organize book collection

How I did it: Since I don't understand all my languages fluently, I first sorted my books by language (mostly English, French, German, Latin, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese), then divided them into subcategories of fiction, reference, poetry, drama, auto/biography, memoir, history, religion, mythology, philosophy, science, math, music, art, craft, dance, and cooking.

    I put the literature subcategories (fiction, poetry, drama, auto/biography, memoir) in alphabetical order by author (or in the case of auto/biographies, alphabetical order by person of subject), then, in the case I had more than one book by a single author, by year of initial publication, or, in the case of a series, in the logical order of the series. In the case of having more than one edition of the same book, I organized them by year of individual publication and kept them together.

    I organized history books by civilization, placing the books of the broadest topics first (world history, for example), and following with specific civilizations in chronological order and/or geographical location, depending on what made the most sense. In the cases of books on specific history topics within a civilization, I ordered them by topic in the most logical progression of topics in order to make finding a book intuitive to me, since it is my personal library. In the cases of books on specific history topics across civilizations, I placed them in logical order as before, but near the broader history books, such as world history. Religion, mythology, and philosophy books* were organized within their respective categories first by civilization/geographic area of origin, and secondly by chronological origin.

     Science and math were organized in respective reductionist spectra; that is to say, in the science section, general science first, then physics, chemistry, biology, botany, zoology, anthropology, and psychology. Within each category I arranged the books by relation of subjects that was most intuitive/logical to me. Math books were ordered by increasing complexity and specificity.

    Music books were divided into the instructional, historical, and sheet music, and the historical were arranged by era and/or composer and/or movement. Instructional music books were arranged by instrument and difficulty level. Sheet music was arranged alphabetically by artist. Art books were divided into the instructional and the historical and arranged, in the historical section, by artistic movement, then alphabetically by artist. The instructional was arranged by technique. Dance books were arranged by technique. Cookbooks were arranged by cuisine.

* Actually, my math, science, mythology, religion, and philosophy books are arranged all together because my depth study is in the connections between mysticism and the like and the basest scientific explanations of the way the universe, &c, works.

Lessons & tips: Put your books in the order that makes the most sense to you, unless you mostly make your books available to other people as a library, in which case, I'd recommend a simple standard system like the Dewey Decimal.

Resources: Delicious Library 2 for Mac is a good choice for anyone who wants an interactive catalog for their books, movies, music, and video games and it integrates with Mail, Address Book, and iCal to make notes of borrowers and assign due dates and send reminder e-mails if you'd like.

Dec 30, 2008, 04:04PM PST | 0 comments