Ok, So you think you have a library, what maybe a dozen or so books lying and a few pdfs around? Well at the last big count, I was well over 1000, some are still in boxes, and some are lost forever. So you really should organize it. I Have a large collection of various books, Fiction (first editions of Robert Ludlam and Isaac Asimov), Cooking Books, Lots of Movies, and DIY shows, well you get the idea.
So you need to organize it. Your choices are very limited:
- Dewy (like in your local and maybe your school library. I found it horrible for a technical library. Enter LC.
- LC or Library of Congress is a very complete catalog system. If you use it there will be a learning curve. The biggest holes are product catalogs and military manuals.
To set up an LC@home you will need to download some background info:
- How to read an LC Call Number. This number is printed in most books on the page with the publisher data. If not you can look it up yourself.
- Library of Congress Control Number. This is another number used by LC and is linked to MARC 21 record.
- Fundamentals of Library of Congress Classification
- LC Cutter Number System
Set aside shelves for your major class and subclass, some of mine include PS (American literature), QA (Mathematics), TK (Electrical engineering.), TL (Aeronautics. Astronautics).
I have built a dB with MySQL for keeping track of my 'STUFF'. I'm going to show you how I did it. It still needs a lot of improvement. I have 3 tables Author, Publisher, and Books.
Table: Author: Author_ID (bigint)[auto inc], Name (varchar 100), Year_born (varchar 4), Year_Died (varchar 4);
Table: Publisher: Publisher_ID (bigint)[auto inc], Name (varchar 100), City (varchar 100);
Table: Books: Book_ID (bigint)[auto inc], Author_ID (bigint), Publisher (bigint), LC_Control (varchar 11), Call_Number (varchar 50), Title (varchar 256), Year (smallint), ISBN (varchar 20), Acquisistion_Date (timestamp), Acquisison_Price (decimal 15.3), Media (enum'Book','Softcover','e-book','audiobook','Binder','pdf')
here is part of my Books table:
"Book_ID";"LC_Control";"Call_Number";"Media";"Location";"Title";"Year";"Edition";"Author_ID";"Publisher";"ISBN";"Acquisition_Date";"Acquisition_Price"
"1";"87033844";"QA76.73.C15 N865 1988";"Book";;"Numerical recipes in C : the art of scientific computing";"0";NULL;"1";"1";"0-521-35465-X";NULL;"0.00"
"2";"73001830";"QA76.6.K64";"Book";;"The art of computer programming v. 1. Fundamental algorithms";"0";"2nd ";"2";"2";"0-201-03809-9";NULL;"0.00"
"3";"86018752";"QA76.76.O63 T36 1987";"Book";;"Operating Systems : Design and Implementation";"0";NULL;"3";"3";"0-13-637406-9";NULL;"0.00"
"4";"86186519";"QA76.76.O63 B33 1986";"Book";;"The design of the UNIX operating system";"0";NULL;"4";"3";"0-13-201799-7";NULL;"0.00"
"5";"61010971";"TL570.M45";"Book";;"Flight mechanics";"0";NULL;"5";"2";;NULL;"0.00"
"6";"83026438";"TL671.M64 1984";"Book";;"A Field Guide to Airplanes";"0";NULL;"6";"4";"0395353130";NULL;"0.00"
"7";"0";"PE1112.W";"Book";;"English grammar and composition : Introductory course";"1988";"Benchmark";"7";"5";;NULL;"0.00"
"8";"52014566";"TL589.C68";"Book";;"Aircraft Instrument Design";"1952";NULL;"8";"6";;NULL;"0.00"
"9";"60001601";"TL672.A2 1959";"Book";;"Theory of Wing Sections, Including a Summary of Airfoil Data";"1959";NULL;"9";"7";"0-486-60586-8";NULL;"0.00"
"10";"95070177";"QA76.76.H94 L454 1995";"Book";;"Teach yourself Web publishing with HTML in 14 days";"1995";"Professional Reference";"10";"8";"1575210142";NULL;"0.00"
Now with all that said the last thing that I published on E14 was the Lambda Catalog and Application Handbook (1974).pdf This is one of the wonderful things that do not have an LC Control or Call Numbers. So I guess I have to add it to my local repository. It will fit nicely into TK where my IC Masters and TI Databooks are. I don't have an author, but I do have a publisher (Lambda Electronics).
But First I have to add Lambda Electronics to both the Author and Publisher tables. In this case it is also the Author, By using The Cataloging Calculator and Checking LC Cutter box I got a new Cutter Number of L36333 and then add the year 1974, I ended up with an LC Call Number of TK L36333 1974 when this book is added to the dB I checked type: and selected PDF. and presto it's in the system now.
And here is the new record:
"Book_ID";"LC_Control";"Call_Number";"Media";"Location";"Title";"Year";"Edition";"Author_ID";"Publisher";"ISBN";"Acquisition_Date";"Acquisition_Price"
"57";;"TK L36333 1974 ";"pdf";;"Lambda Catalog and Application Handbook ";"1974";NULL;"46";"41";;"2018-09-16 09:47:26";"0.00"
BTW I just found out how LC indexes military TMs U408.3.A13 TM 11-5522 Aug. 1951
~~ Cris H. 
Addendum: NSA can be filed under the call of TL.35 STD-xxxx or other numbers
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