On Jun 12, 10:13*pm, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:
Jim Wilkins wrote:
....
* *I have thousands of books, scattered through five buildings. *A lot
are in boxes, to save space. *One reason to catalog them is to sort out
duplicates. *Another is to get a better idea of how many more bookcases
I need to build. Just my collection of semiconductor databooks and
service manuals fill my library.

My eBooks are filed by author if I remember the name, otherwise by
subject, pretty much a single listing version of the way Gutenberg
does it except that bios are filed under the subject's name. I have
folders for authors A - Z and for technical or historical fields.

20,000 Leagues is only under Verne for instance since I know who wrote
it, while The Invention of the Sewing Machine is technical history
because who has heard of Grace Cooper? In a few ambiguous cases I
saved the file in two place rather than creating a cross-reference.

In general my sorting systems for books, screws, resistors etc are
only detailed enough that I can find what I want in a minute or three.
That way the space they occupy is greatly reduced, as is maintenance
time.

For example machine screws are binned by diameter and whether they are
steel or stainless/brass/aluminum, but all lengths and head types are
in the same drawer because I can pick out one with a ruler and match
the rest easily by eye.

Naval downloads are divided into battles and ship classes, then some
like battleships are subdivided by nation. Within that I can usually
see all the titles on the screen at once.

Perhaps it works for me because I am nearsighted and a very fast
reader. The Evelyn Wood (?) people came around when I was in 6th grade
and promised 600 words a minute from their program. I took their test
and could read that fast already.

Otherwise determine how much you can distinguish quickly and sort to
that level. For my own use I catalog by the most memorable
characteristic and don't cross-reference. The computer can find a word
of the title or the author's name in files saved by broad subject
anyway.

jsw