How to Keep Track of Your Books

I was introduced to Library Thing, a website that catalogues your books, by my buddy at work. We use it for our department's library and I found it very useful so I thought I will share it with you =)

Library Thing homepage

This is how it works:
1) Register

Sign up to become a member
(remember your username and password)

2) Add Books

Add books to your collections

You can do so either by searching Library Thing's vast database of books or by typing the bar code number into the search bar. You may also manually enter all the book details into the system if you can't find the book you're looking for or if the book does not have a bar code. The most convenient way would be to purchase a scanner from their website (at approximately S$20) and scan the bar codes of your books. You'll feel like a real librarian then =)

Scanner to scan the bar codes for more convenience

If you know of cheaper scanner alternatives, please do let me know as we're looking for them too.

3) View & Track Your Collection

Your collection of books

You may put your books into different categories depending on how you like it. There's also a tag column which is normally used to input key words that describe the book but you can use to input comments such as "borrowed by Miss C" or "given away to Mr X".

Tag the books with the names of people who borrowed it, if applicable

With a system like this in place, you can easily keep track of who has what book even on the go. Simple right? =)


*This post is part of my series on The Madeline Standard of Organisation. Read on for more of my practical and sometimes extreme tips for organising your life! =)