My home library is getting out of control. There, I’ve said it. That’s the first step, right? I’ve admitted my problem.
My wife has been after me to go shelf-shopping for about a year now but thanks to my superhuman ability of put-offing-ness combined with the fortress-like layers of denial that cradle my book-buying habits I really haven’t given the whole idea very much thought. Besides, they kind of look nice in piles all over the house.
Except. That. They’re. All. Over. The. House.
I need some help. Luckily, there’s people out there that want to help me. Like librarian, Katie Coblentz. She wants to help me. You too. She’s written Your Home Library: The Complete System for Organizing, Locating, Referencing, and Maintaining Your Book Collection (Amazon link). That’s a long title, Katie. Let’s see what the book description says:
This comprehensive kit draws upon the expertise of one of the world’s greatest libraries, the only facility of its kind with both world-class research and circulating collections. It includes a CD containing custom software to organize and record your book collection by title, author, subject, location on your bookshelf, and numerous additional useful categories. Also included are beautiful bookplates, an instruction manual, and an instructive volume on creating and organizing home libraries, written by an experience librarian. The 96-page book celebrates the myriad of joys of being a book lover, and addresses such issues as evaluating and organizing a collection, and keeping it in place with bookends and shelves; caring for books, and the art of loaning books that are actually returned.
Hmm. I probably won’t be able to use the software on my Mac. That’s not good. I still want to read it, though. And that last item, “the art of loaning books that are actually returned,” sounds useful – useful for people that lend books to me, I’m terrible at returning books.
Your Home Library – via Kimbooktu. (You should be subscribing to Kimbooktu, by the way. Awesome blog.)
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