Need ideas on how to organize books

[jhperry]

We're currently in Bigger and have accumulated quite a bit of books over the past few years! I have them organized by category on the bookshelves but was trying to come up with a plan to color code them as well. (I'm using color electrical tape which is great, comes in about 9 colors and seems to be removable.) Has anyone done this and have specifics or pictures you could share? I was thinking about this: blue for history, orange for science, yellow for the ER set, green for DITHOR books (with a written number on the front for the level) and red for all other Storybooks. My dilemna is how to code the other books we own that are not a part of the curriculum? Should I code these using the same colors or simply categorize them on the shelves without color coding them? I'm probably overthinking this but I like to be organized and just can't quite come up with the right plan so any ideas would be appreciated! Thanks!

[birchbark]

Here's a post with pics of my color-coding. I also use the Library Thing site for an easy, free way to keep track of all my books.

Hopefully some others will chime in! I love hearing organizational ideas!

[off2workigo]

I LOVE (love, love, love, love, love!) the electrical tape idea! BRILLIANT! Oh, I'm so happy I read this post.

Why not color code ALL the Bigger books with ONE color of tape, and then use a sharpie to mark a letter on the back to let you know what set the book came in?

E=Economy
B=Basic
S=Science
X=eXtension
D=Deluxe
C=Choices of books for basic skills, such as math, grammar, or Bible

If all the Bigger books are Red and all the Preparing books are light blue, it will be easy to keep them all together, then separate by letter so you know which set they are in.

I have considered labeling all books for one level in the same color (again, LOVE the electrical tape idea), then putting a number on the back that corresponds to the unit in which the book first appears. In that way, I can line the books up in order of use.

-Rebecca

[water2wine]

Just to add to what has already been said, the thing I have found to be really important is to put the reading level and genre on the books. As I have gone through the guides I have had several occasions where we could reuse the books for other kids that might have missed that program in reading or story time and having the genres and reading levels really helped. I think color coding them to the program is really helpful as well. My first year I went crazy and color coded them for program and part of the program (like history or story time) and then the next year I can't remember what all those colors were. So now program and listing what reading level and genre they are is what I do.

[netpea]

I don't like to label my books. I just can't do it. So I box up books for programs when we finish them. Then when the next kid starts that program, I can pull out the right box and I know they weren't sneak reading the books ahead of time. I put all the books for each kid's year on a separate shelf.

[arstephia]

Because we love books and the kids are always reading, I had to put colored stickers on the binding of books so they would not get accidently read when they would be needed for a guide or DITHOR. This way the kids know not to pick up and start a stickered book. My oldest (son) knows he can read any books but the green (Rev2Rev) and yellow (DITHOR) books because he didn't get to do the lower guides but is enjoying reading the books from them, so I let him read the CTC and RTR books whenever he wants for fun. I put labels on each book in a guide set (CTC is all orange for instance) but they all live in a basket as they are being used and in a lidded banker box when they are not. Then at the end of the year, they are all stored in the box until the next kid uses it. The Emerging readers are on my shelf with a happy face sticker, and I have DITHOR books with another colored label . Since some books are recommended in a guide as a read aloud but could also be used in DITHOR I needed to seperate them so they didn't get read for DITHOR by mistake. For the DITHOR books, I write inside the cover the genre and recommended level. I put the colored labels on and reinforced with a bit of clear tape and they stay well.