My Library Thing
Oct. 6th, 2007 08:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowI'm beginning what will probably be a long-drawn-out process of cataloging my library. I considered using LibraryThing, but... I'm kind of ornery about certain things. I have specific kinds of data I want, and other data that I have no use for, and I'd rather set things up my way than rely on someone else's design. Also, I want my data on my platform, not someone else's, thankyouverymuch.
So it begins. The first pass is just to get the titles of every volume in my library onto the computer. (Later passes will break down books containing multiple works into their components, and also link together volumes that really make up single works. Less-tightly-connected series will... be handled somehow.) I've entered all the books in my den - the Britannica and its ancillary volumes, the remains of a crumbled bookcase that used to contain books on mathematics and computer science, and assorted other volumes that I never got around to shelving - and about two-thirds of the first bookcase (of four) in my bedroom. Then come the loose volumes from that room, and on to the sagging and creaking cases in the living room (plus yet more loose volumes). There's also a smallish bookcase (mostly reference works) in the guest room, and at some point I've got to figure out what to do about the books in my office at work. (Some of them are mine; some of them... aren't.)
It's a bit odd, going through. There are books I'd forgotten I had: a slim volume of poetry by Andrei Voznesensky, purchased after seeing a fragment in Bartlett's; a Library of America volume of Vietnam-era journalism (and it says "volume one", so there's probably another one out there somewhere); Harold Bloom's The Western Canon (when did I buy that?); an anthology of Chinese poetry, edited by Arthur Waley (but where's that Penguin volume of Tang-dynasty poetry?); The 1989 Baseball Encyclopedia Update; In Defense of Elitism, by William A. Henry.... There are volumes that I bought on spec, and have never gotten around even to looking at: poetry collections by Langston Hughes and Richard Wilbur, and Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato. (Yes, lots of poetry here; that's what's on those shelves.) Maybe I should go on a poetry binge sometime soon.
593 volumes down; on the order of 5000 more to go.
So it begins. The first pass is just to get the titles of every volume in my library onto the computer. (Later passes will break down books containing multiple works into their components, and also link together volumes that really make up single works. Less-tightly-connected series will... be handled somehow.) I've entered all the books in my den - the Britannica and its ancillary volumes, the remains of a crumbled bookcase that used to contain books on mathematics and computer science, and assorted other volumes that I never got around to shelving - and about two-thirds of the first bookcase (of four) in my bedroom. Then come the loose volumes from that room, and on to the sagging and creaking cases in the living room (plus yet more loose volumes). There's also a smallish bookcase (mostly reference works) in the guest room, and at some point I've got to figure out what to do about the books in my office at work. (Some of them are mine; some of them... aren't.)
It's a bit odd, going through. There are books I'd forgotten I had: a slim volume of poetry by Andrei Voznesensky, purchased after seeing a fragment in Bartlett's; a Library of America volume of Vietnam-era journalism (and it says "volume one", so there's probably another one out there somewhere); Harold Bloom's The Western Canon (when did I buy that?); an anthology of Chinese poetry, edited by Arthur Waley (but where's that Penguin volume of Tang-dynasty poetry?); The 1989 Baseball Encyclopedia Update; In Defense of Elitism, by William A. Henry.... There are volumes that I bought on spec, and have never gotten around even to looking at: poetry collections by Langston Hughes and Richard Wilbur, and Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato. (Yes, lots of poetry here; that's what's on those shelves.) Maybe I should go on a poetry binge sometime soon.
593 volumes down; on the order of 5000 more to go.
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no subject
Date: 2007-10-13 10:10 pm (UTC)Good luck!
Are you using anything to catalog them?
We did ours during the move to England -- didn't put them on the shelf until they were in the computer. We use http://www.collectorz.com/
Well, the product downloaded from that site.
Good luck! And enjoy! :-D
no subject
Date: 2007-10-13 10:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-13 11:02 pm (UTC)Yeah, figured you were doing something like that from your post. Just curious as to what! :-)
I'm definitely less picky! I just like having a list of my books. So I don't buy them again, mostly! But I'm rarely in bookstores these days and haven't even been to a single used one in England yet. So it's not as crucial as it used to be. I do look up my books on occasion to remind myself of titles, etc. too.
Anyway, good luck!
(and we use Microsoft Money, too) ;-p