4 ms·

Long time, sometime, user of LT. Short on shelf space, I've moved to storing (~800) books in boxes. I label each box, and add it as a collection in LT. The book

Long time, sometime, user of LT. Short on shelf space, I've moved to storing (~800) books in boxes. I label each box, and add it as a collection in LT. The books stay out of the way, but I can easily find one when I need it.

WorldMaker 7y ago
Thanks for the idea. My parents just moved so all my boxes of books are now scattered around my condo and I'm going to have to figure out what to shelve on limited shelf space, what to cull, and what I can fit in limited storage space. This process would be faster if I had tagged the boxes the first time (and the last cull) a decade ago. (It is all in LT, just not organized to the box level, though I've been lax about adding new books since, given the majority of purchases since have been virtually shelved [e-books].) I've long joked I wish there was a storage company devoted to personal libraries, a "Rent-a-Library". There's so many storage companies that are just ugly warehouses full of what are just storage sheds, imagine a place full of shelves and comfy chairs, and maybe good librarians to dust, alphabetize your section, greet you, and maybe even hush you for being too loud for old times sake. (I feel that need less now, given how many of my books are e-books now, but it's still a good idea I think.)
- pjmorris 7y ago
  > I've long joked I wish there was a storage company devoted to personal libraries, a "Rent-a-Library". I've long had a similar thought, though not as user-friendly as yours, just the book storage part, not the reading room part. Some combination of LibraryThing, storage boxes, storage units, and shipping companies, managed to make book storage, retrieval, and sharing, convenient and reliable for its users. I think the only novel thought that I've had on the topic would be that the charge for not returning a book that was shared with you would be some base processing fee (say $5) in addition to the cost of repurchasing the book.

WorldMaker 7y ago

Thanks for the idea. My parents just moved so all my boxes of books are now scattered around my condo and I'm going to have to figure out what to shelve on limited shelf space, what to cull, and what I can fit in limited storage space. This process would be faster if I had tagged the boxes the first time (and the last cull) a decade ago. (It is all in LT, just not organized to the box level, though I've been lax about adding new books since, given the majority of purchases since have been virtually shelved [e-books].) I've long joked I wish there was a storage company devoted to personal libraries, a "Rent-a-Library". There's so many storage companies that are just ugly warehouses full of what are just storage sheds, imagine a place full of shelves and comfy chairs, and maybe good librarians to dust, alphabetize your section, greet you, and maybe even hush you for being too loud for old times sake. (I feel that need less now, given how many of my books are e-books now, but it's still a good idea I think.)

pjmorris 7y ago
> I've long joked I wish there was a storage company devoted to personal libraries, a "Rent-a-Library". I've long had a similar thought, though not as user-friendly as yours, just the book storage part, not the reading room part. Some combination of LibraryThing, storage boxes, storage units, and shipping companies, managed to make book storage, retrieval, and sharing, convenient and reliable for its users. I think the only novel thought that I've had on the topic would be that the charge for not returning a book that was shared with you would be some base processing fee (say $5) in addition to the cost of repurchasing the book.