easy

[Eil]

Do as the librarians do: divide the books into major subjects and then alphabetize by author. If you need to search by something else, Google is your cross-reference.

Finding books..

[onion2k]

We can't find anything. All the books are in random order.

Have a catalogue on your computer isn't going to tidy up and organise your bookshelf. SQL queries don't work on shelves. Unfortunately.

Re:Three answers

[ivan256]

With any of those options, and such a small number of books, why not just organize the shelves. Seperate the shelves by category and then organize each shelf by author. That way a quick visual scan of the shelf will give you the book you want in less time than it takes you to query a database, or sit down and open a text file. If you can't remember which title goes with wich author, you certainly don't need your own database for that. There are plenty that exist already and are internet searchable.

There are libraries in the world with hundreds of thousands of books, and you can walk right in and find a book you want. The technical aspects of this are just pure unnecessary geekery.

Why software?

[smoor]

Unless you have a massive reference collection or are checking books out to friends, why bother with software? The solution to your problem is physical organization. Even if you can't have all the books together, you could organize them using LOC or Dewey, or something and label the locations.

Having to update software everytime you move a book or add a book is just one additional step that doesn't seem to add any value.

When I was 12 I put all my books into PFS:File on an Apple //e. Printed little labels and everything. Why? Because I was 12 and had time to burn... I never looked at it again.

software? we dont need no steenkin software

[nuggetman]

I'm going to have to echo the "why do you need software?" calls.

Fiction vs Nonfiction
Break fiction down into scifi, fantasy, historical, or whatever else applies
Break nonficiton into computers, biography, history, math, science, etc
Then alphabetize categories by author, and label your shelves.
Use some cardboard to make book-sized dividers and write A, B, C, D, etc on them

Re:The Dewey Decimal System

[TheWanderingHermit]

This is a good point. There's no reason in going hi-tech with scanners and bar codes when simpler solutions can do the job. Maybe that's the problem -- you're looking for a hi-tech solution to a lo-tech problem, so you're forgetting things like sorting by category and alphabetizing by the author's last name. I don't use the Dewey Decimal System, but I sorted my books years ago. I have fiction divided into several groups (sf & fantasy, literature, drama...) and the rest are grouped by subject matter and eact section is sorted by author's last name. I made sure the shelving arrangement allowed for adding a lot of books along the way. When done, I also had a good sized pile of books that were left over from college or from my ex-wife that were ones I'd never need or want to read, so I took them to the used book store for credit and that helped, as well.

Who needs scanners and bar codes? Libraries have kept much bigger book collections organized for centuries with less tech than that.

Re:Use shelves.

[richg74]

I agree, I don't think that using a high-tech solution adds much in this case. I have ~3000 books, and I keep them organized on different shelves: technical books in my office, general fiction in the den, cookbooks in the kitchen, and so on. Then I may have subcategories (e.g., mysteries, science fiction) depending on how many books there are. It's easy enough to find a particular title within these smaller groups. I also have more than 1000 sound recordings, which I organize along the same lines.

This problem really is essentially the same as organizing paper files. The key thing is to decide on a classification scheme that makes sense to you, and the to go with that. The only software you really need is what came pre-installed inside your skull.

Re:The Dewey Decimal System

[drinkypoo]

The problem with using the Dewey Decimal system in a residence is that home users may not have room to line up books by author. Books come in multiple sizes, but an individual shelf only holds one [maximum] size of book - and is inefficient with anything smaller. Thus, most home book collections are organized by available space.

People without more shelf space than they can use are much better off just labeling everything where it sits, and returning books to the hole from which they came. The book information can go into a database, and you can search/browse them that way. Some clever software even steals book covers from amazon so you don't have to do it manually.

My final suggestion is to put a barcode on each shelf. You could put one on the bookshelf too, but that's redundant. Scan the shelf, then scan all the books on the shelf. You can accomplish all this with a very simple untethered barcode reader (read: inexpensive.) When you bring the reader back and dump the data, all you have to do is maintain a teensy bit of state (remember the bookshelf info from the scan) and then just stick records in the db as you go. Each book will be recorded as being in the last location scanned. When you get a new location, overwrite the old variables, and keep going. When you get to the end of the data, you go home a winner. Snarf the data out of amazon or similar using one of the many APIs available (up to and including the official one) and you're done.

Use librarything.com

[himself]

Just use librarything.com.

      Make a free trial account, enter a few ISBNs, and once you're hooked shell out the few dollars for a full account and get rolling.

      Tim that author is adding lots of data import filters and tagging options and other very geeky features, and an actual librarian has joined the project. (I know, I know: it's amazing seeing a non-commercial software service with a real-live subject matter expert! Just goes to show the author's not a real geek: he admitted that someone else's specialized knowledge might not be replaced by his own prejudices and SWAGs.)

      Go, librarything, go!

Dewey is for general libraries

[oneiros27]

If you have a specialty library, it can be completely useless -- imagine going into a library where every book was filed under '005' (computer programming). If you don't have a general library, Dewey isn't going to be as useful for sorting -- you'll want to look into a specialty thesaurus or ontology for your holdings.

As generalized libraries go, if there's a chance of moving it to a database, I personally prefer UDC [wikipedia.org], due to the way in which is handles sub-topics. (if you had something on the History of British Railroads -- where does it get filed in Dewey? History, European Countries, or Transportation Infrastructure? UDC maintains each of the facets, without needing 3 books of indexing instructions)

Re:The Dewey Decimal System

[poot_rootbeer]

The Dewey Decimal system works well for "I have a general idea of the subject I want, so let me browse around and find a book that looks interesting", but if you're going to do all your searching at a computer instead of "in the stacks", and storage efficiency is a concern, the Library of Congress system may be a better choice.

Re:Finding books..

[Mondoz]

Exactly. A program is only be as good as its data.
Taking and inventory of what you've got, and recording that data would only mask the symptoms of the underlying problem. The real solution is to organize the books, and eliminate the chaotic random scheme you have now.
With your current setup, your inventory program would be completely dependant on being updated whenever a book is placed on a shelf, which takes discipline for the life of the application.
Taking the time now to organize the shelves will greatly reduce the amount of work down the road, as long as you put your books back where you found them.

For all you 'Just organize the shelves' folks...

[Muad'Dave]

How will organizing the shelves help when you're in the middle of a bookstore and are wondering if you already own a certain book? I can't remember all several thousand books I own - having a digital reference on my PDA is invaluable.

Re:Throwing it ALL away...

[nomadic]

It IS wrong to throw away anything that still has a useful life.

Yeah but it's Piers Anthony...what else are you going to do with it?

Why make this harder than it should be?

[slashname3]

Separate the books into technical and fiction. Then group the fiction books by author. Group the technical books by subject. Don't make it difficult or cumbersome. Trying to maintain a database of books is not going to let you find them easier. Using barcode readers and other technical solutions will just take more effort and in the end you will still need to organize your books as above.

Re:BookCrossing

[Auger Duval]

I believe this has already been taken care of... It's called the Dewey Decimal System.

Gak!

[dhasenan]

Library of Congress is better--the call number for each book is unique. With Dewey, you have a subject heading, and all the books within that subject are basically unordered, as far as the system goes. If you can't find the author of a book, then, what do you go by? Just the title?

Still, your personal system depends largely on how you usually remember your books. Do you usually say 'I had a green book about so high and maybe four or five hundred pages long'? If so, you might find it most intuitive to have your books physically ordered by appearance and use a database to browse by subject or author. Or do you usually do research on a particular subject? Then going by the Library of Congress system would probably be best. Or if you binge on particular authors, you might prefer categorizing authors by field and then arranging books by author.

Disclaimer: I am a librarian, and I work in a university library using LoC call numbers.

Re:Scan them all and use google desktop

[knisa]

Books don't fail to boot.
Books don't require batteries.
Books are often more compact than their electronic equivalent.
Books can withstand massive g-forces and falls from great heights.
Properly cared for books can last hundreds to thousands of years.

Now why again should I go exclusively digital?

Insightful? Ha! Snide more like

[jonskerr]

>I believe this has already been taken care of... It's called the Dewey Decimal System.

Oh, the joys of being at the top and all those desperate modders just itching to dump their mod points before they're gone. Back to topic, no-one's going to use dewey decimal outside of an institutional setting, that's just dumb.
How about categorizing by subject and author? Put all the books on math & physics on one shelf, then alphabetize that shelf by author. Take all the romance novels and put them in the guest bedroom, and do the guests a favor and put all the ones with explicit sex scenes in one place for easy browsing.

Jon

Re:Government Solution!

[Moofie]

Ask Senator McCain how he feels about Mr. Rove's tactics. And Valerie Plame & co.

"Convicted"? It doesn't have to be illegal to be morally reprehensible.

So, "left winger" is defined as "anybody who thinks Karl Rove is despicable"?

Kay.

The guy is fucking Darth Vader. I am astonished at his political acumen...and his utter lack of integrity. This guy works for the party who alleges to command the moral high ground? This guy thinks "family values" are "how much can I get for my granny at auction?"