The Home Library Problem Solved

Zack Grossbart writes "About 18 months ago I posted the following question to Ask Slashdot: 'How do you organize a home library with 3,500 books?' I have read all the responses, reviewed most of the available software, and come up with a good solution described in the article The Library Problem. This article discusses various cataloging schemes, reviews cheap barcode scanners, and outlines a complete solution for organizing your home library. Now you can see an Ask Slashdot question with a definitive answer."

Comments

easier

[cowscows]

Meh, I just married a librarian instead.

Re:easier

[phantomcircuit]

wife...? what is this 'wife' that you speak of

Re:easier

[gstoddart]

wife...? what is this 'wife' that you speak of

Wife is a slightly different version of the same product as Girlfriend.

It comes with some more restrictive licensing, and there's a little bit of vendor lock in, but some people don't object.

Opinions seem to be mixed on if you should stick with Girlfriend, but it largely depends on your needs and long-term plans. Many people who add the add-on package Child 1.0 end up going this route, but it's not mandatory.

It's got higher maintenance costs than Girlfriend, but has some features not found in that package as well, so it's a trade off.

Sometimes upgrading a version of Girlfriend can have a steep learning curve, as they tend to randomly change features with each major version, so you should really determine if your current version of Girlfriend meets your needs before you upgrade.

YMMV.

Cheers

Re:easier

[kryten_nl]

Having both Wife and Girlfriend installed may cause serious problems. Although some people have reported long term success, there have been no definitive studies.

Organise?

[sm62704]

I have boxes of books in the basement, shelves of books upstairs, stacks of books in th edining room, CDs, DVDs, tapes, records, all over the place.

I solved the problem by ignoring it.

-mcgrew

You don't...

[gillbates]

If the RIAA has their way, making available copyrighted works to people other than the purchaser will be considered copyright infringement. You don't want to get sued by the books publishers, do you?

Then don't create a library. It's that simple.

Takes All the fun out of it

[explosivejared]

Now you can see an Ask Slashdot question with a definitive answer

That takes all the fun out of it, especially for legal questions.

Example:
Q: Someone is taking credit for my code. What legal recourse do I have?

A1: IANAL, but I'm pretty sure you can kill him for that and call it self defense. It totally won't be murder.
A2: IANAL, but I'm pretty sure you can take his eye for it. Eye for a piece of code or something like that...
A3: IANAL, but I'm pretty sure you're entitled to their wife and the profits from selling his children into slavery.
A4: I AM a lawyer, and depending on how you licensed your code ... blah blah (bunch of legalese) blah... and that's what you are legally entitled to do.

The experience of an ask slashdot is going down the list of answers, plugging and checking. Surviving long enough to use the one by the actual lawyer is so rewarding. I tell you, I want stand for any sort definitive answer to an ask slashdot.

Most importantly...

[TBone]

...you didn't answer any questions about this "wife" artifact you're dealing with while catalogging books. Could you please give us more details?

Oh, painful memory

[Deadstick]

...of my ex-daughter-in-law, who decided to surprise me for my birthday by reorganizing my (3500) books:

By height.

rj

I solved this problem.

[DdJ]

My solution was "marry a librarian". Worked very well for me, you might consider trying it.

Date a Librarian

[Henry V .009]

That's what I do. And her BS is in Computer Science, so win-win. Except for all the emacs versus vim arguments. Gah! So many years of schooling, and she can't understand that vim is superior?

Re:Date a Librarian

[Anonymous Coward]

Woman, computer science, knows emacs is better ... dang

I bet she's hot and your blind, too.

Just to clarify

[pjt33]

Do you mean "ex-daughter-in-law" or should that say "late daughter-in-law"?

Re:There's this great new system

[Baddas]

I find the secret is to lay them spine-down in the attic. Helps immeasurably with heating and cooling costs.

Re:Date a Librarian ... or better

[piltdownman84]

...Bah, your looking at this the wrong way. I say orginize your own books and data a girl who works at Lululemon (a self-described as a yoga-inspired athletic apparel company). Thats what I do. And while we don't have emacs vs vim arguments, we make much better use of our time.

Re:Library problem unsolved: Add kids

[russ1337]

whatever you do, DO NOT LET THE ROBOTS NEAR THE CRAFT BOOKS!

I happened to me once, I still have the scars.

Re:There's this great new system

[trolltalk.com]

" I find the secret is to lay them spine-down in the attic. Helps immeasurably with heating and cooling costs."

... and don't forget to apply for a carbon tax credit for all the carbon sequestered in those dead trees!

Re:You don't How about a triple-whammy?

[Atlantis-Rising]

That sounds perfect. I don't suppose you have any idea where one might get one's hands on RFID tags and scanners in bulk? I think one'd have to scan every book's bar code to add it to the database, pair that with an RFID tag and then attach it.

I wonder if it'd be possible to triangulate the tags so you can keep track of the books as they move around without trouble?

Humm...

Re:You don't How about a triple-whammy?

[bladesjester]

I think my omnipresent female would hurt me if I tried that. :P

Mine would probably offer to help with the threatening as she tends to be a bit OCD about placement of things like books. Besides, she doesn't get enough time playing with blades in her opinion.