Organising books

I've tried all the methods and still lose track of what I have and end up buying a second or third copy at a quilt show. So, I'm going high tech - I'm setting up a bar code system so I can carry the whole kitten-caboodle on my Palm Tungsten C. Books first, magazines and then, I'm going to try to bar code my stash!

Alice

"Happiness is good health and a bad memory."

- Ingrid Bergman (1917-1982)

I was going to load everything in my Palm, but I got so fed up with my Palm, that I retired it! Sounds like a fun project Alice! (I did bring my Excel spreadsheet with me to the quilt shows - I reduced the size of my font so it was teeny, but big enough for me to read & I didn't have big sheets of paper to contend with.)

That's a great idea too, Pauline.

Alice

"Happiness is good health and a bad memory."

- Ingrid Bergman (1917-1982)

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: > "Happiness is good health and a bad memory." : > - Ingrid Bergman (1917-1982) : >

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Okay, I list my books in my excell program by name and author/ company. I try to store my books by category, then by author, then by alphabetical order from each author/company. I am still organizing my stuff from rearranging my home to accomidate my husbands medical bed, wheelchair, hoyer lift and other supplies needed. I have also cleaned out about ten boxes of storage stuff...I couldn't believe some of the stuff I had packed (JUNK!!!!) lol Launie, in Oregon

Okay, I list my books in my excell program by name and author/ company. I try to store my books by category, then by author, then by alphabetical order from each author/company. I am still organizing my stuff from rearranging my home to accomidate my husbands medical bed, wheelchair, hoyer lift and other supplies needed. I have also cleaned out about ten boxes of storage stuff...I couldn't believe some of the stuff I had packed (JUNK!!!!) lol Launie, in Oregon

Wow! and Wow! You're way out of my league, Alice >g< . In message , AliceW writes

tagging on here...

I have my books by publisher - I'm terrible with names but somehow can remember which publisher people use. then I group together all the books by the same author, where authors have used more than one publisher I use that author as the "join" between two publishers

magazines are put into 23 ring binders using special holders by title and language if more than one title is in a binder as I have English, Dutch and German magazines.

I only keep my quilt books in my sewing room, craft books are sorted by subject and live in the bookcase on the attic landing along with my cooking and gardening magazines and any grown-up books (the whodunit and sci-fi kind just to keep any dirty minds out of gutters ) that don't fit into the bookcase in the living room as kids books have right of way in the book case there.

is an online cataloging tool that manyindividuals use.

If you want to see how librarians do it, the nicest way is to go visit your local library and ask Or you can get to OCLC (the shared bibliographic utility that most libraries use) a couple of ways. That will get you really specific data about individual editions of books. (Warning: most libraries don't own the softcover leaflet type

(1) FirstSearch -- you can get to it from my library's website,

then "e-resources" then "FirstSearch" and select "WorldCat."

(2)

which is the public version of WorldCat -- it will tell you where the nearest copy is located, but you can't get cataloging data unless you go to a specific library's catalog.

Nann official librarian of RCTQ

Wow, Nann! That looks great! In fact, one of the things I like so much about Booxter is the ability to type in an ISBN and have the program retrieve all of the relevant information for me -- a real time-saver that Library Thing also does. The only thing I can see (from a quick look) that Booxter doesn't do that Library Thing does is to be available from a cell phone wherever you happen to be. But I don't normally use my cell for that sort of thing anyway, so I'll stick with Booxter for now. I don't know if there's anything like Booxter for Windows -- I use a Mac. :)

Easy - I store mine by height. Big ones at one end of the shelf, little ones at the other, decreasing in height as they go. That way there's a useable gap above them to stuff more books when I've just bought them and can't be a**ed trying to juggle them into a slot...

Suzie B

Well - that has the enormous virtue of simplicity, Suzie!!

Even I could abide by that rule, consistently >g< Trouble is (and there had to be a but didn't there!) I've just looked at my little lot, and about 30 of them are exactly the same height!! Ah me ... . In message , Suzie B writes

Well, yes, Nann, but how do _you_ do it?

Cindy

You just need to include a thumbnail scanned photo of the book in your database. :-)

I have that problem too, I put things away but then when I start thinking about a project I end up physically pulling out boxes and digging into them. Then I don't want to put them away because I'll forget the great ideas I got rooting around. :-)

Lynnette SJ, Calif

My record is 3 copies of a book on Goldwork - they kept changing the cover! I also found I had an abridged version of the same book. Fortunately they were not all new - a couple were 'finds' at charity sales. It is such a disappointment when you go to put your new book on the shelves!

I too have an Excel spreadsheet. I now put in the ISBN number -- I have a couple of books with the same title but not the same author or contents. I also have a column for paper-pieced, appliqué, etc. Some books are just mixed patterns, so they get no category. Love those sorting capabilities of Excel!

Mostly the books are on the shelf in alphabetical order. I did pull out some books by author -- all my Alex Anderson, Pat Sloan, Carol Doak, Eleanor Burns are on one shelf.

No magazine spreadsheet -- yet. Well, that's not true. I keep track of which magazines I get, what issues have arrived, when I last paid for a subscription, and when the subscription expires. But no contents or pattern info -- yet.

Indeed!! My PALM kept crashing everytime I opened one of the Excel spreadsheets. I even have a memory card in it. I don't have the actual applications on the PALM though -- I think you can do that. I just have Documents To Go. I don't know. I don't even know where the blasted PALM is anymore. I retired it back last summer.

I took to printouts also. It beats multiple expensive purchases.