Library organization

Jonathan Bradley

Would someone point me in the right direction for solid library organization? Thank you! 

Dave Hooton

As you know, you can enable different views of your Library from the Sidebar e.g. by Collection, by My Tags, by Your Ratings, Language, Author, Series, Subjects, etc. The first three provide opportunities to personalize your view(s) as you create collections and tags, and rate your resources. 

Some users can suggest a system of tags,which might be what you intend with "solid library organization", but I only have tags for categories that I'm interested in. So Iess than one half of my resources are tagged. I create collections for Guides and Searching, based on my tags, my ratings and other metadata e.g. subjects, language, series.

David Paul

One of the first gripes I had with post-Libronix (L3) versions was the lack of any kind of "physical" organization of my library. For instance, many of the individual volumes of various commentary sets I owned were distributed alphabetically by the name of the Biblical Book, as opposed to being arranged in a cohesive Biblically-ordered group. When I asked for something that grouped my library in a visibly logical sense, I was treated as if I was an inflammatory anarchist. Almost everyone seemed to be of the opinion that the only "organization" needed was for doing search-based queries, and so people kept telling me that I should use Collections. Collections were NOT what I wanted or needed. I finally had to use Favorites to get what I wanted, as it allowed me to create a variety of nested folders. This basically allowed me to create a Table of Contents (of sorts) for my library.

Advantages:
I can find stuff in my library by subject & set
Because it's virtual, I can put the same book in multiple folders (Commentary, Prophecy, Theology, Author) if I choose
Peace of mind

Disadvantages:
It took a REALLY LONG TIME TO CREATE because I have a rather large library. I spent an entire month of full-time work getting it in order, and my library has doubled since then with only some minor upkeep. I'm still glad I did it.

I honestly don't know what organization options exist in L8 (or L7, which is what I've got). I still use L3 about 95% of the time, and I just don't use L-Newest enough to figure out all the latest gizmos. Just letting you know what I did in case you want to try it.

This shows some of my subfolders...

This shows how I ordered my books in my library for commentary sets that were scattered and in alphabetical order rather than Bible order.

C_M> means Commentary_Multi-volume> which I use to assemble all my commentary sets together. I order the books in a set by numbering them in the description.

Tbh, I think FL should do something similar when writing these descriptions. Basic ordering by Bible order should be THE DEFAULT. 

Mark

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1095167#Comment_1095167

On this, I agree with David Paul.

Bruce Dunning

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1095170#Comment_1095170

Jonathan, I like what David Paul did but I chose to go the route of carefully tagging each resource in my library and love the end result. Like David Paul, it took me a long time but it was worth it. Here is the tagging system I used. By pausing to reflect on each book it also gave me a great opportunity to familiarize myself with each resource.

4174.My Tagging System for Logos.docx

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1095171#Comment_1095171

I did like Bruce, also editing the titles so achieve a recognizable title and sort. Basically, hitting the mytag header yields David's organization.

In the L9 wishlist, someone recommended 'managing their library'. After a decade, and 5 major updates, we're still struggling. I think Rosie mentioned very large libraries.

My 'dream' was drag-and-drop organizing, like in a real life library. And imagery to go with it. Implementation would be a column either being a drag-drop number, or a user assigned number (like at the library).

Jonathan Bradley

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1095167#Comment_1095167

David Paul said:

Disadvantages:
It took a REALLY LONG TIME TO CREATE because I have a rather large library. I spent an entire month of full-time work getting it in order, and my library has doubled since then with only some minor upkeep. I'm still glad I did it.

Do you know if there is a way to export what you have done to benefit others? 

Mark

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1095174#Comment_1095174

Denise said:

In the L9 wishlist, someone recommended 'managing their library'. After a decade, and 5 major updates, we're still struggling. I think Rosie mentioned very large libraries.

My 'dream' was drag-and-drop organizing, like in a real life library. And imagery to go with it. Implementation would be a column either being a drag-drop number, or a user assigned number (like at the library).

Tagging 21000 resources for collections is not going to happen.  Even in small libraries, it is the stuff of computer geeks and dedicated Logos users.  It is not the stuff that going to win new people to Logos.  Why FL has refused for so long to see what is obvious is beyond me.  Make the favorites more user friendly...like favorites in a browser.  Do it please in L9.

David Paul

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1095191#Comment_1095191

Jonathan Bradley said:

Do you know if there is a way to export what you have done to benefit others? 

Honestly not sure, although I don't think so. I did accidentally delete three weeks of work when setting up my Favorites years back. Something I clicked managed to highlight the whole list and I deleted everything rather than just the single line I intended. As I recall, there wasn't a Ctrl+Z option for Favorites at the time. FL told me they had that data saved and could restore it for me and they did, thankfully. I don't mind if that could be transferred to you, but I sorta doubt it can. I would call CS and ask.

Tbh, what the folders look like ultimately depends on what your library looks like. I probably have folders you wouldn't need or use. Still, deleting the unnecessary is much easier and quicker than creating the required. Actually, the thing that took the longest wasn't the folder and subfolder creation, it was the renaming of most of my resources so that they would list in the proper order.

This is one of the very first issues I raised on the Forum back in Nov. '09.

https://community.logos.com/forums/p/5496/42715.aspx#42715

It was also the beginning of my long and usually fruitless relationship with Dear Departed George. I kinda miss having a bête noire on the Forum. MJ occasionally fills in, but she isn't very enthusiastic about it. George relished contradicting almost everything I said. Forum's been quite staid in his absence.