Yesterday I reviewed Art Quilts Unfolding: 50 Years of Innovation – this was one of the first books that I added to my new studio library catalogue with Libib.
Libib is a cloud-based management tool that catalogues books, movies, music, and video games. So far I have only used Libib for books but I will be setting up “libraries” for my other media soon. The free version allows for up to 5000 items in up to 100 libraries. The Pro version has increased functionality for managing lending. This upgraded version is designed for schools, small organisations and power users with bigger collections. It could be handy for guilds looking to upgrade their systems.
Download the app to your phone (Apple or Android) and use your phone to scan the ISBN bar codes on your books. Beep, beep, beep – it is very quick to run through your shelves and you get to clean off any dust and reacquaint yourself with your books along the way. For books that don’t have codes, then take a note and you can input those books manually. That takes longer and is best done via the website.
Here is the Art Quilts Unfolding entry in the system including a cover image, title, authors, ISBN and other key data:
Once you have set up your library in the cloud, then you might like to add tags so that you can sort the collection by subject or other categories that are meaningful to you. Again, the website interface and computer keyboard is easier to use for this task rather than the mobile app. Here’s my tag listing and stats – it’s a work in progress:
You can also add prices, personal notes and reading status – not begun, in progress, abandoned and completed. Although the free version doesn’t offer lending functionality, you could easily create a “loan” tag and add a note to record when you have loaned a book.
Best of all, there is an export feature that dumps all of this information into a spreadsheet (CSV file). It is instructive (and sobering!) to see what is in your collection and how much you have invested in books. Also, if you ever have to make an insurance claim, this printout will remind you of what of is in your collection and help support your claim.
I am a systems-oriented person and this management tool makes me happy! Thanks to Melanie McNeil for her post in the Just Wanna Quilt Facebook group alerting me to Libib.
Lori Padgett says
Thank you for sharing the info about Libib. Perfect timing for sure!
Two years ago we downsized big time. We had a library in our old home and have hundreds and hundreds of books. We don’t have a library now and so our books have been in boxes. I can’t bear to part with them but having them stored in boxes doesn’t make any sense either. This past week we set up wall to wall bookshelves in our living room so we can finally get some of the books out (we’ll have to decide what to do with the rest).
I used to have our entire library on Shelfari. When they merged with GoodReads they lost most of it during the merge. I was not impressed to say the least. I’ve never taken a new inventory of our books but now sounds like the perfect time to do so. I’ll use Libib and inventory them as we take them out and put them on our new shelves. I look forward to being able to see at a glance what books we have (and not buying a book twice because I don’t think I’ve read it or have it! lol).
Thanks again for sharing.