A good deal of being thought of as competent
And maybe even wise- is knowing what questions to ask, and who to ask.
I’m in the process of trying to declutter my life, a little at a time, and part of that involves pruning the library. Until I know what i have, however, I don’t know what I’m getting rid of. I have a few things I will not part with, but a lot of things I want out. So I’m thinking, how do I do this and not go barking mad?
Wait: I know- or at least, I read the blog of, a reference librarian. So I entreated our very own Bunny Watson, Breda.
Almost immediately, she responds “Have you tried http://www.librarything.com/ ?
It’s an online cataloging system and I believe it’s a $25 membership – FOR LIFE. I’m sure there’d be a way to link to it and let people know, with a certain tagging system or some such, of what was for sale.
”
Turns out it’s perfect for me. And it’s FREE, for the first hundred books. So I can get it started for nothing, and upgrade when I sell some stuff, and have my catalog online to check when I desire. The very best bit is the fact that it searches the web and finds the books including ISBN numbers (Or searches by ISBN numbers) and fills in the details of the books. Plus, it gives you a place to put comments, etc.
I’ve just put in a few books but I’ll be adding plenty more later. I highly reccomend this, if you have more than a handful of books, it looks perfect and is CHEAP. At least for the moment, you can see it here
Thanks for that link. Just downloaded over 20 books in less than ten minutes. That includes figuring out the process. Awesome site. Highly recommended.
We have a pretty extensive library (a couple thousand books); so we decided a few years ago to pick up a barcode scanner, and a real library management system.
We chose readerware, because it’s cross platform, and includes modules for books, movies, and music. It works great, but it’s considerably more expensive (I think $90, plus the barcode scanner).
I looked at that- I have barcode scanners laying around here, so that’s not an issue- but my ultimate goal is to minimize the number of books. If I had the intention of building a legitimate library, I’d be more likely to purchase something. THis is a good fit for me because it’s also public, and I can use it to cull the herd. I also looked at Collectorz, which has a lot of other features, including the ability to catalog music, videos, etc. but again, I’m trying to prune and not expand. I have all that shit in my head, and if I need to access it again for reference I can always hit the library.
You’re kidding me? And you call yourself a regular reader at BTB? Home on the Range? Just two blogs that I can think of off the top of my (admittedly pointed) head which prominently feature Library THANGs in their sidebars?
I went the full boat for the life membership. Love it to pieces. Brigid can speak for herself.
M
Oh, you read sidebars? I read blogs.
OK. No. I was attracted by the pretty pictures of book covers. ::grin::
M
Lol. Srsly though I never bother with sidebars. All a distraction to me.
There is also one called Shelfari that offers a similar deal.