OT (sorta) organizing non-fiction books

Don't loan a shovel to the neighborhood minister. The SOB moved, taking my shovel with him :-(

I recall running across some software for indexing your videos. Don't remember what it was called now. I opted for having a cabinet made that perfectly fits DVD jackets, and I just keep them in alphabetical order. I keep a list, using UltraEdit... it can sort alphabetically, so I just add a new title and then sort. ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Back when I could stay organized, I sorted my books the way libraries do: by Library of Congress number for the non-fiction, and by author, series, and title for the fiction.

Now I have children, and shelves in five different rooms, and the books get regularly randomized.

Not too long ago my 19 year old son asked why the books are all just shoved into shelves higgly-piggly. I thought "hmm, maybe it's time to try again..."

--
My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook.
My conservative friends think I'm a liberal kook.
Why am I not happy that they have found common ground?

Tim Wescott, Communications, Control, Circuits & Software
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Not sure how far you want to drive this. I use a no-frills program that comes with most PCs and if not is very cheap: MS-Works.

I even run my whole business recording through that. Never indexed my books but I had to for SMT stuff because it's so small and often has no part markings. For example, I have little sample boxes that offer lots of little cavities to stuff 15-25 parts into. Very nice for traveling. So in order to find that 0.047u SMT cap I click on a "Parts" tab on my desktop, type 0.047 into the search, and it shows me the result as "1C4". This means display box #1, row C, column 4.

With books I could imagine it'll be the same. If your house is like ours then there are many book shelves. My wife is pretty good in organizing by topics but sometimes it can be a bit ambiguous. So it won't help to know that the book about the culinary tastes of switch mode converter chips or whatever is asset # 7843, the system has to also show where it lives.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

I've contemplated simply going shelf-by-shelf and making a list of books and their location, then sort by title in one list, sort by author in another. Moving everything to match some magical "organization" would be a nasty task :-( ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

*Physically*, I just keep them grouped by general subject (which are then "placed" where the appropriate amount of *space* exists). Then, within a subject, in an order appropriate for that subject ().

E.g., my "programming languages" group is organized alphabetically by the name of the programming language (not by title). This maps into how I think about finding such a title ("Let's see... I'm looking for a book on ML...").

The same sort of scheme applies to books that I have in electronic form -- though the "groups" then become directories instead of actual shelf space.

I don't have a "list" of titles -- though I can readily produce such a list for the texts that I have in electronic form. But, my "technical library" probably only has ~1,000 titles so its relatively easy for me to remember what I have (though not necessarily by *title*).

The places I've worked that had formal engineering libraries actually had real librarians (people educated in "Library Science")

Simple solution: *never* lend out books! They get lost or come back dog eared, marked up (!), etc.

Good Luck!

I keep it simple. All engineering books are in a large shelf cabinet next door. All databooks are in a shelf closet in the hallway. From both I have picked a select few that live here at the office where the big locked cabinet with the roughly 50 binders is. It's unlocked during work hours so it's easy to grabe a book.

One thing I have learned from an article that a medical adviser wrote: Don't make it too convenient, it can lead to unhealthy patterns. For example, the selected office books are about three feet farther away than I can reach so I must get out of the chair to grab one. Takes only a couple of seconds but those are good seconds for the body.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

I don't consider it a problem- if I lend a book to someone and they actually use it to accomplish something (or even to learn something), that's a really good use of an asset that's worth a hundred dollars or whatever, whether they return it or not (almost always, they do). If they don't one out of five times (it's actually better than that), then it's only costing $20 a shot .

I'm a lot more careful with the out-of-print classics.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

I organize my books like I organize everything else in my office - It is OVER THERE! 8-)

Actually, I have three big bookcases in my office, one smaller one, and another bookcase in the boss's office.

Book case 1 has books I expect to need - top shelf Sci-Fi and other relaxation books, next two electronics, physics and programming, then math and psychology on the bottom two shelves.

Book Case 2 has project notebooks and company records on top, the rest business, memorabilia, english, and religion books.

Book case 3 has four shelves of parts and evaluation boards, with the bottom shelf for my collection of Analog magazine.

The small book case holds parts for current projects and my old Win98 computer and the Cannon BJC-5100 printer for printing color or B-size prints.

My wife's book case is for other casual reading material, her audio books, and her accounting texts.

Real problem is when I pull a book of the shelf, and put it on my desk, where it promptly gets buried in other stuff... ;-)

Charlie

"

com

com

, buy some little labels and stick = 'em on the spine. You can auto-classify by simply looking up your title on = the main website. Then all you need is a simple searchable list= of your titles that cross-references the LCC code. This method seems to ha= ve worked well for over 100 years for millions of users.

On a sunny day (Mon, 21 May 2012 12:27:12 -0400) it happened Spehro Pefhany wrote in :

After trying databases, I keep the DVD list in a simple text file. Use grep on it for anything. Same for some other vital data. text files are cool, fast (about 10^10 faster than postgress). take less space, are universal, I have some special keywords in the file, for example 'amovie'

grep amovie /root/dvd-list.txt ...... Starwars 1 German language .ts as IMAGE amovie startwars-4_german.ts as image amovie Starwars X German language .ts as IMAGE amovie Starwars VI The return of the jedi fighters German language .ts as IMAGE amovie ......

Or just use a text editor with search function. If it is actually on disk somewhere: locate -i starwars

I've not been as fortunate. I've received books back with their spines broken, pages ripped/dog-eared, marked up in ink pen and/or highlighter, etc. So, I've learned just to keep my library "off limits" (very few people are as meticulous about this sort of "preservation" as I am).

If you want to borrow a book and I'm inclined to lend it to you, I'll simply buy you a copy of the book (used) and not worry about getting it back. I did just that last week for a friend, here, looking to learn C. Now I don't have to wonder when/if I will get those texts "back"; nor the condition that they are likely to be in. Nor will she have to feel pressured to return them before she might otherwise want -- or me have to live *without* them for the duration!

(I am amazed at how often I find myself digging back for some obscure piece of information)

And, I've also earned some gravy points in the process. Seems like a win, all 'round!

Agreed. I have some (fiction) titles that I am even afraid to *open* as the bindings have failed (actually, in one case it is not the bindings but the *paper* that has become brittle and "snaps off" when subjected to any stress)

Why LCC rather than Dewey?

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

Sphero,

My older brother Carlton has several thousand paperbacks (plus a number of hardbacks) in his... er, "collection", and I've suggested several times that he could use some sort of automated system to track them. However, as I'm sure you've noticed, it's easier to suggest something than to get it implemented (the barcode scanner I gave him one year sits unused ).

I'm aware of several book-tracking apps, including several (many?) which take the ISBN and save your typing fingers by looking it up on Amazon.com. Some software to look at:

Alexandria Book Collection Manager

Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO

Readerware

Automation & Organizing Software Solutions for Small Libraries, and Book Collectors

I just noticed an Android app that scans ISBNs using the onboard camera. If you have a large enough collection, it might even justify the cost of an Android phone... naah, the tech-i-ness is the only reason you really need.

Catalogue your Books with Book Catalogue (the Application)

Hope something in this mess helps.

Frank McKenney

--
  The book has been man's greatest triumph, his most profound
  success.  Seated in my library I live in a Time Machine.  In an
  instant I can be transmitted to any era of history, any part of
  the world, even to outer space.  Often I am asked in what period
  of history I would have preferred to live, and I wonder that they
  do not see, for I have lived in them all. ...
  
  Above all, and the most remarkable thing, I can do it all again,
  at any moment.  The books are there.  I have only to reach up on
  the shelves and take them down and live over again the moments I
  have loved.  Surely, we live today in the greatest moment of
  history, for at no other time have books been so readily
  available, in the book stores, in the public libraries, and in the
  home.
                -- Louis L'Amour / The Sackett Companion

No, ^^^^^ trust me, he's not fat! :>

The problem with automated approaches is that books (and other publications) aren't uniform in their support for ISBN/ISSN's, etc.

If your brother is like me, his paperback collection probably has lots of titles where the only "identifier" (besides the actual title/author) predates ISBN -- things like "A5523" or "51-126".

Other titles may have ISBN's -- but not a barcode. So, you resort to typing things in by hand (trust me, this quickly leads to "I think I'll do something else for a while" after which, you never quite seem to make the time to *finish* the task!)

Still other titles might not be trackable in any sort of "public" scheme. E.g., the first two titles off my "regulatory" shelf: _Configuration Management Handbook of Standards_ _Compliance & Validation_ Or, more "mainstream": _Abacus Arithmetic_ _Versalog Slide Rule Instructions_ (of course, I use the term "mainstream" tongue-in-cheek! :> )

This is often the case for equipment and software "manuals".

And, "technical papers" leave you with nothing other than title and name of author(s).

I designed a barcode based system for a non-profit some years ago who's mission was to recycle textbooks (etc) to needy schools "for the cost of postage". The goal was to be able to keep better track of "inventory" -- so someone didn't have to physically walk through the stacks searching for a particular title to even *see* if a copy -- or multiple copies -- was available. Ideally, this could all be published on an interactive web site where "customers" could peruse the collection and submit formal requests based on their findings (freeing up volunteers who would otherwise have to "run their queries ON FOOT").

I quickly found that not all had a "universal" identifier. Nor a machine-readable barcode. (and there was something funny about "school books" -- but I can't recall)

I augmented the design to include provisions to print, on demand, "custom" barcodes (not ISBNs) that could be used to label "identical titles". No ISBN? Fine, *create* a unique identifier and paste N labels on those N copies. The system doesn't care if the identifier is an ISBN or the UPC off a can of *soup*! But, the actual title had to be manually entered, for these.

Those titles weren't possible for (remote) customers to browse unless they happened to know what they were looking for. So, I added the ability to capture an image of the book cover (using a flatbed scanner on which you could simply lay the book -- no need to "hold it open" to a particular page so this was an easy task!). This would let customers browse books by title and *cover* -- "Oh, yes! That's the 'Smith' book. I used that in my last school district!"

All that design effort (predicated on "free/volunteer labor") and the system was soon abandoned. If your collection is

*static* or VERY SLOWLY GROWING, its easy to keep up (even if you get behind for several months). But, with the turnover that they encountered, this got to be an ongoing "chore" (deliberate choice of words). Eventually, they simply stopped offering the service and would recycle the books "as paper products" :<

Point being, make sure the scheme you come up with will address your needs in a way that you will be willing to maintain. Otherwise, it turns out to be little more than a "curiosity".

(In my case, I learned a lot about organizing and *identifying* data -- which I've carried forward into other *commercial* designs, since then)

I simply write the value on the lids. I have boxes like these for SMT components:

I have an Access database with the components I have in stock. Not that I have production quantities but still a couple of hundred different components. Its either that or buy everything new for a prototype and throw away whatever is leftover.

Its better to let the number show what kind of thing it is. My parts database uses groups, subgroups and article number. Anything beginning with 11 is inductive, 12 is resistive, 13 is capacitive, 14 are semiconductors, etc.

--
Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply
indicates you are not using the right tools...
nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.)
--------------------------------------------------------------

I use old prescription pill bottles... and a P-touch Labeler ;-) ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Thanks, Frank.

Looking at all that will keep me busy for a while! I see there are some Apple apps as well.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog  Info for designers:  http://www.speff.com

A lot of free or cheap software:

--
You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense.

A barcode scanner makes it a lot easir to inventory the books. Scan the code inside the front cover on most books, and look the information up, on line. Then copy & past the data you want to track for that book. I have to find the link, but there is a website that allows you to submit a list of ISBN and it returns it all in a single batch.

--
You can't have a sense of humor, if you have no sense.