card catalog

From IndieWeb

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card catalog is a way to keep track of books or other media in a library, including a personal library, typically physical media and sometimes also including digital items.

IndieWeb Examples

Chris Aldrich

Some minimal examples from Chris Aldrich's collection:

  • Photo of an old Library of Congress card example
  • Photo of a card in Chris Aldrich's library card catalog
  • Photo of a minimum example of a Christoph Adami catalog card (The numbers down the side are respectively for ISBN, LOC, LCCN, and Dewey decimal, with the -dc# indicating the published version of the Dewey Decimal catalog used)
  • Photo of the copyright page from the Adami book the catalog card was made from
  • Use of a library book card (aka a check out card) to track reading status: https://boffosocko.com/2024/04/30/typewriter-revolution-status-update/

A collection of articles on various boxes, card catalogs, etc.:

Example of a library card catalog card in a post of a book acquisition:

Tantek

Tantek Γ‡elik has a card catalog experiment in progress:

... add yourself ...

Barcode Scanners

For quickly creating a personal library and/or acquiring data from a variety of services, below are some services which have apps or bar code scanners that will allow you to scan the ISBN bar codes on many books (typically those published after 1973) to import them into digital collections and/or print them out on physical cards. Most of these also have reasonably functional import/export of data for potential use with your personal website.


Brainstorming

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Tantek

Tantek Γ‡elik: considering things we discussed in the IndieWebCamp SD cardcatalogs session, the following seem worth exploring when creating a personal card catalog, either physical, or digital, or a design shared across physical and digital spaces.

  • what would a plain text format / layout for a physical card catalog card look like?
  • QR codes on the physical cards that link to the virtual cards?
  • any prior art like a card catalog HyperCard stack?
  • ...

minimum viable card fields

minimum viable card catalog card:

  • author(s), title, date of acquisition,
  • scan barcode on the book to get most of these things (using Library Thing or Goodreads, which gives you exportable database)
  • you may not need heavy cataloging of your stuff

physical card design

From 2025/SD/cardcatalogs:

  • 1: author(s) on top line, above the horizontal redline, starting at the first vertical red line
  • 2: title second line, below the horizontal redline, starting at the second vertical red line
  • 3: publisher, publish location (city), year of publication (newer books day and date)
  • 4: edition (1st, 2nd, ...), printing (number) of that edition (10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 = first printing, 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 = second printing), hardcover or softcover or paperback or trade edition
  • 5: pages and size (preface matter xliv for number of pages before page 1), number of numbered pages, measurement in cm of height of book
  • 6: tracking numbers if exist in the book: ISBN, LoC (year + 6-7 digit number), LOC classification, Dewey Decimal classification
  • 7: acquisition date, place paid for it, where purchased, condition purchased (new, good, very good, excellent, poor)

Sessions

See Also

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