Systems for book collections

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zenwriter

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In light of the recent discussion about how many books everyone buys during the year, I was wondering about book collection management systems. Does anyone here have recommendations about software I could use to keep track of a growing book collection. I have a few thousand books and would like some sane way of cataloging them and virtually organizing them into lists (fic., non-fic., bio., etc.). I was looking at LibraryThing and wondering whether it is worth the $25. Does anyone use LibraryThing or something like it? Do you find it useful? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 

WittyandorIronic

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Funny enough I was researching this earlier. I have not personally used it, but I have used other Spacejock software (yWriter and yBook) and love it. Best of all they are free.
It is called BookDB. The author is a member of AW too.
 

JimmyB27

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I am totally going to check out the BookDB! I've been wanting to catalogue my books for years. I tried using a spreadsheet program but it's a real pain. And it doesn't really do what I want it to.
Spreadsheets used as data management tools are the work of the devil.
 

Birol

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That's a good question right now.
You get so many books and it's hard to see or remember what you own. It's just nice to have a place to go and look at the titles quickly. Plus, if you ever have a fire or a flood, you'll be able to make an accurate list for the insurance company.

Besides, it's just fun.
 

benbradley

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My books are not only not alphabetized, but they're not even sorted into fiction and non-fiction (not sure where things like "The Real Report on UFO's" should go anyway). I've had as many as several hundred alphabetized at a time when I was selling them on Amazon. I suppose you could sign up to be a seller just to be able to list your books on their database and get an alphabetized listing of them...

From the bookselling lists I've been in I recall Booktracker as the name of software. Here's two different programs of that name, this for the Macintosh:
http://www.wickedlysimple.com/BookTracker/index.html
And something else for Windows:
http://www.downloadjunction.com/product/store/4792/index.html

Oh, looky here, "Software for Booksellers and Book Collectors"
http://www.litterascripta.com/comp/software.shtml
I found that page through this amazing resource called a "Web Search Engine," at this site:
http://www.google.com
 

Old Hack

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I quite like LibraryThing, and use a USB bar code scanner with it, to scan in ISBN numbers which LibraryThing (http://www.librarything.com) converts to a bibliographic entry. I also like Shelfari (http://www.shelfari.com), which has greater emphasis on community than LibraryThing has.

Just bear with me a moment while I recover from this one.

1) There are websites and programs out there which will help me catalogue all my books?

2) You can get USB barcode scanners to scan books into the system?

I thought it was bliss enough to have all my books alphabetised on my shelves, and sorted into fiction, non-fic, and various subcategories: but to be able to catalogue them, and play with a barcode scanner.... Sorry. I've got to go and lie down for a while to recover from the joy of this. It's the best Christmas present I'll get!
 

arrowqueen

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Good grief! This is so anal I'm surprised your bums aren't biting lumps out of the furniture! :tongue
 

JoNightshade

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Wow, and I thought we had a lot of books. Ours all fit into one room and I'm perfectly familiar with everything I have. I organize them by size (so they look pretty) and then vaguely by author and type.

Now what I really need an organizational system for is my comic book collection. Any suggestions?
 

WittyandorIronic

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This is from the BookDB website I sited earlier:
With BookDB you can enter all your books with author, category, publisher etc and print them out in a variety of formats. Why would you need such a thing? Well, if you're always going to book sales and buying bargains only to get home and find you've doubled up, take a printout with you! BookDB has a super-condensed print mode so you'll need a magnifying glass, but at least it'll save a tree or two.

BookDB also has lending library features. With them, you can add borrowers, loan out books, add multiple copies and so on.

You can also import your catalogue from LibraryThing, which gives you a local, searchable database of your books. Whilst logged in to your LT account, click Tools and then "Export all records as tab-delimited text". Save the XLS file to your computer and then use BookDB's 'Import LibraryThing' to read all the data in.

Barcodes: You can use any barcode scanner with BookDB provided it sends the data as keypresses. (More information on this page - external link.)

I just wouldn't want anyone to buy software if it was unnecessary. Free software rocks.

As for why anyone would need the software, well, I buy a LOT of books every year. I hate getting half way through a book only to realize I read it last year, and it sucked. lol. Besides, I like to know where and what I have, at any given when or with who(m?). ;) I am definitely a list person.
 

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I do it the old-fashioned way. I keep a little but very fat spiral notebook in the car (so it's accessible when I'm shopping), with all my books listed alphabetically by author. The lists are in pencil, so I can erase when I get rid of a book (which is rare, actually). I started doing this so I wouldn't duplicate buying books by favorite authors when shopping at second-hand bookstores. (Sometimes I'll have up to 20 books by an author, some even out of print).
 

ChunkyC

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I've doubled up on books before (anyone want a beat up copy of Asimov's original Foundation trilogy?), which is one of the reasons I started putting all mine on Shelfari when someone turned me on to it earlier this year. The other fun part of a place like that is seeing what your friends have on their bookshelf and getting ideas for what to buy/read next. :)
 

zenwriter

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Thanks for all the recommendations. BookDB looks pretty promising and the fact that the author is a member of AW makes me feel more comfortable about downloading software from the 'net. As to why I want the software: I'm not hyper-organized, but I have a huge book collection spread out over two homes and trying to keep tabs of everything has gotten impossible. I tried keeping a running list on my computer, but it's not really workable for me. In the next year, I will be moving, and I'd like to figure out what I have so that I can figure out what to get rid of and what I need to buy.
 

Nyna

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Oh, man. I used to have this great book cataloging website bookmarked, but it was lost when my old computer died, and I can't for the life of me remember what it was called. My books are currently in a database, sorted by author, title, genre, where they're shelved, if they've been lent out, the condition their in, and whether or not I've read them. I've been told I get a little anal about lists sometimes.

Actually, I just moved this summer, and when I moved I cleaned out a very large part of my book collection, both to make way for new books and because I moved into a much smaller place. When trying to explain to a friend how much smaller my book collection was, I said, "So, I was making this list of my books --" and she immediately interrupted me, rolling her eyes and letting me know that she'd heard this before, how I'd try to get them all but falter before I hit the 800th, lose track and have to start all over again.

I told her that that was what I was trying to explain -- I'd finished the list, for the first time ever. In one weekend. It was awesome.She was suitably impressed.

...I'm sorry for sharing that long and mostly pointless story, but it's always nice to know that there are other list-makers out there, compulsively cataloging books.
 

KTC

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I'm a spaz, so it just shows to go ya that I would have my own system. Mine are organized according to characters. If I'm looking for Marcel St. Marie in Feast of All Saints, I say to myself, "That is right between A Complicated Kindness and Great Expectations." Because obviously those three main characters go together like cheese and grilled. I have my system man...no convoluted computer software will make my system better. "Where is Ignatius Riley from Confederacy of Dunces hiding?" Der...right beside Steve Martin's The Pleasure of my Company. I have the power....and with thousands of books, it's a very intricate system indeed.
 

Gray Rose

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I started cataloging my library with LibraryThing and gave up. Most of my non-fiction library is weird out-of-print books in weird dead languages. Fiction is mostly SF/F, which should be easy to catalog, but I am not doing it as long as I'm still triple-stacking (yeah, no shelf space. And no floor space, either). And anyway, my uncatalogued collection is fluid, whereas if I cataloged I would be more reticent about letting books go.

OK, I just noticed this:
the spellchecker lets me do uncatalogUed
but I cataloged

how crazy is that?
sorry, end transmission.
Rose
 

WittyandorIronic

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Just because we are on compulsive list making convo...(heh)
For non-writing and reading related "lists", such as daily tasks, shopping, upcoming events, and general to-do's I use a lot of 37signals products. They all have free versions, are accessible from the net, and are super user friendly. I mostly use Basecamp (for collaborative projects) and Backpack (for personal projects).
Excel=GOD. I am also taking an Access DBing class right now too, and I love it.
 

zenwriter

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For general lists, I use ta-da (http://www.tadalist.com/), which is part of the Basecamp group, I think. It's a great way to list movies I want to watch and so forth.
 

Deleted member 42

Why is everyone so obsessed with cataloging their schtuff? Seems like a lot of work.

Isn't just alphabetizing the easiest way?

I guess I'm just not a lister.

First, because, well, I have a lot of books. Secondly, because as an academic who travels, it's awfully convenient to be able to find bibliographic data even when I'm away from my shelves.
 

Kate Thornton

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I just know where everything is. I have over a thousand books - many art & architecture, cooking, political and design books in addition to fiction, which I alphabetize.

I thought about a catalog, but it just seems silly as I can find what I want and no one else uses the books.
 

Deleted member 42

37signals does lovely lovely work.

One of my favorite companies.
 
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