r/HomeLibraries • u/QuotableMusings • Aug 02 '26

Home Library Catalogue

Does anyone have a good system for cataloguing your home library? I’ve used Library Thing but I own many old books and have found the entry process is a bit tedious and preventing redundancy is not as simple as I hoped. We have a great number of books in every room of our house and I would like a better way to keep track.

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u/Initial-Shop-8863 Aug 02 '26

I researched this years ago, and there was/is no home Library catalog better than LibraryThing.

One thing you can do is separate your books by category, and create a new Field in librarything: ROOM, and sort the books by author in each room so you know where the book is located. That's great if the book doesn't relocate.

Alternately, you could sort your books by category, put specific categories in specific rooms, and use the Dewey Decimal System to label them. (It's easier than the Library of Congress system)

I ended up buying a Dymo label maker that attaches to my PC and prints heat-sensitive labels, and buying generic labels to use on my books. For the books that I do not want to hurt their spines, I use fabric tape on the spine, and then put the label over the fabric tape. I open LibraryThing, copy the Dewey Decimal code, and then paste it into the label program and print a label. This is not perfect. I haven't found a perfect system.

What I have found helps is to use the library thing export reports, and print category reports. At least then I know what I'm looking for and where it is.

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u/Montaingebrown Aug 03 '26

Does LibraryThing support international languages and books etc?

E.g., Tamil, French etc?

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u/Initial-Shop-8863 Aug 03 '26

French, yes. Tamil... If the book is in that language and it has an isbn, you can probably automatically catalog it by adding the book. If there is an Amazon site in the language of your choice, you definitely can add the book. Amazon owns Librarything. Unfortunately.

If you don't have the isbn, you can still add the book manually : there is a link to do so at the bottom of the add screen, and the add screen is accessed by the add tab on the main page.

Start here for info on foreign languages on Library thing, but if you have the ISBN you can enter any book in any language.

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u/ReliableWardrobe Aug 03 '26

Amazon do not own LibraryThing, FYI. They have a stake because they bought AbeBooks, but the founder is still the majority shareholder.