Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with books and library

I need to organize all these books.

sugarfish — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:28:25 -0800

I have about a thousand books and a burning desire to reorganize them. I'm getting rid of my current bookshelves -- an Ikea Expedit and the several others I've had to buy since I bought my house -- to move to shelves that I can put along the wall. The Expedit was a room divider in a previous house and it's not working for me anymore. I figure while I've got all of the books off the shelf, I ought to cull (again. I do every year) and somehow make a database with everything I keep. This will help me avoid buying the same books over again. Plus I like the idea of having all that information in one place. I figure that my collection will only get larger from here since books follow me home.

So how do I do this? I have this vague idea that I can take pictures of the barcodes of my books with my iPhone camera and populate some magical database that way. Did I make that up? What about the CueCat? Where can I get one of those?

I have a Mac running Leopard and want to do this on the cheap.

Bonus question: I'm thinking of organizing everything alphabetically by author. Anyone want to convince me to use LoC or the Dewey Decimal system?

(I saw this question but it's from a while ago and I don't have MS Access.

How do I prepare a new book?

carterk — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:10:05 -0800

I was once shown how to prepare a brand new book before reading it– it had something to do with opening the book at various places and smoothing down the pages. Supposedly it would make the binding last longer. Does this actually work, and if so, could anyone describe the process clearly? Any other advice on good book care and repair for this new librarian would be greatly appreciated.

Libraries are awesome

serazin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:11:52 -0800

I've taken responsibility for a very small children's library and I'd love your ideas for making it awesome. My kid is going to a tiny little school where every parent takes a volunteer job. I chose the job of managing the small library. I'm supposed to keep it organized and accessible, and to create displays and possibly events. I'm also supposed to coordinate a Scholastic book fair (I'm sure everyone would be open to some alternative to Scholastic - so suggestions welcome on that score as well.)

I don't have a ton of time, and the school doesn't have a ton of money. Given those limitations, I'd love to hear any ideas you have for making the library useful, attractive and vibrant.

(Note that I admire and respect librarians, and recognize that I am not one! I wish all schools had a paid librarian, but this school doesn't - it only has two paid staff people all together - so I hope to do my best with what's available.)

Save a book from the fires of hell!

talkingmuffin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:34:39 -0800

It's the end of the world and you have time to save one book. Which one will you save? If I were to assemble an "End of the World" library, I'd like to know what sorts of things I should add to it to represent the interests and knowlege of a wide variety of people, rather than just myself. Is it a book that will feed your mind over the weeks and years to come or a book that will save a fragile remenant of human knowledge. Will your book teach future generations about what life was like before the collapse or will it show them how to survive in a blighted world?

Do tell.

I want to read while in Califorinia

Jesus Malverde — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:47:02 -0800

Will be living between Joshua Tree and LA county for 3 months...how do I get a library card? I read like a fiend, and so I have several library cards in places I often stay...but this has not come up before for me...
how do I get a card and the privilege to check out books in, say, LA county, for just a few months?

(I'm a Journeyman Librarian)

sonic meat machine — Mon, 25 May 2009 17:11:51 -0800

If you were building a library collection around the history of business—guilds, apprenticeships, royal charter companies, corporations, and so on—what books would you select?

Help me Tweet my reads

mboesch — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 08:00:19 -0800

Is there a website which let's you create a library of the books you own and sends updates to twitter when you post reviews or finish a book? I wish bookarmy.com would do it, because I like the site, but unfortunately it does not.

Enlightening and lovely literature on libraries.

mrhaydel — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 06:46:30 -0800

Books about libraries, and books/essays about the future of them? While looking at this book, I came across *this* book, and it got me wondering.

I'd like to read a book (or two) on libraries and their role throughout history. I'm not sure if "Libraries of the Ancient World" is what I'm after, but it did pique my interest.

I love what have been referred to as mono-histories, so I'd like to find something in that vein: tracing the earliest form of libraries in history, their role in society, all the way up to their current incarnation.

There seem to be any number of them out there on Amazon, but I'd like to hear from someone (maybe a librarian even??!) who can recommend a good read here.

I don't necessarily want library porn, so no coffee table books with pictures of beautiful libraries (unless of course, it also doubles as a history of them to some degree) - I guess I'm just kind of after the "Salt" of the library world, ya know?

Now, the second part of my question: have there been any good publications about the future of libraries? The SO and I were discussing how it used to be, to us at least, the library was a place we'd go to get research done for term papers and such for school.

While libraries are still ultimately just trying to provide access to a wealth of information, it seems that students in junior high or high school may not necessarily use them the same way as how we might have used them pre-internet. Maybe they do, but, I'm still curious as to what the prevailing thoughts are as to what libraries may be like in another 10-15 years, and how they can continue to live as public institutions.

A little Googling turned up an NPR story, and a smattering of other mildly informative things, but again, I'd prefer something a little more in depth.

If both of my questions happened to be answered in the form of one book, then that'd be just swell.

Find me inspiring books!

actionpact — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:22:33 -0800

I'm trying to expand my reference library. What are your favorite inspiring books (the kinds with photos/artwork in them?) Basically, I'm looking for any books that have good reference material in them-- not so much the text (though I like reading), but ones that show interesting images to use to inspire me when I can't think of what to draw. (National Geographic came in handy for this as a kid) I don't get to travel a lot but I love to peruse books, so I thought why not find some good sources?

Books with old advertisements, design, patterns, motifs and artwork from indigenous worlds, sci-fi, photos of houses and environments, costume design, books about nature and animals, space, historical photos, underwater photography, the topic doesn't matter specifically, just whatever you have or would recommend I'm super-curious to find out about. Coffee-table books, old books, whatever!

As an example, I have books like these:
Manuel Manilla
The Golden Age of Advertising-the 60's

and am thinking about getting these:
Chasing Rickshaws (I found this in a library and it was great!)
Little House on a Small Planet

Thanks hivemind!

How to find books.

monocultured — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 12:55:46 -0800

I've been tasked with finding a bunch of books, and have author names and occasionally publisher, genre or topic. Some of the authors are academics and seem to have published mostly in journals or edited group anthologies. Hælp me you dominators of printed matter, how to find? This is all loosely architecture related, and the originals are often either Spanish or South/Latin American.

Right now I'm casting a wide net; Googling, checking Amazon and LOC, as well as the Swedish Royal Library (Since I'm ultimately trying to find copies to borrow at my uni) but it takes too much time and yields inconsistent results.

So. How would you go about finding an as complete bibliography of an author as possible, including appearances in group anthologies and by academic presses? Which are the go-to databases one trawls to get an international overview of printed stuff?

Alternatives to family bible for tracking family tree, offline or otherwise

GPF — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 08:02:39 -0800

I'd like some suggestions for a place to keep track of family births and events, much like traditionally done in a family bible. Books are nice, but all media considered. Points given in three categories: potential longevity, flexibility of data handling, and style. Some examples:

An acid-free archival printing of the Gutenberg bible:
- high longevity scores (books can last a long time)
- low data handling scores (once the system starts, its tough to change)
- mid style scores (admittedly subjective, but though iconic, its still a bible)

A full-blown premium plus account at Ancestry.com:
- mid longevity scores (the technology is unproven on large time scales)
- high data handling scores (much flexibility on online solutions)
- low style scores (can't really put it on a pedestal in the family library)

A mural in oil paint on the stone fence out back:
- low longevity scores (needs constant maintenance)
- low data handling (needs professional assistance)
- high style scores (probably the only one in the neighborhood)

What does a trailing zero mean in a Dewey decimal catalog?

saguaro — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:30:07 -0800

Hey Librarians! Why is there a trailing zero on this Dewey number? I've asked the available meatspace librarians why Tim Wendel's book The New Face of Baseball is cataloged at 796.3570, and the best they can come up with is that it's some topical designation. (The worst so far was, "Good question, troublemaker, I'm not a cataloger.") OK, so if that's it, which topic does a trailing zero indicate? If that's not it, what's going on here? Is it extraneous? FWIW, there's one other book in this collection with the same catalog number, and I can pull up more in the google.

Librarians, help me out!

bad grammar — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 13:14:28 -0800

What is a normal rate for losing books from a school or public library? I've had trouble finding information about this because libraries seem reluctant to admit it. I work in a school library where the budget, and my own employment, are precarious. I have to justify a non-return rate of about 25-30%. In short, a quarter of the students who check out books never return them. I have not had much success with various inducements and threats with this 25% (conduct rewards, billing letters).

Given that the school takes economically disadvantaged and troubled students, I suppose that I'm lucky they haven't walked off with the entire library.

But if I could show to my supervisor that losses of this sort are normal (e.g. in public libraries in poor areas), I might feel happier about my job. I'm new as a librarian and not fully trained (I'm working on my MLS.)

Where does THIS book go?

ObscureReferenceMan — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:39:14 -0800

LibraryFilter: How do I look up a book's "category"? I have a fairly extensive library. Most books are sorted by major categories (sci-fi, biography, history, etc.). But there are some (too many, actually) that, to me, defy categorization (like Tracy Kidder's "House" - is that simply non-fiction?). Is there a tool, or web site, where I can enter a book's title or ISBN, and have something spit out a category?

Or is the solution just to know a system (Library of Congress, Dewey Decimal) really well? Thanks!

Classics of literature of the month club, cancel and Moby Dick is yours to keep? Where to find?

bartleby — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:42:11 -0800

Some publisher used to do a set of volumes of great works, supposedly quality bindings, via a "We'll send you another volume each month, and if you cancel, the edition of Moby Dick is yours to keep" model. Who was that? It was some kind of vague collection or literary works, but not the "five foot shelf of books" or the Brittanica Great Books collection.

I remember advertisements in the back of magazines, and perhaps a TV ad where there was fawning over gilt edges and marbled endpapers.

Does this still exist? Or if not, who was the publisher/company/service can hunt down some of the books, used?

How do I know if former library books for sale really are former library books?

jamaro — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:26:13 -0800

I have some books I purchased online that are purportedly retired from their originating library's collection. How do I know if they are retired or on the lam? I frequently purchase used books from Amazon Marketplace. The sales description of the book will state it is a former library book (or retired library, ex-library etc) and when the book arrives, sure enough it will bear stickers and stamps common to library books. Usually the books will also be stamped with words to the effect of “Removed from XZY Library collection.” However, this week I received two used books from different vendors which have no such stamp. Further, the description made no mention that the books would be ex-library, and the only modification to the books are the Sharpie scribbles over the library inventory bar code. This makes me nervous because I’d hate to think that some schmucks are fulfilling book orders by ‘shopping’ in the aisles of his or her local library. Checking back through previous purchases, I've found several other suspect books. Short of calling these libraries all over the country, are there any other ways of determining if these books were really retired from collection vs stolen?

None of these books are out of print or otherwise rare. Most are children's picture books.

Is there anything wrong with taking pictures of Library books and then posting said pictures to a blog?

inviolable — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:30:12 -0800

Is there anything wrong with taking pictures of Library books and then posting said pictures to a blog? I work in a university library and would like to start a blog about special, unique, or interesting books that I find on the shelves. Along with writing about the books, I'd like to take pictures of them - specifically of the covers, the binding, and (maybe) a page or two of text. Would I be violating any laws?

Look on my reference works, ye mighty, and despair

escabeche — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:28:46 -0800

What proportion of books in the library will never be opened again? AskMeFi librarians, confirm or refute my my library melancholy! Whenever I'm in the stacks at the main university library, I feel the need to take a few random books off the shelf and look at them, just because I feel that the vast majority of these books will never again be looked at by anybody. And I feel sorry for them.

Am I right? Take a big general university library like Memorial Library here at UW, with 3 million volumes; what proportion of these do we expect will never be opened again?

Help me find an educational reward/prize for our reading contest

AaronRaphael — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 02:10:07 -0800

In the spirit of our local library's summer reading program, we've done a similar program of our own (since our children flew through the initial 1000 minutes of the library program). Help me find an appropriate educational-yet-awesome reward to give them for completing our contest! Ideally finishing rewards would be: a) educational and b) exciting for a 9 year old boy, an 8 year old girl and a 5 year old girl.

The halfway prize we gave them (which was well-received) was $15 of book-buying power at the local used bookstore. This ended up getting them a bunch of used books (fodder for them to finish the next 500 minutes). I'm looking for something unexpected and awesome we could give them as a prize for completing the 1000 minutes of reading time; the price limit we were thinking of was probably somewhere in the $50 range (each).

I will be sure to have them send a nice email to whoever suggests the thing we get them as a prize! :)

Go go hive-mind!

Can you rent/borrow books online anywhere?

slavlin — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:32:10 -0800

We have Netflix and Gamefly. I want to know if there is a Netbooks or Bookfly equivalent? I love books. I have way too many books. I like libraries, but they never have what I want when I want to read it. Is there a book based service like Netflix or Gamefly? I know it would be more expensive, as books are heavier, but I would like to check out whatever is out there.

In search of...open-source BookCAT

mjklin — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 11:33:18 -0800

Is there any open-source book cataloging program, based on MS Access or another popular database, for personal use? I've been using BookCAT to catalog my personal books, but I think I'd like something that I can open up and change around a lot more.

BookCAT, designed for small libraries, uses MS Access to store data with a proprietary interface. I've tried to create my own Access database using the same data, but the many-to-many relationships required are too much for me to handle with my lack of $killZ. I also use LibraryThing, but it seems not too well designed for what I want--namely, keeping track of the books I read, and books I come across that I might want to read.

BookCAT's ability to query Amazon and LoC are amazing...I just wish I could get a little more control. A properly-designed Access database would do the trick, but I don't have the aforementioned $killZ. Anyone know someone who does?

What materials should I use for labelling the spines of my books?

Flunkie — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 12:27:32 -0800

What materials should I use for labelling the spines of my books? A while back, I took the plunge into a big project that I've wanted to do for a long time: organizing my books. My plan went like this:

First, separate books by their physical height, into four groups: (1) Bigger than will fit (standing) on any of my shelves; (2) Smaller than that, but bigger than will fit on any but my largest shelves; (3) "Normal"; (4) Mass market paperback and smaller. This allows for minimal wasted shelf space.

Second, within each of those four broad categories, look up the Library of Congress call number for each book, write it on a piece of masking tape, stick it on the spine, and store the books in that order.

If I couldn't find the LCCN for a particular book, I would classify it under the LOC system myself, to the degree that I was reasonably confident, additionally marking it so that I would know the number on the book's spine was not official.

This was a fairly tedious process, so I would only do a few books at a time, and it therefore took quite a while. But, in general, I am happy with the results, and want to keep my collection this way. I am quite willing to keep tagging my new books as I obtain them

Unfortunately, by the time I was finishing up, the labels on the first books that I dealt with were already fading, some of them to the point of illegibility.

So, I want to do this again. But I want to do it in a manner such that I'll never have to do it a third time.

I don't know whether the fading was due to the ink that I used, the tape, both individually, or both in combination.

So, what should I use?

In addition to the permanency of legibility, I would also like the label to be something that, like masking tape, stays on well, but comes off easily and cleanly if you want it to, without damaging the book or leaving significant residue.

Finally, I've read some other AskMe posts about organizing bookshelves that showed up when I searched for this, and I'm already well aware that a lot of people think this is overkill and/or a waste of time. So if you were going to chime in with that, thanks, but not interested. I know exactly what I'm getting into.

Big BIG Books

jeanmari — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 11:39:31 -0800

Where to find those VERY large storybooks that children's librarians use for storytelling hours? I've searched for "large", "big" and "oversized" storybooks to no avail.

I want to track books I've read and books I want to read.

CwgrlUp — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 14:58:06 -0800

Where can I keep track, online, of my current list of books read/owned and books I want to read? I'm a sci-fi/fantasy reader and I run into problems remembering where I am at in a series, especially since I use the public library whenever possible. But they usually only have the first couple books of a series and I end up needing to track down the rest. So I end up with handfuls of post-its with names of books I want to read all over the house.

I've googled my face off, on AskMe and google itself but I can't seem to find a good site for this. I would prefer something free and online. I want to keep track of books I've read/own and a list of books I want to read. Together if possible.

Save me, avid readers of MeFi! I'll be forever grateful.

How do I weed my book collection?

oldlies — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 14:46:06 -0800

Due to space restrictions, how do I bid farewell to my home library? There's now way around it--stuff has to go.

I have a lot of books (~1000 in a small studio apartment) and I need to free up space. Getting rid of a lot of books is a must. How do I decide what to get rid of?

There are some that just look good on the shelf but I'll never read them again. Then there are some that I may never read again, but I feel a certain degree of affection toward them because I associate periods of my life with them. There are some that I never read but I always intended to. Some of them were timely when published (current affairs type stuff), but they've since lost relevance...but I paid good money for them. I don't have time to sell them all on

I keep telling myself that I don't need to get rid of anything because eventually I'll have a larger home that would fit my library comfortably. That's probably not a healthy outlook and I'm sure professional organizers and therapists would say that you have to accept and work with what you have now.

So how do I begin to weed my library?