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update on the Thingee
Aug. 28th, 2026 10:25 amThanks to everyone who recommended using LibraryThing for the cataloging problem I posted about back in July. I am enjoying it tremendously. Putting a book on the correct shelf, in the correct order, was already satisfying, but being able to enter it into the database with all the cross-references is even better.
We started referring to our LibraryThing as the Thingee. Affectionately, of course. I only spend one day a week in the library (well, sometimes two. It really does soothe my anxiety better than most things.) I can still peek at the database from home and see how its growing when one of my comrades is entering data. I can even tidy up some of the tags, as "dialog" and "dialogue" should NOT be separate categories. Neither should "2nd floor kids" and "2nd floor kids room," though "2nd floor little kids" should have its own tag.
When I was first looking for database systems, I was put off by what LibraryThing calls "collections," as they are both fixed and useless to us. The Thingee just ignores all that and has everything in "My Library." My comrade started putting periodicals in a spreadsheet, while I was figuring out how to deal with the books. I don't want to enter each item into the Thingee one at a time, as there are 573 of them. (I probably don't want to? It might be more soothing than Tetris, as a project for after we deal with all the books.) Is there a way to transfer the information over all at once? Or should we just put cards on the physical shelves saying something like "see periodicals database?"
We started referring to our LibraryThing as the Thingee. Affectionately, of course. I only spend one day a week in the library (well, sometimes two. It really does soothe my anxiety better than most things.) I can still peek at the database from home and see how its growing when one of my comrades is entering data. I can even tidy up some of the tags, as "dialog" and "dialogue" should NOT be separate categories. Neither should "2nd floor kids" and "2nd floor kids room," though "2nd floor little kids" should have its own tag.
When I was first looking for database systems, I was put off by what LibraryThing calls "collections," as they are both fixed and useless to us. The Thingee just ignores all that and has everything in "My Library." My comrade started putting periodicals in a spreadsheet, while I was figuring out how to deal with the books. I don't want to enter each item into the Thingee one at a time, as there are 573 of them. (I probably don't want to? It might be more soothing than Tetris, as a project for after we deal with all the books.) Is there a way to transfer the information over all at once? Or should we just put cards on the physical shelves saying something like "see periodicals database?"
