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onemoretracy
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| Posted: March 20 2009 at 6:25pm | IP Logged
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While everyone is on the topic of organizing... 
I am hoping to start the Serendipity Colonial study in the fall. I am looking at the book lists, seeing what we already have, what we need etc...and I realized how disorganized my books are. Our books are all over the place! In different bookshelves, in different bedrooms... and I know y'all probably have way more books than we do! How in the world do you keep them all together?
I know I need to buy some more bookshelves, but then do put them in alphabetical order? By topic? Does anyone actually log all of the books they own so as not to duplicate or is that just too nuts?  I know that if I get more together I can more easily convince my husband that we need to buy these books because we will get years of use from them.
Help!
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Tracy
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DS Ryan-9
DS Luke-6
DD Laine-6
DD Mary Clare-3
DD Sara (Dec.6 '08)
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anitamarie
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| Posted: March 20 2009 at 9:26pm | IP Logged
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We have our books grouped by "main" subject i.e. Social Studies, Science, Math, Religion, Art, etc. I put main in quotes because obviously there is some overlap. We then try to keep topics together, i.e. colonial, middle ages, etc. Don't tell anyone, but right now, our Science books have overflowed into our Religion books, and we all know they can't co-exist together.   . I keep Literature in it's own bookcase, but again, that overlaps with Social Studies, and I try to group by age level and topic over there.
This is what works for us right now. You may want to think about how your brain sorts and categorizes so that you can access what you need quickly.
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Mackfam
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| Posted: March 20 2009 at 10:05pm | IP Logged
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Oh, Tracy...I was just going to post the same question!!
I keep books organized first by subject on different sets of shelves, so...
**religion organized by readers, biographies/saints lives, apologetics, Our Lord, Our Lady
**science and nature study - organized further by areas of study/focus
**art
**music
**crafts
**early readers
**civics/economics/political books
**reference books are organized by subject matter
Some of these take up several shelves on walls in our learning room. I keep these in our learning room because they are used frequently. All my Catholic/religion books are kept on a special bookcase in my living room. I organize the shelves by subject matter.
Then there's this that I'm considering changing...
**history, living history, biographies, literature (of which I have a lot)
I keep these on two bookshelves in my living room. Right now, they're sorted by author's last name, and though that is helpful in finding a specific book, I'm not sure I like it. I finished making most of my living history purchases for next year just today, and I'm considering spending the summer organizing these by century so that I can more easily see what I have in my home library. I'm considering categorizing them on computer so that I can break them down by century, location, and setting. Geeky ...I know. ....Actually....just thinking out loud like this...it makes sense to leave the books sorted by author's last name for ease of finding a particular, individual book and then taking the time to inventory them and sort on paper by century, location, setting...
I have more books upstairs. I keep them in bookshelves at the top of the landing - mostly non-fiction is kept up there.
I'm really glad you started this thread, Tracy! I look forward to reading how all of you keep your home libraries organized and sorted!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Erin
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| Posted: March 21 2009 at 2:41am | IP Logged
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Tracy
I tried alphabetical, it was a nightmare and really didn't make sense in the homeschool home.
I group by topic area, history,(and sub-groups) literature (many subgroups here) science, nature etc, pretty similar to Jennifer's.
I don't think it crazy to log in books, but then I invested in a database; Readerware. Love it! If you don't own too many books there is a free option, can't remember the name at present, but someone here is bound too
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monique
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| Posted: March 21 2009 at 9:47am | IP Logged
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We mostly do it by subject, sometimes by author. For instance, we have
***science shelf
***history shelf
***art shelf
***a basket of first readers
***Dr. Suess book basket
***"Carl" books and Sandra Boynton book basket
***altar/bookshelf with religious books
***literature
***education books
***poetry
***Disney/Sesame Street books
***parenting/breastfeeding books
***alphabet books basket
***classics or favorites basket
***entire bookshelf downstairs for DH science fiction books
***golden books basket
***various other books stuck in baskets or shelves
Then each child has a bookshelf in the room that is not organized at all!
Our master bedroom also has a bookshelf that mostly contains religious books and a few financial books.
I usually work on organizing and keeping them organized when we have breaks from schoolwork. Like now, we're on spring break for 2-3 weeks so I will work on putting everything back in its place. But as you all know, with little ones, it's impossible to keep everything organized!
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Mimip
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| Posted: March 21 2009 at 10:11am | IP Logged
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Tracy,
We are doing the Colonial Trail next trimester (In May) and started to do the exact same thing with sorting books!
We sort like most above. We have one tall bookshelf with Literature which has coloring books and board books on the bottom two shelves. (We also have a board books basket) The middle shelf has all our Spanish books (we are a bilingual family) and the top two shelves with chapter books of Literature.
We have a small bookshelf in our reading corner with all of the picture books that are read over and over again.
We have two other tall bookshelves that have all our subject books in groups according to subject. On one of those we have a shelf with Drawing instruction books with a container of writing instruments in a zippered case and paper, spiral bound books and blank books to draw in.
Hope that helps and good for you for organizing now instead of in the Fall 
Oh I just realized that we have another shelf for Mommy and Daddy books. That is a free standing set of shelves that we hung in our living room. Those are strictly off limits for our little ones as they are most of my husband's treasured Apologetics books and my breastfeeding books and parenting books.
Oh and a sofa table with shelves that holds all our "holy books". This table is our prayer table and under it goes all our prayer books, saint books and any other books we use for teaching the faith. It is right next to where we pray.
God Bless you,
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In Christ,
Mimi
Wife of 16 years to Tom, Mom of DD'00, DD'02, '04(in heaven) DS'05, DS'08 and DS '12
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zookeeperof3
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| Posted: March 21 2009 at 11:35am | IP Logged
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We group all of our books by topic, then sub topic. I use banker's boxes because bookcase's were becoming expensive!( I also have a very inquisitive 2 yr old who was unloading our bookcase's) I have a huge wood shelf case, like you see in restaurant's. It's made to hold boxes, not small books. I have our books on the shelving divided by topic. For example one shelf is for science, then the box is labeled life science, earth science and all of the books for that topic go into the box, then the box on the science shelf. I take this year's main reference books ( spelling book etc) and keep them in my desk, for easy access. Also, I keep a notebook with a list of all our books, and of course a want to buy list. This makes it easier for me when we go to book sales and used curriculum sales. I just grab my notebook! I hope all of that made sense!
Blessings,
Kim
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onemoretracy
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| Posted: March 23 2009 at 9:58am | IP Logged
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It looks like subject grouping may be the best way to go for us.
Does anyone know the freeware version to catalog books?
Also what about your picture books, do they just go in the 'library' along with all of the books or do you have a special location for them? When you are doing a unit using a group of books do you pull them all together and then shelve them that way for a time or do you leave them as is and pull them as needed? Oh and do your kids take the books you are using and wander the house or are they asked to read and return promptly, does that even work?!!
Thanks for all the awesome replies!
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Tracy
DH Lee
DS Jake-10
DS Ryan-9
DS Luke-6
DD Laine-6
DD Mary Clare-3
DD Sara (Dec.6 '08)
My Blog
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Lori
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| Posted: March 23 2009 at 2:39pm | IP Logged
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I have mine separated by "grade level" for the main books I know I will use for each year, and I even keep the shelves for grades not currently "occupied"!
Other shelves are for picture books/etc, Holy books, series of books (Boxcar Children, Happy Hollisters, National Geographic, etc), and then I have a couple bookshelves for my planning materials, etc, and lots of shelves for all the "grown up" books I've collected through the years.
The shelves in my kids' rooms are mostly for boxes of toys with small pieces, like legos, army men, hot wheels, magnetic things, etc. I don't allow books to be stored in their rooms because I don't think they care for them that well yet. Well, my 16 yo ds is okay! :-)
I love shelving, I love books, and wouldn't care if my house looked like a library from one end to the other! It's not that bad, yet, but Im working on it!
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Erin
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| Posted: March 23 2009 at 2:42pm | IP Logged
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Tracy
Just remembered the freeware, it is library thing. From memory I think it good for about 2000 books.
Picture books have their own bookcase here but are grouped there according to subject too.
Children are supposed to put back, reality is I spend alot of time re-shelving books.
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allegiance_mom
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I use Library Thing www.librarything.com to catalog my books and make book lists. It is free up to 200 (or maybe 250?) books, then it is $10/year or $25 lifetime. I bought the lifetime three years ago and have never regretted it. You may assign as many "tags" as you like to each book you enter. So, for example I have the book Good King Wenceslas by Mary Reed Newland entered. I have 15 different tags on it:
History - first because it's a historical figure (St. Wenceslas)
Arts - it contains the music to the Christmas carol, which is music, so it also falls under arts.
Bohemia - where St. Wenceslas ruled.
Medieval - the overall historical era when he lived.
10 AD - a more specific century-level tag to further break down "Medieval"
Sep 28 - St. Wenceslas' feast day on the liturgical calendar. Doing my monthly book list I can scan for any books with a "Sep" tag.
Nursery - used with my son who was in nursery (age 3) level
Nioga - our library system. Means it is available through them. Used only when I don't own the book, to remind myself where I can get it.
Read - means I have read it at least once.
Middle - means used with middle grades (5 - 8)
Read WPB - my older son has read this independently
CRL - a list I am compiling of books I recommend.
Sep07-4 - I checked it out 9/07 (week 4)
Grade 5 - used in fifth grade with my older son.
Sep08 - I checked it out again in 9/08. Switched to monthly book orders this year instead of weekly.
So you see you can do a lot with Library Thing. Here is a link to my profile so you can poke around at my books:
http://www.librarything.com/profile/maryanntherese
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Mackfam
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| Posted: March 24 2009 at 9:49am | IP Logged
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Tracy - I organize my picture books separately. Most picture books have their own rolling cart. They're organized by subject, and I pull out picture books and display them in a seasonal theme - usually monthly. Catholic Mosaic picture books are kept with the religion books and are separate from the other picture books. I pull from here on a monthly basis as well. They are organized and shelved in the order Cay has them listed in CM - so basically, they follow the liturgical year.
I set out picture books in baskets throughout my home. When I'm ready, I can re-organize the books back on the shelf and re-load the basket with new books.
If I'm pulling books off my shelf for a unit I'm planning, I gather them in a basket. I might display some upright on a shelf top or table with the basket nearby.
Now, as to when books are returned, most are returned to their basket by the children. If they've pulled a chapter book out or something that takes longer than one sitting to read, they still usually return it, but sometimes it goes upstairs to be read...or elsewhere...but I've never had a problem with it being returned to the basket after a time.
HTH!
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Book Organizing
