Indulging My Inner Librarian

I loved going to the library as a child—whether the school library, where teachers often sent me when I had finished my work and was bored or the local library, where I would check out more books than I could carry each week in the summer. Even in college I loved poking around the library just for fun.

But in 1986 I got a completely different view of the library. I accepted a job working the library of my university, where my husband was in law school. At that time (30+ years ago), working for the university got my husband a spousal discount of 90% off his tuition! And if I had to work somewhere, the library seemed like a good place for a book lover like me.

My job was in the bowels of the library, where books were ordered, received, and cataloged. I worked in the order department, with responsibility for all the standing orders—series in which we had indicated to the publisher we wanted an entire series as they were published.

I was initially wary of the job. It sounded kind of boring. But the more I dug in, the more I enjoyed it. Occasionally I would have to go ask the real librarians—the ones who catalogued the books—a question. I learned a bit about their process, too. Which fascinated me.

Not long after I arrived in the job we began to prepare for automation. The library had purchased an entire new computer system that would now have an online catalog, check out system and cataloguing system. This was still all internal, mind you. The internet didn’t happen for several more years! But we were going “online” in the sense of the word during the late 80s/early 90s.

I remember the thrill of figuring out how to input my paper files into the new system and then helping to barcode books on the shelves. Many of the older people in the library struggled, but I was still in my early twenties and excited about the possibilities of new technology.

Fast forward to my kids’ schooling in a small school where I volunteered in the library. I was able to help them automate because of my experience at the university level.

Now library automation is a given. We can search the catalogues online. Even check out electronic materials without having to leave the house! Maybe that’s why my home library has always been so important to me. Yes, we had to cull it when we lived in the condo, but now that our beloved library wall bookshelves—along with a few others!—are in our house, I’m ready to reorganize the shelves so I can find things.

Enter my inner librarian. The one that sometimes wonders what life would have been like if I’d chosen to purse a master’s in library science instead of writing fiction. An old dream surfaced—and dream to catalog the library of books in my house. Confession: I’ve tried to do this many times in many forms through the years, but nothing was quite right. But surely by now there were apps for this purpose that had been perfected.

And my dream had come true! There are actually many apps that do this, some paid, some free. I ultimately went with Libib, and I love it. It accommodates not only books but music and movies, too! (Be still my organization-loving heart!)

A few screenshots from the Libib app

The joy of scanning book barcodes and having my titles in the library on my phone defies words. When I finished all the books in my house that actually had barcodes to scan, I had well over 500 books! I was giddy with delight.

But I realized I have at least that many more that I will have to enter manually due to age or a corrupted or incorrect barcode.

Oh. My.

I guess my inner librarian will get her fill!

A little glimpse at the process. Or maybe I just wanted an excuse to experiment with time-lapse video!

It makes me happy to know that with a few clicks I can now avoid book duplicates when I hit a library sale or a used book store. It also thrills me that I can tag the books by location on my shelves, meaning no more random searching when seeking something I know I own! And I can tag my research books by time period and place so that I don’t go looking elsewhere for information already in my possession.

The task is enormous. But I’m taking it a few books at a time. For fifteen or so minutes every weekday I take a break from other things and indulge my inner librarian. What will I do when I have everything organized and recorded? Buy more books, of course! Although, to be honest, that part never stops.

Do you keep up with the book titles you own? What’s your method? Have you ever bought a book then realized later you already own a copy?