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marie26_gw

Site for cataloguing books, dvd's and CD's

marie26
17 years ago

I copied this post from Katiec on the Cooking Forum. I hope she doesn't mind. I think that if you have extra time, it might be worth cataloguing your books, CD's and DVD's on this site. At least then, once they're organized on the computer, you can make a conscious decision of which ones to get rid of.

Here is her post:

What does a librarian do on her day off? I have a little problem with cookbook overflow...all my shelves are full and there are boxes and piles everywhere. We get such good cookbook donations (and guess who gets first dibs?), I've been keeping my Friends of the Library solvent. Besides being out of room, I've found myself picking up duplicates, so I thought it would be a good idea to weed, organize and inventory.

So I'm cataloging my cookbooks on Library Thing, starting with the piles that were dragged out for the holidays. It's really easy to get records and cover pictures, if available. You can also manually add records (nice for those oddball community cookbooks). I think it'll be very handy to pull up my list when I'm sorting those donations. DH wants to catalog all our books, but we'll see if I make it through my cookbooks.

Here is a link that might be useful: LibraryThing

Comments (5)

  • steve_o
    17 years ago

    I have the same problem with music albums. I finally created a simple text list on my PDA listing artist, album name, and condition (some of the old vinyl is in poor shape). Now, when I run across albums I'm interested in buying, I check to see if I already have it.

    I keep the list on my PDA because that's almost always with me; something on the Internet would not be. If I didn't carry a PDA, I'd print the list (probably in the smallest type I could read) and carry it in my wallet.

  • housekeeping
    17 years ago

    Marie,

    Oh, thank you, thank you! I love that link; I've just spent 4 hours there uploading about 200 of my 6,000 books. It's the best book cataloging app I've ever used! Even a computer moron like me can use it so easily. That was the best holiday present I got!

    Molly~

  • marie26
    Original Author
    17 years ago

    Katie found this site. I'm just the messenger but figured it belonged on the forum.

    I haven't used it yet but am glad to hear that it's easy to use. Once I finish with my second decluttering, I will tackle this.

    Can you save the list you've made to your desktop or copy it to a disc?

  • housekeeping
    17 years ago

    Yes, I believe you can export the data or print it out. I have worked several days with it, and it is still the fastest way to catalog that I have ever used. I also sent for the little electronic bar code reader ($15) which will make entry of any recent publication a breeeze: just scan and click!

    Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on my mood) most of my books (and I have 6,000+ of them) are much older so no bar code, or even ISBN, to rely on. I'm finding that I have to hand enter the data on those books. So it's a wash as far as saving time there. One can upload certain formats of catalog data (not mine, alas) so if you've already started you may ahead of the game.

    If you have less than 200 items, so you can use the site for free. More than that, it's $10/year to continue uploading or $25 for a lifetime of uploads. Once I get all my backlog done it should be easy to keep it updated.

    I'm still loving it, though spending waaay too much playing with my books while I'm at it.

    Molly~

  • Sunshine
    17 years ago

    I got my cue:cat (kitty cat shaped bar code reader) yesterday. I'm off to catalog my books at school. When the school system lost 3 schools (2 to Katrine/Rita and one to lightening strike fire) they wanted to know what you had in your room. Good grief, I teach reading how about over 4,000 books in my classroom library and all of those teaching reading books. The insurance company wants and inventory tooo every time a hurricane eats my house.
    I can't wait to make a list now before the task wasn't worth it just too much work. I love library thing!
    Sunshine