Library organization

[Pilgrim]

I'm wondering what y'all do for library organization. Having recently acquired a good many, I now have over 800 books assuming my catalogue is correct. I'm hoping to reduce that number but I'll still end up with a lot. The last time I attempted to organize them, I organized the theological books by author. Thus everything by Jay Adams or MacArthur or Sproul was put together regardless of subject. But I'm thinking of doing it differently this time, with putting Systematic Theologies together, then soteriology, eschatology, ecclesiology, etc. and maybe then a miscellaneous category for "Christian living" or whatever. Even though I have so many, I can't see doing it strictly by the Dewey Decimal system or anything like that. When I first started, I had practically no organization at all beyond knowing what shelf most of them were on. (Regardless, I've got way too many books for my current shelf space to accommodate unless maybe I double shelve a lot of them. So I'll likely be listing some for sale here soon.)

What are your thoughts? How do you have yours organized?

 

[Guido's Brother]

I follow what you're thinking of doing and have for many years. I have everything organized broadly by subject matter. Within subjects, I don't have any system (except for my OT and NT commentaries, where I have them organized by book or by sets). I think I have somewhere between 2-3,000 books, and this system works for me just fine.

 

[Wayne]

Wilbur Smith, a noted pastor and bibliophile of the 20th century, once stated that only with a library of 10,000 books or more was it necessary to catalogue them,assigning Dewey or other classification. (The Union system was a nice one for theology--Westminster used to employ the Union system.)

Topical or by author is quite adequate for most private libraries. However, if you are in the habit of loaning books, it might be a good idea to some sort of list where you can keep track of what's loaned out.

"Only a fool loans books; half the books in my library were loaned." -- Ben Franklin.

 

[SRoper]

I find it easiest to arrange by author--I never have to guess which subject I put it under. I keep a list of my books in Zotero where I can tag them along with any articles I come across by subject.

 

[Jash Comstock]

I use the Dewey. It isn't really necessary, but I actually enjoy it. Plus, my library is not only theology, but literature, literary theory, and tons of nonfiction.