The conclusion of the matter

(at least for now...)

Since you have all been so patiently waiting, diligently evaluating, weeding and sorting all your books, here is how to display, acquire and safely lend books.

Shelf labeling

Now that you have organized your books, give them the dignity of shelf labels. You can purchase very nice products at Demco or Highsmith, or you might fashion your own with cardstock, either hand-written on cardstock or printed in appropriate font. Whatever you do, make sure you can adjust the positioning of the label on the shelf as necessary.


Acquisition
Self-interview questions when considering a book purchase (yes, even if the book only costs $0.10 at a library booksale) (Questions 1-8 were taken from The Bloomsbury Review; I will personally be asking #9 for the rest of my life. Thankfully, my Darling doesn’t usually ask.)

1. Do I need this book? This book, right now?
2. Is this the best book on the subject?
3. Will it make me a better person, a happier person?
4. Can I find it in a library?
5. Do I already have a copy of this book? Is this copy better?
6. Do I have room for this book?
7. Do I have money to take care of this book? (i.e., shelf space)
8. Is this a great book?
9. Can I justify this purchase to my husband?

A few places where I like to get books:
(A very cruel thing to do to people who already have more books than they need)

www.abe.com of course
If it's in print, and I have to have it, and someone kindly gives me a gift certificate for Christmas... This is also a good place to find reviews, both peer and professional, if you don’t subscribe to Horn Book or School Library Journal.

Givens Books in Lynchburg, VA.
I’m all in favor of supporting local independent bookstores. They will gladly place special orders for you, make recommendations, etc. If you're looking for character, try local independents.

Borders/Barnes and Noble.
I admit, I like looking at their bargain books, but I am getting much more picky these days. You should never feel obligated to buy a classic just because it has a bargain sticker on it. Make sure it is of unique benefit to you.

Where to find out about new books:
- Ask your librarian! (Do Like a Duck Does or Kitten Red, Yellow, Blue might be currently checked out)
- Scan the new books shelf at your local library
- If you want reviews, read Horn Book or SLJ (ask a librarian if they have copies you can scan). You can also check Amazon.com
- Many magazines have lists of “great new books” and authors you should become familiar with. (Ignore 99/9% of the celebrity titles they promote. I’m rarely impressed with them.)
- The New York Times Parent’s Guide to the Best Books for Children
- Check your library catalog homepage for links to the Boston-Globe Horn Book awards, along with many others. Don't limit yourself to the Newbery and Caldecott prestige.

Lending out your books
You’re a homeschooler. You have just finished a unit on the Middle Ages, and have an enviable collection that you have gathered from library booksales, discount bookstores, and even chosen from catalogs. Now a family that you have known for years wants to cover the same material. You see them every month at support group meetings and field trips. Safe, right?

You’ve just read a great book that has inspired you deeply. Insisting to your friend that she’ll love it as much as you did and it will revolutionize the way she cleans house, loves her husband, raises her kids, flips pancakes and sees the world, you lend it to her, knowing that she’ll read it as quickly as you did and return it next week.

I hate to create mistrust among friends, but there’s no quicker way to lose a book or create tension in a friendship. Believe the testimony of one who has lent (and lost) many, and returned borrowed items two years later. There has to be a system of accountability. Why do you think libraries charge fines? Not because they depend on them for salaries and book budgets, but to make sure that items are returned in a timely manner.

Bloomsbury Review Booklover’s Guide has a sample contract (211). A simpler approach would be to keep a register, whether it’s a notebook, index card file, receipt log or in your computer database. But as much as you trust anyone, write down the title, borrower, the borrower’s phone number, the date of lending, and perhaps a general agreed-upon date for return. This creates accountability and demonstrates that you do, indeed, care about the book’s return. If the borrower is not prepared to read it in the allotted amount of time, suggest that they write the title in their "books-to-read" notebook with top priority. (You all keep a list of books you intend to read, right?) Or offer the book again when you know your friend is going on a long trip and is more likely to have time to read, since you believe it will matter so much.

The Conclusion of the Matter
Start with one shelf. Before you remove the books, look at it and evaluate what your general classifications might be. Go through a box. Are there any that are not entitled to an investment of time and space and would be of better service elsewhere? When you have determined your essential collection, begin with the first stage, organizing, and carry it through. Make notes of your classifications so that you can be consistent later. If some of your books must remain in boxes, so be it, but make sure you know where each item can be found. “Somewhere” isn’t satisfactory.

Later you can indulge in the task of making a list, once you are comfortable with each book in its home. Keep it simple, so you can keep up with it. You may enlist the help of someone who can be trusted with maintaining the system once it is introduced, so that you do not give up hope if you fall behind.

Introduce yourself to your personal library, your newly settled companion. Enjoy your fresh acquaintance and role as its guardian, proud of your achievement, and wait for your bibliophile friends recruit your expertise in conquering their own gathered assembly.


Select Bibliography
Basbanes, Nicholas A. A gentle madness: bibliophiles, bibliomanes, and the eternal passion for books. New York: H. Holt and Co., 1995.

Challies, Tim. “How to Organize a Personal Library.”

Coblentz, Kathie. Guide to Organizing a Home Library. Philadelphia: Running Press, 2003.

Ellis, Estelle, Caroline Seebohm and Christopher Simon Sykes. At home with books: how booklovers live with and care for their libraries. New York: C. Southern Books, 1995.

Raabe, Tom. Biblioholism: the literary addiction. Golden: Fulcrum, 1991.

Rabinowitz, Harold, and Rob Kaplan, eds. A Passion for Books. New York: Random House, 1999.

Rosenberg, Margot. The care and feeding of books old and new: a simple repair manual for book lovers. New York: Thomas Dunne, 2002.

Wagner, Patricia Jean. The Bloomsbury Review booklover's guide: a collection of tips, techniques, anecdotes, controversies & suggestions for the home library. Denver: Bloomsbury Review, 1996.

Earlier posts in the series:
Home Library Organization, Part 1
Home Library Organization, Part 2
Home Library Organization, Part 3
Home Library Organization, Part 4
Home Library Organization, Part 5 

Home Library Organization, Part 5: Some classification ideas

Need to catch up on the series?
Home Library Organization, Part 1
Home Library Organization, Part 2
Home Library Organization, Part 3
Home Library Organization, Part 4



Should I use LOC? Dewey? My Own?
Don’t feel tied to either. Your private library may not have the same emphasis as a public institution. Here are some ideas to structure your launch. Be creative—whatever you do, make it your own!

Alphabetical Book Classification Scheme (sample headings)
A - Art
B - Biography
C - Cooking (properly "cookery")
D -
E - Education
F - Fine arts, recreation
G - Geography, travel, customs
H - History
I -
J - Juvenile
K -
L - Literature
M - Music
N - Natural Science
O -
P - Poetry
Q - Quotations
R - Religion
S - Science
T - Tonsils
UV -
W -
XYZ - Zoology

Library of Congress
A – General Works
B – Philosophy. Psychology. Religion
C – Auxiliary Sciences of History
D – History (General) and History of Europe
E – History: America
F – History: America
G – Geography. Anthropology. Recreation
H – Social Sciences
J – Political Science
K – Law
L – Education
M – Music and Books on Music
N – Fine Arts
P – Language and Literature
Q – Science
R – Medicine
S – Agriculture
T – Technology
U – Military Science
V – Naval Science
Z – Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources (General)

Dewey
000 - Generalities (reference, computers, museums, etc.)
100 - Philosophy and psychology (ethics, paranormal phenomena)
200 - Religion (Bibles, religions of the world)
300 - Social sciences (sociology, anthropology, politics, economics, government,
education, customs, and especially folklore and fairy tales)
400 - Language (linguistics, language learning, specific languages)
500 - Natural sciences and mathematics (general science, mathematics, astronomy,
physics, chemistry, earth sciences, palaeontology, biology, genetics, botany,
zoology)
600 - Technology (applied sciences) (medicine, psychiatry, applied physics, engineering,
agriculture, home economics, management, accounting, chemical engineering, etc.)
700 - The arts (art, architecture, photography, music, games, sport)
800 - Literature and rhetoric
900 - Geography and history


Other Possibilities:
Science/Creation Module
I found this model on the Internet several years ago, organized by a woman whose family library must be substantial. She is a Christian, mom and homeschooler, and I appreciate her original and very detailed planning. She organizes her non-fiction by the seven Days of Creation. Just another example of how you can be comprehensive through other approaches.

Me? To tell the truth, although I love classifying and cataloging, I haven't yet organized my entire collection, though I'm working on my Mom's when I go home to visit. Of all of the above, I would probably use some Dewey, but mostly broad categories, as long as authors and fairy tales are grouped together. Let me know what works for you!

Next: Shelf labeling and acquisition. We're almost done!

Home Library Organization Conclusion

Home Library Organization: Part 4

Catch the first parts of the series: 
Home Library Organization, Part 1
Home Library Organization, Part 2 
Home Library Organization, Part 3

Classification and Cataloging
“Classification refers to the system you use to organize your books and their contents; cataloging is the location of the book in the system…The main difference [between a home library and a publicly accessible library] is that your library must please only you, while public and academic libraries must please everybody” (141)

“You can create a library that is a map of your world.” (145)

“Home librarians have been known to do something that accurately resembles the amorphous nature of the world. It is, to the best of my knowledge, almost totally unknown in the world of the real library. Home librarians acquire more than one copy of a book, and then put the different copies in different places!” (146) (this works well when Charlotte’s Web is one child’s favorite, and then Grandma gives a copy to the other child for Christmas.)

As you evaluate your shelves, develop a list of classifications that could be used for sorting. Use broad categories; you can subdivide later. My collection, for example, consists of numerous meta-books (books about books), books about children’s books, fairy tales, classics, poetry, picture books, easy readers, and various forms of fiction. As you go through your stacks of books and determine their classification, make sure you keep a list of your subject headings so you can maintain consistency for searching and organizing purposes.

Your Method
“Your system for organizing your library should allow you to change your mind frequently. Whether it be a computer program or pieces of paper in a file folder, you should choose tools that allow you to expand your ideas about your books.” (152)

“What information do you need to capture in your cataloging system?

“The basic bibliographic information includes title, author or editor, publisher, and the year the current edition was published or copyrighted. Home librarians often like to keep track of when and where they acquired a book, the price, and a personal annotation, which could include their opinions of the book or of the person who gave it to them.” (152)

“In any formal classification system, the most important category is the one marked “Other.” This is where you put your ambiguities, your one-of-a-kind items, your leftovers, and your painfully new ideas. Then, as you play with the data in this category, you will discover new relationships among the pieces of information, and if you don’t find an established category to put them in, you will create a new one.” (153)

Make sure everyone in the house has responsibility for his/her own library. Books ought to be where they will be easily used. Why would you keep cookbooks in the den? Each member of the family can learn to organize the books they want to have near to them for use. (Computer and reference books in the office, bedtime stories and favorite fiction in each child’s bedroom, et cetera.)

Cataloging Your Collection
Free: Excel
Not readily searchable, but you can create a list with author, title, publisher, classification, binding, price, where purchased, shelf location, whether or not you’ve read it, and brief comments. Limited, but basic. Allows you to organize alphabetically, then by classification.

NYPL/Running Press Your Home Library software kit
For those who are committed, need lending records, and want to store more detail in a searchable database. Kit includes binder and handbook. Available through Running Press, NYPL, or Amazon.com. It was produced five years ago, so I think there are some improvements over the software, but the handbook by Kathy Coblentz (NYPL cataloger) is well-done.

$10-$25: www.LibraryThing.com
This is my new personal favorite, as I have just completed classifying, cataloging, and processing the church library and intend to approach my own collection in the coming months. It’s a great site, and you can even order a “cat” scanner so you don’t have to manually input all those ISBNs. Tim Challies of “Discerning Reader” fame (see bibliography) uses LT and explains more thoroughly how it works.

www.shelfari.com
Another site where you can organize and share your books with the world, though I have not yet thoroughly explored this one. Anyone care to comment?

Where to find information about most books:
Look at the copyright information on the back of the title page for cataloging data as supplied by the Library of Congress. You can also find subject headings which may be helpful in organizing; just make sure that whatever you use is consistent. If you can’t think of the right subject heading, by all means visit your library in person or online! Ask your librarian to show you how to find the appropriate subject heading in the online catalog.

What's next? Possible classification schemes, if you want to be formal about it. Then we have to talk about further collection development...how to further manage your personal library.


Home Library Organization, Part 5 
Home Library Organization Conclusion

Home Library Organization, Part 3

 Catch up!
Home Library Organization, Part 1
Home Library Organization, Part 2 

Deacquisition
Um, yes…also known as “culling” or “weeding.” This has always been a painful subject, but it is true that some books may have outlived their usefulness to you.

The purpose of weeding is to cultivate the quality of your collection. I have found myself freed from obligation by giving myself "permission" to not own a book. (This also applies when considering a purchase.)

There are good reasons to weed. There are good reasons not to weed. There are many personal considerations to weigh: quality, shelf space, cost of maintenance, usefulness, value, etc. Libraries weed for good reason, and although you may have taken advantage of their castoffs, you may find yourself ready to improve the appearance and usability of your own collection.

My primary rules for evaluating a book to keep (or acquire) are:
1. “You shall have no other gods before Me.”
2. “You shall not covet.”
This puts everything in perspective.

My secondary question is: Why do I have this book?
1. “Because it was free (or $0.25) is not a good answer. Is it valuable enough to your collection development purposes that you would have paid at least half price for it? Is it worthy of taking up shelf space? Does it validate buying new bookshelves (or renting a self-storage unit) to make room?
2. “Because I paid good money for it” (half or full price) is not adequate either. Have you (your tastes, interests, circumstances, etc.) changed since then? Have you acquired a comparatively superior item? If you are unsure, sort and evaluate. You do not need multiple collections of H. C. Andersen’s fairy tales unless they are either especially unique or you are an avowed collector of his works, which should be stated in your personal policy. If a book does not meet criteria, put it in the “sell” pile.

Wagner recommends the MUSTY model (the succeeding comments are mine):
- Misleading, inaccurate, out of date. Unless you’re an official depository for books containing scientific theories that have since been disproved, don’t feel guilty about discarding books about NASA from 1975.
- Ugly. Books ought to be beautiful, if at all possible. Books that are attractive will appeal to readers.
- Superseded. If a better book comes along, don’t feel obligated to keep a former edition or favorite unless you are sure it has lingering value.
- Trivial. People know I like books, and with the best of intentions they sometimes give me volumes that I really have no use for. Remember their thoughtfulness, thank them sincerely, but if you can find a better home for them, you will all be better off.
- Your collection: This book is no longer appropriate for your current passion. If you are finished learning everything there is to know about raising orchids and have moved on to quilting, donate the orchid books to a local club who can use them before they grow misleading, inaccurate and out of date for anyone else.

Consider whether you have read it already and intend to do so again, or if you haven’t read it, will you? Really and honestly? Consider the less fortunate, someone who needs to read a good book.

Become a literary charity. You have such good taste in books, shouldn’t you share with your friends? This is also good justification for purchasing duplicates at library booksales. I used to own about seven copies of C. S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces, but I am down to two. The rest have been loaned out, and I’ve forgotten to whom, but I can always buy more. On the other hand, I have given away sixteen copies of Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss because that is a book that must be read repeatedly over a lifetime, and no kindred spirit of mine ought to live without that book. (Actually, only fifteen of those copies were my own to give away—I still owe one to my mother, having donated hers to a friend of mine!)

So having torn out your fingernails and shed a few drops of blood, what do you do with these books before you change your mind? You could sell them or donate them. Or…look around you. You are surrounded by people who love books and who all have the same happy problem and would love to make it worse! Agree to meet for a book swap (make sure food is included in the plan!) and set up tables where your friends can feed their addiction. Is this helping? If you have weeded your shelves to the point where you have room, you might return with new members of your literary family (make sure anything you pick up meets your criteria). Anything that’s left can be donated. (There are more good suggestions in Wagner’s book.)

You might also choose to give selections from your collection to people who would appreciate them as you would. Your thoughtfulness in matchmaking book with reader is second only to introducing a worthy man to his future wife.

Once you have limited your collection to what you really want to keep, it's time to decide how to make the best use of it.

So how do you actually organize what's left? Coming soon in Part 4.


Home Library Organization, Part 4
Home Library Organization, Part 5 
Home Library Organization Conclusion

Home Library Organization, Part 2

See Part 1 of our Home Library Organization Series.

The Beginnings of Home Library Organization
Being lovers of books, either for learning or as objects, there is a tendency to accumulate vast quantities of “someday I mights” and “I’ve always wanted tos” in addition to the “essential must-haves.” You may not have time to read them all in the next thirty years, but you hope someone in the family will. How can you resist attending another library booksale when you can easily multiply your collection for the same price as two or three new hardcover volumes?

When the time comes that you are hunting in multiple locations for the sundry titles you have collected on pioneer living and find duplicate copies (some battered, others in more suitable condition), but know you lack several that you lent to a fellow homeschooler or biblioholic two years ago, it may be time to organize.

Are you ready for another major project when your days are already consumed with obligations? When you consider that the average bookshelf holds 40-70 books, multiply the number of your shelves by an average of 55. The results may be discouraging. How much time can you afford to invest and remain committed to the project? The following principles, drawn from the experiences of book lovers, collectors and professional librarians, can help you manage the project without becoming overwhelmed.


The Reason for Organizing
As a personal collection expands into a home library, there follows an obligation to maintain order. Your books are of no use if you are the only one who knows what you own and where to find it. Function requires predictability.

This should not mean that you have to take a cataloging class and affix your spines with classification numbers. Nor should you feel obligated to lose the wonderful spontaneity that comes with your command over the objects, to keep a stack by your bed, or left out tantalizingly on the table. It does mean that there is purpose to grouping your Lenskis, and to knowing that if your interests tend towards colonial America, you should not have to wander to find the titles you have gathered over the years and scattered through bookshelves around the house.

Be proud of your books. They are beautiful, lending color and decorum to any room. But where will their attractiveness prove most successful? In seeing them removed from their shelves and used regularly.


What you have, and Why You Want to Have It.You must have space for your books. Shelves or boxes, your goal is to know the content and purpose for your collection. Have you accumulated beyond your management capability? Has your focus changed? The ages and needs of your children? What are your present and anticipated requirements for your library?

As you approach your shelves to begin to organize them, evaluate:
- Why did you buy this book?
- Has it served its purpose?
- Will you need it again?
- Is there a better book on the subject?
- Is there someone else who can use this?
- Do I have enough room?

It is better to develop a high quality, functional, focused collection, rather than have lots of books that are of little use. Spend your organizing time and energy on the best of what you have.

A lesson on "deacquisition", also known as "weeding," is next...

Home Library Organization, Part 3
Home Library Organization, Part 4
Home Library Organization, Part 5 
Home Library Organization Conclusion

Of Making Many Books there is No End: Home Library Organization, Part 1

Per Betsy's request, I am posting a series on "How to Organize your Personal Library" by a literarian-librarian-bibliophile. This is based on a presentation that I gave to a homeschool group in Iowa when I was a professional librarian about four years ago, though I have updated my thoughts based on what I have learned since then. I will be referring to several helpful books and websites in the process, and welcome all fresh insights!
I will begin with Why You Should Organize: The Theory, The Fact We Prefer to Deny, and The Gathered Assembly.

WHY YOU SHOULD ORGANIZE
The Theory:
(from Patricia Jean Wagner, The Bloomsbury Review booklover's guide: a collection of tips, techniques, anecdotes, controversies & suggestions for the home library. Denver: Bloomsbury Review, 1996.)
“Booklovers read, and, therefore, think they know everything. They think they can milk cows, fly planes, grow orchids, and build sturdy, beautiful, inexpensive bookcases, relying only on the information they find in a book. If this were true, booklovers would be the richest, most physically attractive, longest-lived, and most influential group of people on the planet.” (Wagner 111)

The Fact We Prefer to Deny: (also from Wagner, p. 120)
“If your collection is growing, and you don’t weed at the same rate at which you acquire books, and you don’t build more shelves, you will run out of space.” (Wagner 120)

So how do we organize what we want to keep?

The Gathered Assembly:
Although many objects may be gathered to form a collection, books are unique because their identity and content may go a long ways in defining the multi-faceted character of their keeper. One’s past, formative reading is mingled with his present interests and future intentions, building thought upon thought and inviting conversation with any who observe the nature of the collection, or between oneself and the author. How else could you have tea with someone you have never met in person, whether dead or alive? Would you expect to form an intimate acquaintance with C. S. Lewis or Christina Rossetti and summon them to into your presence at will? Even kings are limited in such jurisdiction.

Collecting is a curious appetite. Is it the hunting or the having which brings pleasure? The hunt provides excuse to inquire at every bookshop whether there are any titles by Mrs. E. Prentiss available, any unusual illustrators of Alice in Wonderland, the potential for discovering the unanticipated, the developing of new acquaintances. But to have is to hold, with a story to tell when the volume is admired, the spreading of one’s reign, the satisfaction of possessing a pearl of great price.

(To be continued...)

Home Library Organization, Part 2
Home Library Organization, Part 3
Home Library Organization, Part 4
Home Library Organization, Part 5 
Home Library Organization Conclusion