Organizing a Personal Library

Kara Whatley

Organizing a personal library is always a challenge, and those of us in academia tend to amass sizable collections. However, unlike a public or academic library, we do not have professional catalogers to help organize our collections. Many of the usual schemes we use to organize our libraries — order of purchase, alphabetically by author’s last name, loosely by subject — break down when challenged by large collections or those containing materials in various formats. Some people create a private database to help them organize their libraries, but this can turn into a tedious and time-consuming task.

Several online tools, some new and others familiar, can help in organizing a personal library. The tool you choose to use for organizing your collection will depend on the format of your library (books, journals, or videos) as well as the contents (personal books and research materials). Any way you mix your library, there are several options available to help you manage it.

RefWorks

One resource that you may already be familiar with is RefWorks,¹ an online bibliographic citation management system available to every member of the NYU community through the Libraries’ website. It provides two levels of organization for a personal library.

First, when you add an item to the database, RefWorks assigns it a unique “RefID” number, which can be used to label items in your collection for later retrieval. RefWorks then allows you to categorize your things into folders of your own creation, allowing you to quickly find all the items in your library related to a particular subject.

If your library includes journal articles, RefWorks can free up space for you by linking to the full text version of many articles, and it allows you to attach your own PDF and other types of files to article records. It also allows you to add call numbers to any book records you input, and brings those numbers over when you import records from library catalogs. You can even organize your personal library with the same call number scheme used in your favorite library.

Google Books

Another option for organizing your personal library is available from one of your favorite online search engines. Google Books² has a “My Library” feature that is connected to your Google account (which you may use for GMail and other services), so there is no need to create a new username and password. Just search Google Books for the books in your personal library and click to add them to your “My Library” list. Or you can use the “import” feature to add numerous books at one time using ISBNs.

Once you have books in your library, it’s simple to add “labels” to your books. Labels can be tags or subject headings that you use to organize your books, or they can be call numbers from your local library. After labels are added, they are displayed in your “My Library” list and are searchable.

For now, Google Books libraries are limited to only cataloging books, so if your personal library collection includes other formats such as videos and journals, Google Books may not be the ideal organizational option for you.

Downloadable Options

If you would rather use downloadable software than an online resource to organize your personal library collection, several options are available. Two worth mentioning are Delicious Monster³ (for Mac OSX) and MediaMan⁴ (for Windows 2000/XP/Vista). They each cost about $40, and while neither is a good option for organizing a library that includes journal articles, both handle books, CDs, and DVDs well. They even enable you to scan the barcodes on the items in your library to quickly add them to your catalog; however, only MediaMan allows you to import items into your library via Amazon.com.

Delicious Monster allows you to sync your catalog with your iPod so that you always have your collection information at your fingertips. It also has the look and feel of iTunes, so users will find Delicious Monster easy to use. Both Delicious Monster and MediaMan rely on tagging to organize your collection, but you can incorporate library call numbers into the tags if you choose.

As you can see, there are many choices available for use in organizing a personal library, whether your collection contains mostly journal articles or a mixture of books, videos, and CDs; whether you will always access information from one computer, or need to get it from the web; and whether you prefer inputting items to your inventory by scanning barcodes or entering ISBNs. Different organizational tools offer diverse ways of importing and accessing your collection, and the time and effort required by each of these methods is worth serious consideration. Choose a personal library organizational method that works for you now, and is capable of expanding as your library does.

Footnotes

1. www.refworks.com
2. http://books.google.com
3. Delicious Monster is available online at www.delicious-monster.com.
4. MediaMan is available online at www.imediaman.com.

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Author Biographies

Kara Whatley is the head of Coles Science Center at NYU’s Bobst Library.

Page last reviewed: April 28, 2008. All content © New York University.
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