Organizing personal libraries

Many of my blogging friends have extensive libraries. Organizing them can be a nightmare. Mine is a mess since I've gone back to school. In this cataloging course, I had to look at Integrated Library Systems and found some that are open-source so they have potential for large personal libraries. The one I researched extensively, Evergreen, is for public libraries that are consortium members, so that is not really an option. However, the second one on my list, Koha, was developed for the smaller library in mind and I'm thinking I might give it a try at home. You can see what the interface looks like by choosing a library from their showcase.

Delicious Library 2. This is really interesting looking and has a lot of visual appeal, but it's apparently only for Macs. Try it for free. $40 if you like it. Media Man is a windows alternative. Also $40.

Collectorz.com Book Collector. Looks very much like Delicious, but has a $30-50 price tag for the standard/pro versions. There is a free trial and you can publish your book collection online.

BiblioteQ. I like the screen shots on this one. Some of these just don't show many, but this one gives several behind-the-scenes views. This one also mentions Z39.50 protocol which I've not seen too many places. Also open source.

Books organized by color. The idea of this absolutely drives me nuts, but it sure is nice to look at.



Tim Challies describes his personal library. I imagine it's much like many of the bloggers I know.

Comments

  1. Scripture ZealotDecember 22, 2010 at 8:49 AM

    Very interesting post.

    I have a question. I may have posted this on Facebook. It's software to keep notes, quotes, definitions, etc. I can't find it now anywhere and have no idea what it's called. Do you recall that or use anything that really good and that could be exported to other formats?

    My library is so small I go by subject and size within subjects. I have Jesus, Suffering, Prayer, God, Devotionals, Introductions and Commentaries in Bible order, Books about the Bible or reading it, Exegesis and Hermenutics, Greek and then part of a shelf for books I don't like a lot. I even still have a free LibraryThing account. Someday I'll have to organize better though so this is a good post.
    Jeff

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bitsy GriffinDecember 22, 2010 at 11:37 AM

    Is Evernote what you are thinking of?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bitsy GriffinDecember 22, 2010 at 11:39 AM

    I've used library thing too btw.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Scripture ZealotDecember 22, 2010 at 12:04 PM

    That may be it. Thank you. I'll start trying it out.
    Jeff

    ReplyDelete

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