I am not a librarian but I am getting too many books and I need to get a way to add dewy numbers and a online catalouge.

I have 2500 books in my collection.

Any suggestions for me as to what software to use (of course I have catalogued them with Library Thing and I am a life member.

Jim

What do you need to do that you can't do with LibraryThing? By "add dewey numbers," do you mean that you need to print labels?

That was a quick answer Katya0133.
Yes I want to print lables. Some of the book data on Library Thing has Dewy numbers and I still have a lot that dont have dewy numbers. I also want to be able to seach by Title and authour (I know I can do that on here) - I also want to be able to track who has borrowed a book from me. Jim

I'm thinking of classifying my collection too. I was going to use the LC classmarks I can get from here and just print off labels book by book. Am struggling at the moment as I have shelves of different heights with those size books on, but I think a q, f and ff before the classmark will sort that. Interested to see how you get on with the project!

Don't use Dewey; you'll be ~so~ disappointed.

I speak from experience. Prior to finding about LibraryThing, I put all somewhat less than 500 books into a spreadsheet, and assigned the location as room.bookase.shelf (always 1 at the bottom). The organization was already-existing, then by order-of-acquisition. We had a bit less than 700 books when I started adding books to LibraryThing, so I've maintained both catalogs from then on out.

Being somewhat anal-retentive and somewhat more OCD, I also tracked the Dewey Number, both form of the ISBN, the LoC Classification, and the LoC Catalog Number (because I'm just that way). I also measure and weigh each book, and have columns for that information in both Metric and inches. We chose to reorganize our books (always a dream of ours) by Dewey for two reasons: 1) MrsHouseLibrary is an elementary school Librarian; has her library set up that way; and had a current copy of the Dewey Classification book; 2) We didn't know better.

Despite the resources, it took me ~months~ to add in all the Dewey numbers, and decided to add a column to hold just the whole number portion of the Dewey number because that was all the granularity I felt we needed. Our library had grown to over 1,600 books in just under 3 years. We sorted by whole Dewey number and author's name (last, first).

Being the way I am, I then added a sheet that gave me statistics on the number of, and linear inches of, all of the books of each number. I also got the dimensions of the 22 bookcases and 8 other places where books would reside. I also added another column to designate the targeted new location for the books. The end result was that I was able to know which books would go on which shelf before I moved a single one. The bottom shelf is always reserved the tall books.

Having said all that, and done all that, MrsHouseLibrary was pretty upset that her books on Anthropology and Ancient Cultures and Prehistoric times are now spread out among 3 bookcases in 2 different rooms, and not all together in one bookcase. She lucked out -- My favorite genre is books about books, and they are now in virtually every room of the house because of their Dewey numbers. Prior to the move, they were in two rooms, mostly.

You are welcome to have an abbreviated copy of my spreadsheet if you want it. Just send a private message containing an email address to me, and I'll send it to you sometime later today. Two others have used it already.

I've disabled the formulas (removed the '=' sign, which I now realized I should have changed to some other character instead) because it got to the point where there was a significant delay whenever I added the height or width of a new book. I noticed it after I had relocated (in the spreadsheet) maybe the thousandth book.

there's a free software program called BookDB, which is very basic, but I think it will do everything you mentioned. In addition, it will allow you to download your information from LT -- we've done it -- so you don't have to retype all your books, etc.
we're actually not using it in our church library now because we decided to purchase software that would allow us to use barcode scanner, but for home use, i think it will do.

Re-ordering a big library with Library of Congress Classification numbers

Purplepanther - which software did you get for your church? I'm looking into organizing and cataloging a large home library for a history professor (mostly in the E and F categories). Has anyone used LibraryThing to create an online catalog, and at the same time figured out an efficient system for generating LCC numbers for labelling purposes? I have to solve these three problems: label all the books, shelve in order, and have the online database to consult. Ideally, I want a system where I can batch load (from scanning the ISBN's, perhaps) many books from a spreadsheet, and have the system look up all the data on each book. Any recommendations on working with LibraryThing in terms of loading 1000s of books, best scanning device (I doubt all of them have bar codes), and best labelling system? Printed labels would be best, but I know I can't, as an individual, subscribe to OCLC! Alternatives to LibraryThing are out there (like Readerware, Collectorz), though it would also be nice to load the info into LibraryThing as well. I have a list of possible resources on Diigo which you are welcome to check out, but I still don't want to reinvent the wheel - LIS student - Emily
http://www.diigo.com/list/emsterdamsel/c...

Message edited by its author, Apr 20, 2009, 3:25pm.

>5, I salute your OCD! :-)

It's a gift... and a curse.

The worst is when neither your obsessiveness or your compulsion is focused on neatness or organization, but rather focuses on completely useless stuff and in some cases things which are detrimental.

msg 7
emsterdamsel,
we bought software from:http://www.neuton.net/html/PAL-Library-A...

i'm not very technical so i'm not the one setting up the computer end of things, but so far the other librarian is happy with the program. it can print labels but requires (don't laugh) a dot-matrix printer. we bought the starter kit and got labels that can be printed one at a time on a dot-matrix printer.
but we don't have a dot matrix so we bought labels for a ink-jet printer and we type the spine labels and print them out on that.
if you want to use the dewey system, this program has thousands of call numbers already assigned to books. but if you don't like the assignment the program gives you, you can change the call number. you also get membership to a library consortium, which we haven't used yet.

pp

Message edited by its author, Apr 21, 2009, 4:46pm.

Lots of good ideas here - I will request the spreadsheet from Wholehouselibrary. I am going to try the program BookDB. Thanks for all the great ideas. Jim