Content

• Steps
• Tips
• Warnings
• What do you need

It is very difficult to do something if you simply cannot find your things.And contrary to popular belief, you don't have to be a librarian to keep your books in order. Here's a way to organize your books so that they're easy to find and don't fall on your head from the shelves.

Steps

1. 1 Remove books, papers, etc.from the shelf. Divide it all into two piles: what you want to keep and what you want to give or throw away.
2. 2 Remove all pieces of paper from books, including bookmarks. Recycle all unnecessary waste paper.
3. 3 Make a separate stack of books that need to be patched up. Later, you can decide if they are worth the effort or if they just need to be replaced with a new, better quality copy.
4. 4 If you have books that you think may have some second-hand value, then you should visit the website. BookScouter and check if someone out there wants to buy them.
5. 5 Place all unnecessary books in a box. Call the bookstores in your city to see if they are buying books by hand. Many charity second-hand shops accept books, and you can also get a tax deduction. But do not hand over torn books with a bad smell, which the store employees will have to throw away later! Your unwanted books can also be donated anonymously at the place of work or study. Book Crossing is a community of people who enjoy giving away their books. Paperback books can be recycled (check with your local waste disposal company), but hardback glue makes them unrecyclable, so make the right decision and throw them away yourself.
6. 6 Wipe the shelves thoroughly with a cleaning spray or furniture polish. Perhaps you will not have a chance to wash everything so well for a very long time.
7. 7 Decide how you organize your book collection. There are many ways to organize books: by size, by color, by number of pages, by subject, according to your preferences, by publisher, by publication date, by the date the book appeared in your collection, by your favorite genres, and of course by authors, by authors (for fiction) or using the Dewey Decimal / Library of Congress Book Organization (for non-fiction), by reading level or vocabulary.
8. 8 Make labels for books using a portable labeling machine to print letters on books, or Dewey decimal numbers on the spines of books.
9. 9 Put the books back on the shelf in the order you choose, sit down and admire your clean and well-organized bookshelf!

Tips

• If you are currently studying somewhere, then in order to organize your personal library, it is better to divide all the books into two parts: necessary for study and all the rest. Therefore, make sure that all dictionaries and reference books are conveniently located near your computer, in case you suddenly need them.
• Place larger books (textbooks, cookbooks, and picture and photo albums) on the lower shelves so they don't fall on anyone's head from the upper ones.
• If you are looking for a more formal cataloging system, http://www.librarything.com/ LibraryThing] can help you create such an online catalog, and this service also allows you to find people who read the same as you. Some users organize their libraries by tags. Dewey Decimal System, Library of Congress Thematic Subheadings, etc. can also be created on this site.
• Tailor this guide to suit your personal needs and preferences, and of course the specifics of your personal library. This is, after all, your book collection, so organize it in a way that suits you personally. By the way, you don't have to dwell on one option for organizing books forever, you can reorganize it whenever and how you want.
• Consider using computer programs to organize and track books in your library. For Macs, check out the Delicious Library at http://www.delicious-monster.com, for Windows computers, check out All My Books at http://www.bolidesoft.com/allmybooks.html. There is also free software for this purpose, for example http://www.spacejock.com/BookDB_Version.html, and even complete sets of library automation. Look for them in any search engine for "free library automation software."
• Dewey decimal and Library of Congress book numbers appear on the front of the book, in the same place as the edition information. If the book does not have a Dewey number, then search the Internet for the site of a major library that uses this system (the Public Library of New York, for example) and search for this book by author or title. If this does not work for you, then use a thematic search to find books similar in content, and use their numbers.
• The free computer program AZZ Cardfile may also be useful to you. One of the free downloads of this program is the Dewey decimal system. Take a look at the program itself and its downloads at this URL: http://www.azzcardfile.com.
• For home libraries, alphabetical order is perhaps the best fit.
• If you think that you will not read some books, and you do not want to give them away, just put them in a box and put away somewhere.
• If you decide to organize your books by type, then start with more general groups, gradually moving down to subtypes and subcategories. For example, cookbooks can be organized according to the type of cuisine represented in them: Italian, French, Thai, Mexican, etc. Fiction can be organized strictly by author or by genre: science fiction, romance novels, mysticism, or historical novels. The subcategories in these two cases might be vegetarian Mexican food or English romance novels. Children's books can be organized by age.
• You can get a lot of useful information about books and the libraries in which they can be found at http://www.worldcat.org.

Warnings

• This business will not end easily and quickly. You should give yourself a minimum of 2-3 days, depending on how many books you have.
• Do not attach any stickers or labels to collector's editions, as they can be damaged if you try to peel them off.

What do you need

• Books
• Bookshelves
• Boxes (can be requested in shops)
• Label printer or blank labels and permanent marker with sharp tip
• Furniture spray
• Paper towels
• Library software (optional)