Looking for ways to organize and catalog my physical library(and ebook as well). Have northward of 900+ physical books and my home organizational skills are abysmal when it comes to that. I am not savvy enough with databases and even Excel would be beyond me with that magnitude and what I wish to do with it. Wanting some purpose made help with an easy UI.

So looking for some help in that regard. I know Goodreads is the main one people use but not sure that is what I am really looking for. Not looking for the social aspect so much as I am the online catalog part. Where I have been recommended Librarything.

Does anyone have any experience with Librarything? Likes/dislikes?

Are you trying to catelog them. If so, Goodreads won't help. It is good for keeping up with what you have read and recommending new books.

I just shelf them by author's names

Like caleblyn said, Goodreads is for logging what you have read and for giving you recommendations. I LOVE goodreads and am semi-obsessed with it. I read over 100 books a year and really enjoy getting recommendations, following authors, discussing books in their forums, learning about new books, etc. I cannot imagine trying to just catalog 900+ books.

From looking at it some librarything might be a good bet for you. I would suggest looking into it.

Now, if you have 'read' all 900 books, then you could potentially log them all in Goodreads (even including the date you started and finished reading them, a star rating, and you can write a review for each one). You can even log all of them as "want to read" and have them sit in your goodreads library. There is an import/export option where you can have Goodreads generate a CSV file of all your books (which is kind of fun), or you can bring up a list of your books from a CSV, XLS, or TXT file.

VanZandt92 said:

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900 books? Time for clean out.

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Not if that's your thing. My wife convinced me to toss a bunch of CDs during our last move. I have regretted it weekly since then.

Geriatric Punk said:

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VanZandt92 said:

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900 books? Time for clean out.

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Not if that's your thing. My wife convinced me to toss a bunch of CDs during our last move. I have regretted it weekly since then.

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No way,... That's crazy.

I have almost 2000 CDs that I have collected over the last 25 years and I uploaded them to Google Music.... Took over two weeks but free and the best thing I have ever done. Now I have them there, on amazon music, and on two physical hard drives so I'm pretty sure my lifetime collection of music is safe.

Too many CDs though so I had to throw away the cases but kept the liner notes and actual CDs which fit in 4-5 shoe boxes that are in the attic right now. I'd cry if I had to throw away my CDs. I have so many out of print.

I think I have a few hundred ebooks and Calibre works pretty well for me for storing them. Although they probably aren't as high priority for me as my music, probably.

I most of my physical books with my last move to halfprice books. About two hundred books got me around 35 bucks. It was pretty sad and sick.

Mrs GeographyAg here, I use three things: Library Thing, GoodReads, and an iPhone app called Book Crawler.

I have over 3000 books, so I needed a good system to keep up with what I own, where in the house it is located, and what I've read. Here's the deal with each one:

BookCrawler is easy to use. It has a built-in scanner for easy cataloging. It backs up and syncs using Dropbox so I can keep the same info on my iPhone and iPad.

LibraryThing is best for serious online cataloging. I started with it and like the tags, adding details, and the interface. It also has some social areas for discussing books. It is really the best for a real catalog.

You can use Book Crawler to create your database, export it to a CSV file, and then upload it to Library Thing.

GoodReads is really only good for social stuff - sharing what you read with your friends/followers, imho. The cataloging and tagging is weak. It's not set up for that. It's really for keeping up with what you've read, not what you own. It has an app, but I don't use it much.

The Book Crawler App says it will link and upload your books to Good Reads but I've never tried that so I don't know how well it works.

Once I got all of my books catalogued it's just been a matter of adding them as I buy and read them.

When I buy a book I add it to BC and LT. After I read it I add to GR.

HTH

Thank you for that explanation - I have a fraction of the books you do but it is still a lot of books. I have been wanted to tackle the cataloguing project but can't fathom doing it in Excel!

I'm a teacher and use http://www.booksource.com/content/ClassroomOrganizer.aspx

I don't know if non educators can use it but it's pretty great. Your can log books by shelf location and scan them in using the app. I have 1000+ titles in my classroom library and maybe 3-4 times as many at home

Mr. Dewey has a nice system for organizing/cataloging books.

Half priced books.

File by category!

Over 1,000 books - indexed in my head ~ can find any one in less than a minute !

GeographyAg said:

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Mrs GeographyAg here, I use three things: Library Thing, GoodReads, and an iPhone app called Book Crawler.

I have over 3000 books, so I needed a good system to keep up with what I own, where in the house it is located, and what I've read. Here's the deal with each one:

BookCrawler is easy to use. It has a built-in scanner for easy cataloging. It backs up and syncs using Dropbox so I can keep the same info on my iPhone and iPad.

LibraryThing is best for serious online cataloging. I started with it and like the tags, adding details, and the interface. It also has some social areas for discussing books. It is really the best for a real catalog.

You can use Book Crawler to create your database, export it to a CSV file, and then upload it to Library Thing.

GoodReads is really only good for social stuff - sharing what you read with your friends/followers, imho. The cataloging and tagging is weak. It's not set up for that. It's really for keeping up with what you've read, not what you own. It has an app, but I don't use it much.

The Book Crawler App says it will link and upload your books to Good Reads but I've never tried that so I don't know how well it works.

Once I got all of my books catalogued it's just been a matter of adding them as I buy and read them.

When I buy a book I add it to BC and LT. After I read it I add to GR.

HTH

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Wow. I don't frequent this board much and had forgotten about this post that I made. Just now saw all the replies.

And thanks everyone for the input. Yes, I am definitely more interested in cataloging my library over just rating and sharing.

Thank you for a clear explanation here MGA. Going to try Library Thing for sure now.

VanZandt92 said:

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900 books? Time for clean out.

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BLASPHEMY!!!!!

Checked it out and definitely have to be a teacher for it. Thanks though!

I have libib for keeping track of the books my daughter has. Easy to just scan the bar code to input them.

Well, life got in the way back then and never went through with anything but same situation has popped up again. Has anything changed in the last 5 years or so since this post was first made? I know Goodreads has updated to finally add an "Owned" section but can't find any user reviews on that functionality of it. Any of yall using it?

NVM. disregard the bump please. Turns out Librarything IS everything I need after all and will be using this in the interim.