How to tidy up your personal library since the very beggining?
Table of contents:
1 - Why should the library be organized?
2 - Characteristics of a library
3 - Inventorying: a method to know our collection
4 - Opting for a particular organization system
4.1. Non-alphanumeric classification systems
4.2. Alphanumeric classification systems
5 - Organizing the collection
1. Why should the library be organized?
In this text we share with our community of readers the steps to ensure that no book is ever lost in any of their libraries.
Today we are with by Miquel Poy, a graduate in library science to increase the rigor of our text.
Finques Feliu: "Why is it necessary to organize a library"?
Miquel Poy: "When order reigns in a fund it doesn't matter if it has forty or four thousand books because everything will be in the assigned place and, therefore, it will be found very quickly."
The task of putting each book in its precise place is something gradual and relaxing. Do you doubt about the preceding statement? Compare it to the "tour de force" required to clean a house or to the three weeks of sprinting required to carry out a move (by the way, when it comes to moving objects to another location having arranged the library will prevent you from leaving any valuable books behind).
2. Characteristics of a library
a) It is located in a physical or virtual space.
b) It contains a collection of materials -this is what we call "fund"-.
c) The documents in the collection are duly ordered and made available to all users according to clear criteria and are always available for consultation.
3. Inventorying: a method for getting to know our collection
How can books be organized without a thorough knowledge of the collection? It is impossible.
That is why it is necessary to make an inventory of all the books that make up our collection. This goal can be achieved with the help of a spreadsheet or a database. So when you want to locate an "item" all you have to do is: type in a word of the title, the author, the ISBN or any other metadata.
In this link, we give you acces to ten softwares created to order the library.
4. Opt for an organization system:
We understand that an organization system is: "a hierarchical structure of classes and subclasses that allows to gather knowledge".
According to the above definition, we will not consider as an organization system the mere action of gathering books of the same size. This characteristic obeys to pure chance not to a rational criterion.
An interesting question is: Is it convenient to organize the collection by color gamma?
We are against it. This order can only work if the user has done the previous work of associating a category of knowledge to a different gamma. We ourselves, beyond linking the color green with Natural Sciences, would be hesitant to do this step with other disciplines.
We tell this with a big smile dedicated to our readers: don't worry, right now we will give you access to different options much better than grouping than the two previous ones.
4.1. Non-alphanumeric classification systems:
- Taking into account the alphabetical order: in any alphabet there is underlying the notion of sequence. In the Latin alphabet, for example, if the category chosen to list the publications begins with the letter "b", it cannot precede the same category beginning with "a".
- Taking into account the chronological order: in books it usually corresponds to the date of birth of the person who wrote each book in our collection.
- Taking into account the genre: the articles in our blog have been "tagged". It is true that there are "frontier" publications, for example, this same text could be, following the categories of this blog, tagged as "Literature". However, who writes wants to emphasize that the order will do you good in the psychological and practical senses, therefore whoever has labeled this content has done it as "Feliu Confort". A word of advice: although many programs give the option of assigning more than one genre, take the challenge of assigning only one genre per publication.
- Taking into account the publisher or collection: this is a rather infrequent order.
- Taking into account the language of writing: perhaps we are being read by someone who is a polyglot, who hates translations or, simply he or she is a linguist. If so, this is the perfect criteria because it has structured the user's mind during his studies and continues to do so in his/her profession.
4.2. Alphanumeric classification systems
- Dewey system: it divides knowledge into ten major categories namely: general knowledge, philosophy, religion, social sciences, philology, natural sciences, technical and practical sciences, art, literature and history.
According to the above areas each figure can be subdivided many times to clearly identify each subject. This is done to organize the books on the shelf, so that all books dealing with a specific subject are located in the same place.
- Universal Decimal Classification (UDC): Paul Otlet and Henri La Fontaine used the same decimal structure as Dewey, but, the UDC allows combining several subjects, by means of a specific syntax and auxiliary tables.
5. Organizing the collection
Once we know our whole collection, and we have it inventoried, it is time to perform the most physical task: to place the books in the assigned place according to the classification system we have chosen. Let's go! You will be surprised that even though some readers panic at this step, there is no big deal.
A first reward for sorting is that, as if by magic, the problem of lack of space is solved thanks to the detection of repetitions (a duplicate book can always be given as a gift to: an acquaintance, a friend or the public library).
A second compensation for our effort is that, once the sorting has been completed, will be that you have an idea of what is missing in our collection depending, of course, on our: studies or profession (for example, doctors, property managers or lawyers need to have their large and specialized collection very up to date).
Last but not the least, building a hierarchy has a virtue associated with the real estate sector: having all in place will increase your chances of selling or renting any product to potential buyers and tenants.
We hope that our text has opened new horizons for you.
Share it, there are few things more satisfying than getting rid of clutter!