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Solving the Home Library Problem?
Posted by
Cliff
on Wed Mar 22, 2006 11:15 AM
from the dewey-decimal dept.
from the dewey-decimal dept.
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?"
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Solving the Home Library Problem?
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BookCrossing (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.gonumber.net/pete)
If you love something, set it free [bookcrossing.com]!
-- Pete.
Re:BookCrossing (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, I work at a Helpdesk, so me wanting to scream is nothing special, but still.
Anyway, the idea of keeping your books is that, if you desire something to read, you can reach into a shelf and there you will find treasure. As well as being able to look upon a story with either new insights into the story (multi-volume fantasy epics like Steven Erikson's, frex) or new insights into yourself.
Re:Throwing it ALL away... (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://go.away/)
Yeah but it's Piers Anthony...what else are you going to do with it?
Re:BookCrossing (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.clabough.com/)
Re:BookCrossing (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.geocities.com/goodevans_ie)
"If you love somebody, better set them on fire..."
Re:BookCrossing (Score:5, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Give a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a night. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life...
Re:BookCrossing (Score:5, Insightful)
Gak! (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Government Solution! (Score:5, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/~eldavojohn/ | Last Journal: Thursday November 15, @01:07PM)
It has come to our attention that you have a surplus of books stored at your residence.
We have already dispatched firemen to alleviate you of this horrible affliction--fire trucks will be there within the hour. For you see, special-interest groups and other "minorities" objected to books that offended them. As a result, books all began to look the same, as writers tried to avoid offending anybody. This isn't enough, however, and society as a whole decided to simply burn books rather than permit conflicting opinions.
There are other unpleasantries that books cause but there is no need for me to go that far into detail.
As you can see, your search for a digital Dewey decimal system is unneeded. And it is quite peculiar that anyone should have as many books as you do. Do not worry, though, we are a free public service!
Thank you again in your cooperation and trust that our services will be a valuable solution to your growing literary problem.
Sincerely,
Karl Rove [wikipedia.org] Senior Advisor & Chief Political Advisor The Bush Administration
Fire At Presidential Library (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.penny-arc...s/2002/20020722h.gif)
A presidential spokesman said the president was devastated, as he had not finished coloring the second one.
Closed Source but reliable (Score:4, Informative)
(http://www.unanimocracy.com/about.html | Last Journal: Tuesday April 04 2006, @12:04PM)
I'm sure you can write your own, but AV Cataloger hits all the sites to gain information -- even Amazon for books. It also helps to keep track of what you loan to people (my mother is the worst thief my latest report shows!).
I know
Re:Closed Source but reliable (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.delicious-monster.com/ [delicious-monster.com]
It does everything for you. It works with either a scanner or you cna manually enter numbers.
The big solution though is physical sorting of the books. You have to keep them in place and return them to that place, being as anal as your old high school librarian about where the books/dvd's/etc are returned to.
Re:Closed Source but reliable (Score:5, Funny)
Which end of Maine? Molasses probably isn't much slower in southern Maine than in Massachusetts, where molasses in January has been clocked at 35 MPH [wikipedia.org].
Re:Closed Source but reliable (Score:4, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/)
I think I see a problem with your solution...
[badum-ching]
Um... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.argn.com/)
Re:Um... (Score:5, Funny)
You may remember several famous wife's.....like Princese Leia and Marge Simpson.
I'm thinking this post will hurt my karma.....
The Dewey Decimal System (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.skorchedearth.com/)
Re:The Dewey Decimal System (Score:5, Insightful)
Who needs scanners and bar codes? Libraries have kept much bigger book collections organized for centuries with less tech than that.
Re:The Dewey Decimal System (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.hyperlogos.org/ | Last Journal: Wednesday July 18, @08:19PM)
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.
Dewey is for general libraries (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.annoying.org/)
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)
Delicious Library (Score:5, Informative)
(http://swordsaints.typepad.com/weblog)
Re:Delicious Library (Score:4, Informative)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Sunday March 26 2006, @01:47PM)
As for locations, I just made shelves in DL that represent my different bookcases in different rooms in my house, and dragged the appropriate books into each. I'm eagerly awaiting a version of DL that supports 'smart shelves' so I can just use the location info in each book's entry and have those shelves dynamically update.
~Philly
Re:Three answers (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Three answers (Score:5, Informative)
Start with Fiction Vs. Non (Score:3, Insightful)
That's exactly what I'm doing! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:That's exactly what I'm doing! (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.soraia.com/ | Last Journal: Tuesday May 27 2003, @02:54AM)
The word "sourceforge" in the second sentence makes the third superfluous.
Re:That's exactly what I'm doing! (Score:4, Funny)
bibliophile (Score:5, Informative)
(http://arc.nucapt.northwestern.edu/F/OSS)
(FWIW: I'm involved with refbase [sourceforge.net])
easy (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://bityard.net/ | Last Journal: Thursday August 08 2002, @04:18PM)
oss4lib (Score:5, Informative)
Finding books.. (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.phpgd.com/)
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:Finding books.. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Finding books.. (Score:4, Funny)
(http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Thursday February 21 2002, @04:37PM)
There is no problem I can't solve by spending enough of your money.
Why software? (Score:5, Insightful)
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
Re:Why software? - insurance (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://offthegrid.1337hax0r.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday October 18 2006, @12:56PM)
Really the best way is by author and then google the title or author when doing a search on a subject in a book he thinks he might have on his shelves. Then just find it by the author.
Have kids and you won't care anymore about trivia (Score:5, Funny)
Have a couple of kids and you'll find that trivial stuff like this will be the least of your concerns - most of your possessions will be in random places.
"We want to find a solution for organizing our books. I also want the data in an open format. "
Dewey decimal system? Maybe one of you should pick up a degree in library science.
"We have a barcode scanner, but I'm not sure the best way to use it.
Aim the red light (the "la-ser") at the "zebra stripes" and wait until you hear a beep.
"What software do other people use to organize their home libraries?"
Hell, I read books to get a break from computers. I think if I had that many books I'd donate most of them to the local library. I know I don't have time to reread 3,500 books - there's millions more out there I haven't read yet!
Anything else I can help you with today?
Just use the standard system: (Score:5, Funny)
Shelf 2: Thermodynamics Textbooks
With all that steam, you can also use that room as a sauna!
--
Nanoscale Woodworking [atributetonuts.com]
Use shelves. (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://www.cowlark.com/ | Last Journal: Friday March 18 2005, @05:12AM)
It's as easy as that. I have about that many, and I can always find things. My mother has about twice as many, and she can always find things. You don't need high-tech solutions, all you need is a certain level of self-discipline.
High-tech solutions are also very brittle. If you have to tell the system whenever you take a book off the shelf or put it back on, then you'll lose books, because at some point you will forget, and the system will have an incorrect view of where the book is. Alphabetical ordering doesn't suffer from this nearly as much.
Plus: alphabetical ordering lets you browse. I don't know about you, but I don't want to figure out what book I want to read next by looking at a database. I want to do it by looking at the shelves, and taking them down, flipping through, looking at the cover, putting them back, etc. That's what books are all about. This is your home, not a warehouse...
software? we dont need no steenkin software (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://www.deadkitty.org/)
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
Readerware (Score:3, Informative)
(http://www.digitalmasons.co.uk/)
Spent a couple of evenings scanning in my books, it then went and got all the details from Amazon etc and I ended up with a nice database of all the books.
It was a bit slack on some of the old and obscure stuff - but if it's in an online bookstore, it will usually pick it up.
I haven't tried it for CDs or DVDs - I use DVD Profiler [intervocative.com] for that.
HTH
T
Bits or bytes? (Score:4, Interesting)
To keep things sane, I added a colored sticker (yellow in my case) to the spine of each book, marked with the first letters of the author's first and last name. Actually I cheat a bit, there are a very small number of categories I use - cookbooks, references - where I put a category icon instead. I put the books on the shelves ordered by the marker. This is loose enough that I don't have to think too much when returning a book to the library, but tight enough I can easily find anything I want. Another side benefit is that when I visit old friends (or mothers
have you tried Library Thing? (Score:5, Informative)