I loved going to the library as a child—whether the school library, where teachers often sent me when I had finished my work and was bored or the local library, where I would check out more books than I could carry each week in the summer. Even in college I loved poking around the library just for fun.
But in 1986 I got a completely different view of the library. I accepted a job working the library of my university, where my husband was in law school. At that time (30+ years ago), working for the university got my husband a spousal discount of 90% off his tuition! And if I had to work somewhere, the library seemed like a good place for a book lover like me.
My job was in the bowels of the library, where books were ordered, received, and cataloged. I worked in the order department, with responsibility for all the standing orders—series in which we had indicated to the publisher we wanted an entire series as they were published.
I was initially wary of the job. It sounded kind of boring. But the more I dug in, the more I enjoyed it. Occasionally I would have to go ask the real librarians—the ones who catalogued the books—a question. I learned a bit about their process, too. Which fascinated me.
Not long after I arrived in the job we began to prepare for automation. The library had purchased an entire new computer system that would now have an online catalog, check out system and cataloguing system. This was still all internal, mind you. The internet didn’t happen for several more years! But we were going “online” in the sense of the word during the late 80s/early 90s.
I remember the thrill of figuring out how to input my paper files into the new system and then helping to barcode books on the shelves. Many of the older people in the library struggled, but I was still in my early twenties and excited about the possibilities of new technology.
Fast forward to my kids’ schooling in a small school where I volunteered in the library. I was able to help them automate because of my experience at the university level.
Now library automation is a given. We can search the catalogues online. Even check out electronic materials without having to leave the house! Maybe that’s why my home library has always been so important to me. Yes, we had to cull it when we lived in the condo, but now that our beloved library wall bookshelves—along with a few others!—are in our house, I’m ready to reorganize the shelves so I can find things.
Enter my inner librarian. The one that sometimes wonders what life would have been like if I’d chosen to purse a master’s in library science instead of writing fiction. An old dream surfaced—and dream to catalog the library of books in my house. Confession: I’ve tried to do this many times in many forms through the years, but nothing was quite right. But surely by now there were apps for this purpose that had been perfected.
And my dream had come true! There are actually many apps that do this, some paid, some free. I ultimately went with Libib, and I love it. It accommodates not only books but music and movies, too! (Be still my organization-loving heart!)
The joy of scanning book barcodes and having my titles in the library on my phone defies words. When I finished all the books in my house that actually had barcodes to scan, I had well over 500 books! I was giddy with delight.
But I realized I have at least that many more that I will have to enter manually due to age or a corrupted or incorrect barcode.
Oh. My.
I guess my inner librarian will get her fill!
It makes me happy to know that with a few clicks I can now avoid book duplicates when I hit a library sale or a used book store. It also thrills me that I can tag the books by location on my shelves, meaning no more random searching when seeking something I know I own! And I can tag my research books by time period and place so that I don’t go looking elsewhere for information already in my possession.
The task is enormous. But I’m taking it a few books at a time. For fifteen or so minutes every weekday I take a break from other things and indulge my inner librarian. What will I do when I have everything organized and recorded? Buy more books, of course! Although, to be honest, that part never stops.
Do you keep up with the book titles you own? What’s your method? Have you ever bought a book then realized later you already own a copy?
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Check your app to see if it will accept input from Amazon or other online sources, several do and it really speeds up the input of all the details.
My high school years (early 70’s) way before any automation was working as a page and to type the card catalog index / cross index cards for new books and a specialized index for American Indian related file.
Met my husband of 46 years at the Library and had my first kiss out behind the building.
What memories you brought back!
Great idea, Marie! I love that you met your husband and had your first kiss at the library! That’s awesome!
Wow! This was great! I love your posts! I totally need to do this. My husband and I are both readers and I am a former literature teacher turned homeschool mom. We actually packed I some of our books a few years ago, thinking to move, and while we still need to move, we are still here. Every so often I can’t find a book, and I am so distraught to discover it is already packed. Anyway, this sounds great, and someday, we need to try this! Looks like fun and would be great…even for the kids’ books!
Yes! And the ones that scan are so easy you can even get your kids to help!
Can you take a trip to Michigan and organize my books for me?
😂 Of course!
Before cellphones had apps, I kept a pocket notebook full of the books I had and it went everywhere with me. If I was out shopping, I could pull it out and look up, by author, whether I had the book. Now I use GoodReads. There’s the ability to mark whether I own the book and I can create various shelves on which to put the books. I track which books I read via NetGalley, which for bookclub, etc. I can even input who recommended the book to me so that once I’ve read it, I can go back to them with my thoughts. But it doesn’t have an area where I can indicate that I’ve loaned it out (and to whom). That would be handy to have.
Yes, a place to mark (and remember!) loans would be great. Goodreads is a great idea, only I fear many of the books I own wouldn’t be on there!
I worked in the library at college during the latter half of the seventies. I met my husband there–he worked in the periodical room. Fun memories!
I have three large bookcases and one small one. I have books organized by groups (biographies, classics, Christian fiction, crafts, etc.). I have the biographies organized by last name of the subject. The classics are grouped together by author. I’m embarrassed to say I have at least three boxes of books in different closets. We had to leave behind two built-in bookcases when we moved here. I did give some books away, but others I couldn’t let go of yet. I need to go through and pull out some more–they need to go to a good home rather than sit tucked away.
That app would be great. A few times I’ve bought a new Kindle book and then found the same book on my shelves.
Well, be at least if it’s on your kindle, too, you can read it whenever you want, right? 😁 Seriously, I love that you met your husband at the library. And I know what you mean about giving away books. When we originally downsized we gave away a ton that we just didn’t have room for. Although I do sometimes wish I had a few of those back …
I have wonderful memories of visiting the local library and bookmobile. My love for reading and writing was given to me by my parents. Our family loved reading and creating stories.
What great memories! I love families who read together. My daughter is just now enjoying reading, which is fun. Of course she’s 30 . . .
Great inspiration for us book collectors. I couldn’t find Libib, but I got Book collector instead. So far, I think it has the same features. I’m excited with the prospect of having an integrated list of all my books in every format. Long work, but maybe with few minutes everyday it can be done in some months. Thank you very much for the inspiration, Anne!!
Yay! Glad you are inspired! There are several apps that do the same thing, so you should be good. Happy cataloguing your books!
This is awesome, Anne, and I loved getting another look at your bookshelves in your house. What a dream! As for your question about keeping up with my book titles, since my husband collects books, I mostly pass mine on to my daughters or friends when I’m finished. Research books are in a library cart in my office and books I plan to read are in a deep drawer (and overflowing onto the shelves) of my nightstand by our bed. But oh, I’d love to have all those books and a great app to catalog them!
I know what you mean about the different shelves, Deb. The built in ones in my office are for research books. And the small shelves in my bedroom are for my to-read books—and yes, it is stuffed full!
Anne, in my larger home, I had a library with ceiling to floor shelves on four walls. (When I downsized, I gave away over 1500 books and kept just about as many.) I manually labeled each one, a letter for a particular section, a number for the shelf, and entered it all in the computer. This was long before apps. This was for research books, non-fiction, not for fiction. It was great. Sadly, that organization didn’t follow me to my smaller home and lots less room for books. I really should try again with the new apps to do it for me.
Wow! You are the queen of home libraries, Robin! What an awesome system! I think I’ll end up with close to your number—and like you, I imagine we’ve given away close to that many as well. You should try an app. Although I was shocked at how many of the books on my shelves were before barcodes.
Oh, an app! Once my books are out of storage…I need to try that!
Do! You’ll love it!