Monday, February 15, 2010

I have discovered LibraryThing. I am now addicted to cataloguing my books, which may possibly make me the most boring person alive. Nevertheless, this should come as an aid to people who don't give us books as gifts because they don't know what we have! The picture books collection is almost complete, but the rest of it will take a while as I delve through box after box. I've also started a wishlist, which is on LibraryThing as well as on Amazon.

I've wanted to catalog our books for some time now. It pleases my organizational mind to know that soon there will be a record of the things we own, and it is extremely satisfying as well--like a full pantry. However, I was thinking as I worked yesterday that it's rather a shame that everything is computerized now. I'd always thought that a perfect career for me would be cataloguing private libraries, but I'd never be able to write my own computer program for such a profession. I'd have to use a pre-existing one such as LibraryThing, which might not be exactly suited to the task at hand. Of course this program is fantastic, and much more detailed and connected than a card catalog, but index cards and alphabetization are easily mastered. Ah well.