Any Librarians In The Phamily? Suggestions Pls

[Aya Sophia]

Hello library things, tech-savvy or otherwise:

 

Any suggestions for cataloging a small library (perhaps 500 titles)?  Opensource tool "Evergreen" was suggested but it's clearly used for big libraries and is way too involved and complicated. 

 

Merci....

[CatherineM]

I have an app on my phone called book lists. You just scan the barcode with the camera on your phone. Very helpful to keep from buying the same book twice. We have almost 1000 books.

[CatholicCid]

What type of library is it? Is it your personal library or one that will have an open circulation?

 

For my personal library, I use http://www.librarything.com

 

[Gabriela]

I use Mendeley, but that doesn't tell me where I put each book. Although it could, I guess, if I entered a note. It's free.

 

http://www.mendeley.com/

Edited October 4, 2013 by curiousing

[Aya Sophia]

Thanks for the tips - I love these internet archives-research-cataloguing tools.  Some favs:

http://plants.jstor.org/ (all things botanical), http://archive.org/index.php (everything), http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=6 (the Treaty of Paris at your fingertips, for goodness' sake!)  Also http://www.ccel.org/ for their offerings of classic Catholic texts.  But I digress....

 

Re: the small library in mind - It is a monastic library in the enclosure.  I said 500 titles but it could be 1 or 2K - just know it's not huge like a public library or library with extensive circulation. 

 

So, cataloguing would involve physically tagging the books (many of them pre-ISBN) and having the catalogue available on a pc or laptop.  Would need to be on a harddrive so there would be no need to go to the interent.  Are there still tools and aps available out there for creating a database for use on one's harddrive?

[blazeingstar]

Honestly, if they are pre-ISBN and you want to remain offline you might be better off with an excell spreasheet or creating an unique identifier and using Access.

[Aya Sophia]

Yes, roll out the creaky old apps, dust them off and hope for the best.  (Seriously being left behind here!)  Thanks....

[morostheos]

I personally would use Access to create custom database, but if you are not familiar with Access or they don't have a copy, it is not user-friendly or cheap.

 

I have a good friend that is a librarian at a small seminary, I can ask her if she has any suggestions.

[morostheos]

Actually, Microsoft has a free library template for Access available for download: 

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/desktop-lending-library-TC010206883.aspx?CategoryID=CT101428241033&av=ZAC000

[AnneLine]

AyaSophia, if this is a fairly traditional community, they may not have or want to have either an internet or computer based system. 

 

I am wondering if you might not want to use the old Dewey Decimal System.  Dewey is an international system that predates both of those, and this link explains how to set up a small, personal library using that system.  It would be easy to put together a list of the books using something like excel to go along with this as a way of searching fast.

 

This link explains how to set it up....

 

http://www.ehow.com/how_2064763_personal-library-dewey-decimal-system.html

 

This is a link to a poster that shows the major classifications....

http://www2.houstonisd.org/29013668/images/dewey.jpg

 

And this gives you a list of every classification you could want!

http://www.library.illinois.edu/ugl/about/dewey.html

 

Most US libraries now use the U.S. Library of Congress system, but I really preferred the Dewey... once you got the hang of it, finding stuff was SOOOOO easy!

 

You might also pm Sr. Mary Catharine of the Summit Dominicans to see if she can tell you how they have their library classified....

[Spem in alium]

My mum's a librarian but probably doesn't know much about the apps. I could ask her if you wanted, though :)