Sorting books into category's?

I'm new to this site and I can't figure out how I can sort my books into category's or collections or whatever they are called on here. I have lots of novels, cook books, health and self help books etc. I have been adding tags to each one even though I really don't even understand how tags work either. I have added 40 books so far which is a drop in the bucket. My collection is huge. I don't want to add anymore until I figure out to sort my books into categories so all my cookbooks are in one place, all me series books are together, all my self help books, etc. can someone please explain to me in detail how to work this site? I tried looking up this subject but got nowhere. The help section of this site seems pretty lacking so far.
Thanks,
Tootz

You can tag your books or put them in collections or both. Tags are more flexible; a large number of collections get a little clunky to work with, but some people do.

If you want your books to sort by collection or tag in your catalog list display, that's a tad trickier. However, if you have tags and/or collections, you can simply click on a tag in the catalog display to see only books with that tag. Same with collections. There's also a pull-down menu on the upper left (right under the logo) where you can choose which collection to display. Also, the next pull-down to the right (just past the Cover/List option buttons) will display all your tags on one page; to see what items have that tag, just click on it. You'll note on the left of the tag page, you can filter by collection first, then tag.

At any rate, if you have a large number of books which will receive the same tag or be moved into the same collection, you can use the lightening bolt icon on your catalog page to move or tag things in bulk via Power Edit. Note, though, as long as Power Edit is selected, you can't edit normally in the catalog fields, so it's good to turn it off when you're done with the Power Edit.

I've got thousands of books across two accounts; I've fiddled with collections and tags for years, trying to get it just right for me! Power Edit has been a lifesaver.

Thanks so much. I think I kind of got it figured out. I created collection names, figured out how to get all 40 books out of MY LIBRARY, then clicked on the lightning bolt and added each book one at a time to it's collection. So far so good. Any idea if I can put collections in alphabetical order and authors in alphabetical order.
Tootz

You can edit your collection list. The link for that is at the bottom of the list anywhere it shows as a drop down. If you have trouble with the dragging and dropping, try from a different place.

You can sort your catalogue by most fields. The easiest way is by clicking on the top of the column. That moves the current sort to subsort. So if you want to sort by author, and within each author by title, First click on title, then on author. (For reverse sort, click again)

You can also use the up and down arrows icon. This opens a popup (which can be quite far dow the page) that lets you set sort and subsort. This is useful for data like 'Total members' that don't have their own columns.

I have different kinds of romance novels and series books within romance novels & authors, then I have books which are a series with multiple authors, cook books with different topics like slow cooker, low carb, eat-clean, etc. Then I have sci-fi books like Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. I am not really sure how tags work or what they are for, maybe that's part of my problem, maybe I should be putting the info I have been putting in tags in subject instead but I have not found nay place where I can add info to the subject column, it's not there when I edit a book so what's the point of the subject column if I can't utilize it? So is that what tags are for? I have created a Collection for each of my Novels authors (with many authors not even added yet since I've only added 44 books so far, I just decided I shouldn't add any more books till I get my system figured out otherwise there will be too much backtracking to do). I want my Collections list in alphabetical order. I think I had it that way once and then I did something that goofed it up. I feel like an idiot and I'm lost. So if I keep the tags and when I want all books with that tag I just click on that tag and it will show them to me, but will doing that change my order of books on my Your Books page? I want to get my Your Books page set right and then be able to add books. I figured out how to add a book to the right collection when I am adding the book so I get that part.

Here's what my Collections list looks like:
Ashley, Amanda (3)
Card, Orson Scott (3)
Cook Books, General (3)
Dailey, Janet (1)
Eat-Clean, Natural Foods, Raw etc. (1)
Encouragement, Inspiration, Self Help (1)
Heart Of The West Series (5)
Juicing, Smoothies, NutriBlasts etc. (1)
Lewis, C. S. (2)
Low Carb Cook Books (1)
Macomber, Debbie (1)
Martin, Kat (4)
McKenna, Lindsay (2)
Meyer, Joyce (1)
Neggers, Carla (1)
Novak, Brenda (1)
Osteen, Joel (1)
Pampered Chef Cook Books (4)
Religious (0)
Roberts, Nora (2)
Self Directed Health (2)
Slow Cooker Cook Books (1)
Small, Bertrice (1)
Thomas, Jodi (1)
Wiggs, Susan (1)
Your library (0)
Wishlist (0)
Currently reading (0)
To read (0)
Read but unowned (0)
Favorites (0)
All collections (44)

But my Your Books page has a cookbook 1st by an author with last name that starts with an A and then Novels author Ashley, Amanda. so right now my Your Books page is in alphabetical order by author and not by Collections and I can't figure out how to get it back to Collections in alphabetical order. I know my Collections list will get very long once I've added all my books but I think that's the best way for me. At least it's similar to the way I have my info in my binder so that's what I'm used too.

I added the name of the books series as a tag, I added the subject of the book as a tag etc.

Here's my tags list:
2 Story Book (1)
Action & Adventure (2)
Budget Friendly Meals (1)
Calder Saga (1)
Carriage House Series (1)
Chronicles Of Narnia Series (2)
Compulsive Eating (1)
Contemporary Romance (3)
Cook Book (10)
Cook Book Pamphlet. Pampered Chef (1)
Cook Book Spiral Bound (3)
Deliverance Company Series (1)
Diet (1)
Dressings (1)
Eat-Clean (1)
Encouragement (3)
Faith (2)
Fantasy (2)
Fantasy Romance (1)
Fantasy-Epic (1)
Food Crafts (1)
Futuristic (2)
Health Conditions (1)
Health Reference Book (2)
edit | tag page | RSS
Heart Of The West Series (4)
Heart of the West Series (1)
Historical Romance (4)
Inspiration (3)
Juicing (1)
Last Stand Series (1)
Low Carb (2)
Marinades (1)
Morgan's Mercenaries Series #6: Women of Destiny (2)
Natural Foods (1)
Necklace Series (1)
Oils (1)
Pampered Chef (3)
Paranormal Romance (3)
Recipes (10)
Regligious (1)
Religious (1)
Romance (6)
Romantic Suspense (6)
Science Fiction (1)
Science Fiction-Space Opera (2)
Self Directed Health (2)
Self Esteem (1)
Self Help (3)
Sinclair Sisters Series (1)
Slow Cooker (1)
Southern Series Trilogy (1)
Stand Alone Novel (2)
The Inn Boonsboro Trilogy (1)
The Raines of Wind Canyon Series (1)
The World of Hetar Series (1)
Vegetable Purees (1)
Vinegars (1)
Whispering Mountain Series (1)

Right now I carry a big bulky binder with me when I go book shopping so I don't buy the same book twice but it's difficult for me to lug around due to my disability. It has a list of each of my favorite authors books and I just mark the books I own in red and it doesn't even have any of my cook books or self help books etc. listed in it so I'm trying to get more organized and also for insurance purposes have every thing cataloged. We have a lot of movies and Cd's and vinyl I need to catalog also, this is a huge project and will probably take me a year to finish if I can manage it in a year. I know if I had a smart phone with internet then I could come to this website and look at my books list and not have to lug around this binder but it's just not in the budget or practical since I don't get out of the house that much. I just have a little cheap phone with no internet or texting (I don't even no how to text) for emergency if I break down or something. I have been trying now for a couple hours to get it to work right ( I have re-read previous advice/messages from above) I'm frustrated and lost and giving up for now and signing off. Any suggestions as to how to unsnarl this mess and put it the way I want it and keep it that way would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Tootz

It does indeed appear that you've got Collections and Tags switched around. For instance Cookbooks should be a collection and then Low Cal would be a tag.

Yes, I think you have them conceptually switched.

Also, just as you can have multiple tags on one book, you can have one book in multiple collections. So no real reason to move books out of Your Library, unless you have an aesthetic objection to that name.

Think of it as a literal library. You walk in the door and all of what you see is All Collections (all books need to be in at least one collection or things get difficult to find).

"Your library" -- completely conceptualized by you -- might be any number of things, such as for books you physically own, which is how I use that collection. Or it could be for hard-copy rather than ebooks, or books you've read, or all books you can remember owning or reading, or whatever. Most people use it as that kind of big category. So, one way to see it is the library's holdings.

In most physical libraries, there is a division into Fiction and Non-fiction. For your personal library that might seem obvious enough that you don't make a collection for that. In my library, just as an example, I have so little fiction compared to non-fiction, I made a collection for Fiction. If it's not in that collection, it is assumed to be non-. Could have used a tag, also, but I have a LOT of tags already.

Then there's the big topics. As >4 MarthaJeanne: said, Cookbooks is a big topic. You'd find them shelved together, so you could use Cookbooks as a collection and then the type of cookbook as a tag.

Have you browsed other people's catalogs to see how they are using those tools? Might give you ideas.

Looking at your tags and collections, I have to wonder if you are utilizing all the fields available to you. You can choose among a number of different default displays by clicking on the buttons to the right of STYLE, or customize them in many ways via the SETTINGS button.

For example, the Common Knowledge field (fields that are filled in by everyone and not exclusive to your catalog) can be displayed in your catalog. Also the Media column, where you can indicate format, binding and other details rather than using tags.

I've chosen to indicate binding in the Publication field myself. I want to know that information for individual books, but I don't feel the need to sort by it.

Also, there are numerous ways to display only subgroups of your library without necessarily having the whole library in a particular order. You can display only books in the Cookbook collection, only books in the Cookbook collection that have X tag, books in any collection that have X tag, etc. If you have a lot of books, you might find it easier to use clicks instead of scrolling through pages.

Another way to look at it, maybe...

Personally, I (mostly) use collections for things I want to search within. Audiobooks are all in a collection, for example, so I can click on it and then search within my audiobooks. It's possible to do that with "audio" as a tag, but it's not as easy.

I use tags for most everything else that doesn't have its own field. Genre, subject, series, whatever I feel like adding. Some personal things that apply only to my library and don't have any meaning for anyone else too. If I had a lot of cookbooks I'd probably add that as a collection and have tags for things like 'low-carb' or 'slow cooker.'

Again personally, I don't use authors as collections or tags. I've seen people who use author names as tags, but I've never bothered because I can see my books by any author other ways. You can click on the author name and then the "You have X books and X works by..." link. Or you can get a list of all of your authors and the number of books you have by them from "Your Books" by selecting "Authors" from the dropdown above it (beside "Covers") and then click the author you're interested in to get to filter by that author in "Your Books".

As far as order goes, you can sort your books by whatever fields you want, as PhaedraB mentioned. There's not really an inherent order. I keep my tags in a certain order so if I sort by tags then I get series in order, for example. I don't think you can sort your books by collection, though. If you really want all of your cookbooks to sort together you could use tags that way. If you make sure "cookbook" is always the first tag if it's there, then they'll always sort together even if you're looking at your full catalog. But I think that the more you use the site, the more you'll find yourself filtering by collection and searching or sorting within that.

And the subject field comes from library records when you add a book. Some library authority somewhere controls what values are allowed and us users are not allowed to edit it (since the rules are complicated and hard to enforce programmatically).

I seem to be a few steps behind. I can't figure out how to sub-categorize sections; i.e., fiction, cook books, philosophy, religion, etc. Would someone be good enough to give me a quick primer with step by step instructions as to sort by genre. Perhaps I have an outdated version of Librarything???

p.s. I get a message reading "Problem getting member data!" when I hit the Tags icon.

P.S. When I click Tags I get a message saying "Problem getting member data." ???

>11 skiteam: Are you still having problems? I see you do have some tags.

Re: the problem of buying a book twice. Answering this years later; oh well. I have also wrestled with how to tag a book, but I am not sure it matters. If I want to know if I already have a book I am considering buying, I just go to the Search My Library function under Your Books and enter the author or a word from the title, and it brings up anything that matches, regardless of what the tags are. I have Library thing on my phone, and have used it frequently when I am buying. I think the tags are useful only if you want to make a list of similar subjects (Atlas, road atlas, tour guide, art, history). I made a tag that identifies the shelf location, so if I want to know what should be on a particular shelf, I can search that tag and it will give me a list.

In the the "Your books" page, I can "sort" them and have them appear in order by Dewey Decimal. That si fine. However, I would like to have a secondary "sort" by author's name. In other words, if I have 20 books in 230, I want those 20 books listed by author's last name (alphabetically). The current order is either random or by something else. This change makes reading the shelves easier. Note that I can export my library to Excel, and then do a secondary sort within Excel. However, I would prefer to see that secondary sort online in Library Thing. Is there a way to do this?

>16 ONALibrary: Click on the small Icon that looks like two arrows on the top of your catalog - one going up, one down. That will allow you to set secondary sorting.

Or you can first click on the column for your secondary sort, and then on the column for your primary sort.

If you're really dedicated you can sort on tag order. This requires entering tags in the correct order for each book. It is arduous to change the scheme! Get it right first time and when entering books.

I have all my books tagged: Author, seriesXX, ..... with ~ at the start if it's non-fiction. If I view all my books and sort by tags then all my fiction is sorted by author and within each author all the series are in the correct order. And all my non-fiction books are sent to the end of the collection and appear after my Z named fiction authors.

It works for me.
I haven't otherwise found a way to get series books in order in a catalogue view as the series tab is not sortable.

However if you're only ever going to look at subsets at once, then collections work better - view only the cookbook collection, sort by author, and they'll all be there in order.

>19 reading_fox: Other Call System Numbers is sortable (by clicking on it - it is not in the list on the sorting thingie). Unless you use it for something else, it can be used to construct order (Series name 01 and so on for example).

I have a related question (rather than starting a new thread): is there an easy way to put a large number of already catalogued books into a new collection other than going through my library book by book to add them to the new collection individually?

ETA: never mind; found the answer https://www.librarything.com/topic/331331

ETA: >23 gilroy: thanks

>5 Tootz: Obviously you can catalogue your books however you want in the way that work best for you (for example you could have separate collections for your cookbooks and your fiction books and then organise within those). I would suggest that you reduce the number of collections because the drop-down list is going to get too long and cumbersome.

Rather than having a separate collection for each series, you could use the series field or the other call number field, which is sortable as are the author fields.

>21 humouress: You can go into the Power Edit mode (the lightning bolt icon in Your Books) and select the books you want to change the collections of.

Okay, I'm quite new here, and I'm trying to figure out the correct way to sort books, and how to organize based on that...looking to enter about 5000 books and *really* don't want to go down a wrong path...

To give an example: I might have 14 books by Isaac Asimov...for the sake of this example, we'll say that 10 of them are hardcover, and 4 are paperbacks...and I store them separately (shelf size optimization reasons). This sounds like a good scenario for collections. So far, so good (though if you have other opinions or think I'm missing something, please let me know!)

Of the 4 paperbacks, we'll say they are
Foundation
The Gods Themselves
Magic: The Final Fantasy Collection
Second Foundation

The problem for these comes with sorting. If I sort by Title I get the sorting above. This isn't ideal, as Foundation and Second Foundation are in the same series, and should go together.

I'd like to do something like sort by series...but it looks like that isn't doable "out of the box". Is the preferred solution something like entering my own sorting entry for every book into the tag field?

>24 beskamiltar: I have my tags set up so I can sort series in order using them. If there's a series it's the first tag and I use a tag for the order after that (01, 02, etc). That way I can both easily select everything I have in a series (or sub-series... I tag those too) and easily sort them in order.

May or may not work for you, but it's more flexible than anything automatic would be (meaning that I can make it sort non-obvious series however I want to do it rather than how somebody else wants it to be sorted) and it does everything I need.

>24 beskamiltar: You can use the tag field, but a better option would be the "other call number" field, where you can invent your own sorting system

I use Comment for this and use a script to extract the information from the "export as tsv" file. Very flexible but geek stuff :-)

>24 beskamiltar: There is a 'series' field. If you click on the 'Your books' tab it shows you your catalogue (I'm sure you know that already) and if you look at the top you'll see A, B, C, D & E. These are different views that you can customise. If you click on the 'settings' button at the top it'll take you to the screen where you can customise them.

Everyone, as you can see, does it differently. Personally I use the 'other call number' field and use my own system. So, if I had those books I'd probably have:

The Gods Themselves : Asimov, I
Magic: The Final Fantasy Collection : Asimov, I (anthology)
Foundation : Asimov, I (Foundation Expanded Universe 11) 11/15
Second Foundation : Asimov, I (Foundation Expanded Universe 13) 13/15

For example, Foundation falls into three different series; in the expanded universe, it is eleventh of 15 (give or take) books. I'm a completist, so that way I can see at a glance what books in a series I still have to acquire.

ETA: if you do number the books, I'd suggest you put a zero in front of single digits because the system tends to sort by the first digit. So without the zero, you would get 1, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 2, 3, 4 etc.