I love to organize. But even with years of homeschooling and attempts to categorize, my library continues to be unruly. This results in frustrations in finding books and extra costs in buying duplicates.
A more systematic approach is needed.
There are numerous options for creating a digital book inventory. The following table details some major players and how they stack up on my criteria.
| GoodReads | Delicious | Libib | LibraryThing | |
| Cost | Free | website would not load | upto 5000/ ongoing subscription | Now Free |
| Import | csv | yes | ||
| Scanner | yes | yes | ||
| Private Shelves/ books | no | yes | ||
| Tags | shelves | yes | ||
| Location | no | Dewey / LC | ||
Lexiles | yes | yes | ||
| Share Friends | yes | yes | ||
| Notes | amazon integration Better cover art. Review score by readers. All your notes etc are public Private, is not really private | outdated | too expensive (you could be spending that $$$ on books) | Bland (but nicely customizable) interface, sparse reader reviews, lots of manual cover art updates |
Library Thing for the win!
The Koha Open Source Library System seems pretty cool, but is more involved to set up.
Home Library Filing Classification System
Having a list of books you own is fantastic. However, you need to be able to locate the books. Given that you are looking at a Home Library System, you have more than a few bookcases full of books. The book cases are likely in different rooms and on different levels.
You need a classification and filing system.
The two major library classification systems are the Melvil (Dewey) Decimal System and the Library of Congress System. The Library of Congress System is more detailed (i.e. overkill for home libraries), but mostly the Melvil/Dewey Decimal works very well.
There are two major differences between the systems:
- Dewey is a numeric system (for example, the general category, or class, for science is 500); LCC is alphanumeric (science is Q, with sub-classes designated by numbers).
- The classes of each system are arranged differently and emphasize different subjects.
- Dewey has 10 broad classes that each cataloged work must be placed under.
- LCC has 21 classes which are more specific and varied.
Based on the above chart, I chose to go with the LibraryThing. It can show your books’ LC classifications in your list screen (see edit profile \ display style). To get the option to display Dewey Decimal or Subjects, select the Classification drop-down on the right and drag your choice on your chosen display.
Library Thing can also show your library’s breakdown based on Dewey categories.
https://www.librarything.com/profile/username/stats/ddc
Also for my love of voice automation, you can add books via an Alexa skill.
Easy Shelving
So I have mini-librarians and they are not always the most attentive when shelving books. For ease of putting away and identifying when a book is out of place, each book has a colour label to identify where the book belongs.
The Problem with Dewey
The problem with Dewey is that it does not deal very well with fiction. Fiction can be put into genres which makes it more logical to look for books then searching by author. Besides, if you like one book then you might like similar books. Genrefication.
Here are some logical genre groupings.
Elementary Grades
Middle/High School
- Adventure
- Animals
- Fantasy
- Fairy Tales
- Folklore
- Graphic Novels
- Historical Fiction
- Humor
- Mystery
- Realistic Fiction
- Scary Stories
- Science Fiction
- Sports
- Adventure
- Award Winners
- Classics
- Dystopian
- Fantasy
- Friendship
- Graphic Novels
- Historical Fiction
- Horror
- Humor
- Mystery
- Myths and Mythology
- Poetry
- Realistic Fiction
- Romance
- Science Fiction
- Sports
- Urban Fiction
Here is where I run into trouble. I want my easy chapter books to be separate from my young adult and adult books. I need to decide on binding colour system so that material can be put away properly and found.
I have decided that if the book does not get shelved based on their Dewey decimal system number, then I will put their shelf location in the ‘other call number’.
<Now I need to get into action and I will update this when new realities set in>
SOTW and Other Resources 