Creating Collections

Hi guys! I'm redoing my LT collections for the third time, and wondering how to really approach it. I was just creating collections as headings and assigning my books to the ones that fit, but as I imagine the library on an actual shelf, I wonder if it isn't best to assign each book to one collection rather than several. Multiple collections is handy for digital search, but on a shelf it means several potential homes. Am I better off assigning just one "home" collection for a work and then using tags to cover the rest?

I also wonder if number of collections can be a problem. I'd rather avoid making a whole bunch, but would things get vague if I had too few? From a practical standpoint, is it better to have too many or too few?

While I can think of a couple collections that would be no-brainers from the start given my tastes and goals, I'm not sure what to do with some of the others that don't really fit with much else. Is it alright to have a general "miscellany" group for books that don't fit in other collections I have or should I really try to fit each work into a category?

Looking for thoughts and opinions. I'm also hoping to create an actual collection development policy but that's a bit of a different beast.

It is my impression that people set up their collections to suit their own needs. For myself, I set up a collection for each year which includes books I read that year. It helps let me see quickly how many books I've read each year and sometimes helps me find a title when I can remember about when I read it. I also have a collection of books that I have read from my work library which would also be included in the "year" category. I blow the students' minds when I can tell them exactly how many books I have read from their library. Since all of your books end up in "All Collections" you have your one catchall category by default.

I took a peak at your collections and can see how you may have books that could fit in different categories. At least you have a reasonably small collection so it wouldn't be too difficult to try a different system. You could take a peek at other people's libraries and see what they've done and maybe get inspiration there.

Good Luck!

Too many collections can get unwieldy in the drop-down menu, and sometimes in performance. I generally use collections to denote changeable things such as who owns the book, whether it's unread, to turn on/off recommendations. I don't usually use them to denote location (shelfmark is better for my purposes) but I do use them for broad categories in the cases I treat the cataloging differently. I generally prefer tags for things that won't change about a book (a cookbook isn't going to suddenly not be a cookbook) but if I don't want cookbook recs I will segregate them.

After I did change up my collections, I found myself changing them up again. I do find that the "personal use" seems to be a better fit, and I've decided now that collection will actually be "collections" since there are a couple of things I want to focus on, like my video game collection and my dog books. Those would be highlighted areas once I get around to making my collection development policy.

I think I did find that collections of any number get awkward when I'm trying to form them around an impersonal category. I find now it helps to imagine my shelf and where I would personally put them. Still awkward though, when I'm looking at a biography of Chris Hadfield and I have collections for both science and memoir.

I don't see the point of collections myself. I tag all my books so I can bring up a list on any topic. I suppose you could organise them into collection by when you read them or where you keep them, or by format, but to my mind that just overcomplicates matters. If it's really important to you you could tag them appropriately.

BTW I would happily split up the reference collection I inherited in my library but it's too much work to lug the books around.

>5 Zambaco: The collections are only necessary if you want to take advantage of two specific site-features:

First, recommendations. If I don't put my comic books in a separate collection with the recs turned off, then ALL the recommendations I will get, and all the "similar library" links will just be other people with comics, which is not what I want out of the recommendations features.

Second, if you want to take advantage of the colored checkmarks feature when browsing LT, those are tied to the pre-made collections. I like knowing immediately at a glance if I've already put an interesting-looking book on my wishlist without having to check.

My snag with using tags is that I tag books according to content as though I was to search for them. Collections more suit my purpose when it comes to grouping. My collections function more as "shelves" which is how I'm thinking of them now, while tags for more for content details.