Things We Love: LibraryThing

Our family loves books! 


I'm a master at stating the obvious. 


The family library reached the point of requiring serious intervention in order to fully utilize the resources we had collected. 

Not having a dedicated "library" like Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady," we had to come up with a solution that would work with our space.


I needed a system that would allow me to find the books we needed, when we needed them. I don't remember for sure, but I think I did an online search for information and suggestions for organizational ideas.


I had never heard of LibraryThing.com before, but it came up and, after checking it out, I paid for a lifetime membership! (A whopping $25) 


What is it, you ask?


It is an online database for books! You create an account, a very simple process, and then you can begin entering your books. I actually ordered a little USB scanner ($15) for the books that had bar codes. That way, you can scan it and all the information for that title is entered into your database. You'd be amazed how many facts are tied to that little bar code. It's like magic to have the author, illustrator, publisher, etc., just pop up on your screen. If you have a large number of books with bar codes, the price of the scanner is well worth it!


Many of our books are older and don't have bar codes. For those, you simply type in the ISBN or Library of Congress number, and the search will bring up your title. Sometimes there are multiple choices that come up for one number. In that case you locate the one that matches your volume and click on it. The information is added to your collection.


For the books that predated ISBN's and Library of Congress numbers, you have the option of manually entering all the information. In that case, you can enter as much or as little as you choose, whatever serves the purpose for which you need it.


Each entry also has the option of tagging your book. This is where it gets really good. For our purposes, I need to be able to locate all the books on a specific topic. As I entered each book, I tagged it with the topic or time period that I could later locate. I have a stack of index cards that have each tag number on it and the shelf location for that tag in our house.


Once you have your books entered, Library Thing allows you to search your data base in any number of ways. You could search by author, or by tag, or by title, etc.


There is no limit on the number of books you can enter. You could also use it for dvd's/blue rays, if you wanted. Anything you want to catalog or quantify can be entered in a system that works for what you need. 


For those of us who have large libraries, the data base also serves as a record for insurance purposes, just in case. 


Because our library was large (about 5000), the initial job of entering the books was enormous. Once that was behind us, however, it is so simple to maintain and add new volumes. When we bring home a new book, we enter the information and then shelve it according to our shelving system, and that's it. It's wonderful.


As a homeschooler, I was really frustrated keeping the resources organized and accessible so that they could be efficiently and easily accessed. I might know I had a book on a particular subject or time period, and then be unable to find it at a moment's notice when the kids' interest was piqued. It's not good to miss that window. Now, all I have to do is pull up our collection on Library Thing and search by title, author, or tag and then, according to that tag we know where to look for the book.


One more resource that might bless you: Library Thing