Thoughts and insights on creating the library

I have had several questions in regards to cataloging.  In this post I will try and offer some notes on how to use the spreadsheets, but also what I have been doing to organize with the reference number.

The Reference number:

The Category

    

The first section of the reference number for books and highlighted above as RLGN is the category.  My thinking is the less category's the better.  In video's I have VID to denote that it is a video (I will eventually have an Audio section too) but the category is listed second and I have four sections - Action, Animated, Family and Classics.  Pick a category, the less the better if you ask me if you are begining.

 

Cutter Sanborn

This is the keystone of the catalog -- go to http://cutternumber.com/  this is a strange link.  It works for me sometimes and sometimes I have to google Cutter Sanborn and it is the top link.  For books - type in the last name of the author and you will get the "number."  

Date

For the book you will find it normally with the copyright information.  We have some old books that are reprinted....  I will sometimes take the original date.  Use your judgement.  It is really helpful when you have a lot of the same author

What is the FR in the Young Adult Fict category?  It denotes Family Room.  I think that denotation was a mistake and should probably be removed -- too complicated

Title:

For literature spelling out the title is fine.  In Videos the Cutter Sanborn number is based on the title of the movie....  therefore I usually will put "The" at the end.  For eg "The Sound of Music" becomes "Sound of Music, The" so I can get the Cutter Sanborn number from "Sound."  

Just a reminder the Cutter Sanborn number  for literature is derived from the author's last name

ISBN

Failla why is does it have a blue hyperlink?  So I the number off the back of the book typically under the bar code.  And then I look up the book or movie on amazon and hyperlink it..... You can do that by going to book for eg on line and copying the URL and then right clicking on the ISBN number for the object and clicking on "insert link"

Then entering the copied URL into:

 Author:    Just a reminder from above to put the last name first for ease of sorting and because that is what the Cutter Sanborn number is derived from for literature

 Library:  If you use this spreadsheet (great!!!) then put your last name on it coming from your library.  That way we know who owns the book and who to return it to.  

If the rest is not self explanatory, let me know, I will do another post.  I don't always know what folks know and don't know.  And I don't always know what is just "Paul speak" and not normal for the rest of the world.  

Search functions:

Find

If you are looking for a book or movie -- go the tabs below first off

And then go to Edit and below to "Find and Replace"

 This will take you to the function where you can search for what you are looking for

Sort by

One last note about sorting.  There are these arrow things that I have inserted on the columns

 

If you click on them it will sort high to low and reverse if you click again.  For the literature library I normally sort by Author and then sort by Category so you have the list alphabetized by Author and then set by Category...  Confusing?  Try it a couple of times and it will get easier.

Want access and don't have it?  Let me know.  Questions and want help -- call me.  I actually want to read your books and watch your movies too ;)