How do you organize old books (and booklets)?

Jean B. wrote:
Francis A. Miniter wrote:
Jean B. wrote:
Francis A. Miniter wrote:
Jean B. wrote:
I have SO many books plus booklets, some antique magazines and
newspapers, etc. How does one organize such things? On one hand,
I'd like to organize them logically, say, by author or subject. On
the other, items seem to be happier when organized by size....

Relatedly, especially if organizing by size, how do you locate the
items you need to find? I have recently gotten some queries from
researchers, and I have to ask "what is your time frame?" and look
toward moving and then organizing things, with attention paid to
the need to find them again.

Thanks,


Everyone has a different method, I think. Mine is distinctly not
the Library of Congress or Dewey Decimal System.
My typical Divisions a

Language Reference (e.g. dictionaries)
Chess
Travel
Law
Philosophy (writings arranged chronologically)
Psychology (writings arranged chronologically)
Religion (writings arranged chronologically)
Science
Industrial Arts (woodworking, metalworking, automobiles)
Cooking
Art
- Painting (arranged chronologically by country)
- Photography
- Architecture
History
Arranged chronologically by subject matter (it can be a pain in
the neck but it makes access easy)
Literature
(each subdivision is arranged chronologically by date of birth of
author)
- American
- English
- French
- German
- Spanish
- Russian
- Japanese
- Latin
- Italian
- Greek
- Canadian
- Irish
- Rest of the World
- Mystery
- Espionage
- SciFi

That's impressive! Thanks.

My main problem is with my old and antique US cookbooks and,
especially, my cooking booklets. The cookbooks are arranged as follows:

Foreign Cookbooks
Region
Country
author for some; size for others--really big books have a space
unto themselves

US Cookbooks
More-recent US cookbooks:
Region, when applicable
Type of cookery, when applicable
classic cookbooks
[rest ????]
Older and Antique Books
Chronological [some multi-edition bks grouped regardless
of date]
Size

Cookbook Reference Volumes

Recipe Booklets [old and antique]... These are a BIG problem. I
started grouping them by company, but if grouped by size, they are
more stable. Grouping by size, however, makes things virtually
unfindable!

I might as well get into other books....

Literature
US
By author
Foreign
Region
Country
Author
US
Classics
Mysteries
Other
Author

Nonfiction
Gardening and related topics
Wildlife (mostly birds)
History
Region
Country
Chronological
Archaeology
Anthropology
Sociology
Language Reference
Genealogy [including some town histories]
Antiques
Architecture
Self-sufficiency [don't know what I want to call it]
Ancient and foreign art

Undoubtedly more I am forgetting, because some of these things are
currently double-shelved.


That is quite a special collection on food and cooking!

For booklets, what I do is get magazine holders from Staples or other
office supply shops, label the outside appropriately and group the
booklets in the correct holder.

And for recipes cut out from newspapers or magazines, these days a
scanner allows you to create a computer directory with the name of the
recipes in alphabetical order. If you have a database program (e.g.,
Access or Paradox), you can then cross-reference on key ingredients to
do random searches.


Recipes are a whole other issue! I used to collect those like mad but
was so overrun by them that I have pretty much stopped doing that.

Thank you for the tip on the magazine boxes. Those would at least
stabilize the floppy material, assuming the boxes were full. I would
need to find acid-free material, because I am most concerned with
preserving the old material. In fact, that is one of several motives
that I have for collecting.


For acid-free material, there is a company called Lineco. I
buy their pH neutral adhesives and tapes for book repair.
They sell through the internet but you can also find their
materials a good art supply stores. In fact, consulting at
a good art supply store might ensure your getting the right
kind of boxes. I regularly use Jerry's Artarama.

--
Francis A. Miniter

In dem Lande der Pygmäen
gibt es keine Uniformen,
weder Abzeichen, noch irgend welche Normen,
Und Soldaten sind dort nicht zu sehen.

Siegfried von Vegesack, "Es gibt keine Uniformen"
from In dem Lande der Pygmäen

J wrote:
Francis and Jean,

You both might be interested in APPETITE CITY by William Grimes. It's
a history of restaurants in New York City from the Dutch beginnings
through the present day--how people were tempted out of their homes to
eat in restaurants, founding the multi-million dollar industry we know
today. There are no recipes, but there are reproductions of menus from
days gone by.


Thank you. About the only thing I know about early New York
cuisine is that oysters were incredibly plentiful in the
harbor. Now, of course, they are either all gone or
poisoned beyond the possibility of eating.

--
Francis A. Miniter

In dem Lande der Pygmäen
gibt es keine Uniformen,
weder Abzeichen, noch irgend welche Normen,
Und Soldaten sind dort nicht zu sehen.

Siegfried von Vegesack, "Es gibt keine Uniformen"
from In dem Lande der Pygmäen

I have SO many books plus booklets, some antique magazines and
newspapers, etc. How does one organize such things? On one hand,
I'd like to organize them logically, say, by author or subject. On
the other, items seem to be happier when organized by size...

nevaeh.aaric wrote:
I have SO many books plus booklets, some antique magazines and
newspapers, etc. How does one organize such things? On one hand,
I'd like to organize them logically, say, by author or subject. On
the other, items seem to be happier when organized by size...


Yes? Your point is?
--
Jean B.