Printing call numbers

Have a small church library and am needing to print call labels to organize the books on the shelves. Here are the problems I am encountering in which I haven't been able to resolve:

1. exporting labels to print in label format

2. printing labels where the Dewey # is on the first line of the label and the author last name is underneath it.

The only semi-automated thing I have come up with is to copy/paste from Excel to Word labels but this seems to be too time consuming given the data is in LT. Any help is greatly appreciated.

i ALSO AM INTERESTED IN HOW TO PRINT LABELS FOR SPINE OF BOOK AND CIRCULATION CARD?

Since you can get it into Excel, you're maybe quarter of the way there.

For this example, I'm going to say that the Authors' name is in Column B, the Dewey # is in Column D, and you've got a single header row, so you first row containing a Title is Row 2.

Use a new column (say Column N). In Cell N2, you basically want to say "=D2&B2", but it's a little more complicated than that. Regardless, once you have the initial formula in place, you can just drag it down the column, and the rest will fill in automatically.

How much of the Dewey # do you want? Some of them are whole #s and some have slashes or apostrophes before the decimal or elsewhere. I can work out a way to handle that, but you'd have to tell me the level of granularity you want.

If you want the entire last name, you're going to have to scan for the position of the comma and then do a dynamic LEFT formula. If you're happy with just the first 3 or 4 characters of the last name, that's a whole lot easier.

Then there's the issue of having this information appear on 2 separate lines. I don't recall how it's done (at the moment), but I've done it before.

Do you want the info left-justified or centered?

Which (I presume) Avery (c) form are you going to use?

I got it to work (minus the actual printing part...) doing the following (based on the cell designations used above):

I have Excel 2003, by the way...

Criteria: 3-character whole-number Dewey, and full last name, on separate lines in a same cell.

Select Column N head; click Format; Click Cells; Click Alignment; select Center (for Horizontal Text Alignment), and Wrap (under Text Control); Click OK.

In Cell N2, type: =LEFT(D2,3)&CHAR(13)&CHAR(10)&LEFT(B2,SEARCH(",",B2)-1)

That gave me (except they were centered):
540
Aromatico

The original cells contained: "540.112" and "Aromatico, Andrea", respectively.

*Edited to fix a typo...

Thanks for the responses about spine labels, and circulation labels. Now, to give it a try!
Winnie

You could also try doing a mail merge onto labels in Word once you have everything in Excel. If you aren't familiar with Excel formulas it might be easier just to enter the fields you want in the mail merge.

# 1

There is a group named, http://www.librarything.com/groups/churchlibraries that might be interested in your query, besides this Talk Group. Someone there, who doesn't read this thread, may have already done call numbers.

This is what happens when I get too much idle time...

Working off the example I have in #s 3 and 4, I've worked out the issue of having apostrophes and/or slashes and or spaces in the field that has the Dewey Number in it.

In this example, the author's name is: Ross-Larson, Bruce
and the Dewey Number was butchered to look like this: 808/.042'2 0

The formula is:
=LEFT(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(D2," ",""),"'",""),"/",""),6)&CHAR(13)&CHAR(10)&LEFT(B2,SEARCH(",",B2)-1)

And except for the centering, the cell (N2) looks like this:
808.04
Ross-Larson

Some annoying things -
1) Fiction books are cataloged as 813.11 (for example), FIC, and FIC 22, depending on which years the books were published (and other factors). The latter would produce a label with the top line being "FIC22". I can probably edit out the "22" part.

2) If you want just a 3-character Last-Name-of-Author, that last LEFT function could be modified to read LEFT(B2,3).
The problem with that would be 2-character last names (like "Po" or "Lu") would also print out the comma. Additionally, last names like "Da Vinci" and "Al-Khalili" would list out as "Da " and "Al-". I can probably edit for that, too.

WHL, you're a gem of the first water.

I know this is an old string but a question I hear often asked and I m not enough of an Excel geek to make the instructions above work! But if you have a gmail account and use Google drive I found this relatively easy way to print labels.

Export files from LibraryThing
Upload the file to the Google Drive
Open/save it as a Google Sheet (it must be in this format for the merge to work)
Open a blank Google Doc
Click on Add Ons
Search for Label Merge
Select the Avery Label Merge (click on +free box)
The instructions will appear on the screen - read the info but you will need to delete it to get it to work the first time
with the blank screen click on Add-Ons
Select the Avery Label Merge (now you can follow the instructions)
Select your label type
Select your file (remember it must be the Google Sheet)
Select the columns and arrange them how they should display on your label.
Click on Merge and a new Google Doc will open with the label layout ready to print!

Just remember the data printed is only as good as was entered into LibraryThing (I need to clean some things up in my collection!)

What number or style of Avery labels are there for labeling books/cards, etc? Recommendations appreciated!

I didn't want to attach a permanent label to my books, so I found removable labels (in multiple sizes) from Compulabel.com . Required disclaimer: I'm not associated with Compulabel, I'm just a satisfied book collector who buys and uses their labels.

The label I use is 2-5/8" x 1". They offer other sizes as well. Mine come 30 per sheet (250 sheets per box; 7500 labels total), and you can use them in an inkjet or laser printer -- most likely with the Avery template for the same sized label. . They don't come in dot matrix/continuous feed that I know of, but I think they sell continuous feed non-removable labels. If not, I've seen the continuous ones on Amazon, but they're not Avery.

The product # for the removables I use is Catalog #331367.

>13 CRHSM: I anxiously await your statement. But don't hold your breath for my next reply; I have to leave the house in about a half hour.

I, too, wish that LibraryThing/Tiny Cat would add a print labels function on their software. Many library owners would like to use labels, especially if they check out materials to patrons. Having volunteers shelving items is difficult without the aid of spine labels.
Importing the holdings to a spreadsheet, etc.,etc. looks really cumbersome.

You know, when I (often) assisted MrsHouseLibrary in her ES librarian capacity, my primary function was to process new books to be shelved. Out of the box, rubber stamped in three places with the name of the school, remove dust jackets that looked exactly like the book cover, sort them (various ways), add a serial barcode to the front cover for each of the books, and check the SIP for cataloging info, and while I'm at it, have WORD open to the appropriate Avery (c) label type, and add hat info as I went along -- keeping careful track of where and how I stacked the initially processed books. Once I filled up a sheet, I'd print it out, clear the screen and start again. Once completed, I'd attach the spine labels to the spines (or the appropriate spot on the dust jacket). The jacket-less books could be entered into the catalog and shelved.
I've become a master dust jacket protector installer -- even today, I can still get one done in record time and neat. Once the jacket are on the books, they, too, can be entered into the catalog.

In short, get the labels, enter them manually, print them out, maybe you want to put some clear archival-quality tape over them, and you're done.

My library has DYMO LabelWriter 450 Twin Turbo label printer which has served us well for printing both Call Number stickers and Spine Labels for many years. Now switching to LT and TinyCat, we would like to continue using the printer. Any help or suggestions? Thank you.

>17 WestFallsCCL: I'm looking at migrating to TinyCat for our small Tribal Library and need a spine label option for printing as well. We have a DYMO 550. I am hoping that spine labels are not the no-go point for us to switch over. Collection is just under 7000 items.