A Hero [Read: Librarian]’s Quest

At this point, you’re probably all sick and tired of my angst over cataloging a library that was never cataloged before – especially when the available software is limited to Microsoft Excel or Access.  So, I did what I was supposed to (grin and bear it, as they say) and made the best database I could possibly make using Access.  While not ideal, I felt it had more search and sort functionality than Excel, and I was able to create tabbed “library cards” with book information on one tab, and financial/subscription/status information on the other tab.

Bonus picture of one of my firm's well-loved, well-used historical books

 Of course, if you are familiar with Joseph Campbell’s monomyths, you know that the hero [read: librarian] must venture from home [read: Microsoft] at some point.  Microsoft Access is just not user-friendly enough for general use by patrons.  I was forced by my quest for usability to leave my desktop and venture into the depths of the internet.  But the search was totally worth it.

I’ve used LibraryThing, and other websites with similar functions, to catalog my personal library in the past.  However, given that a law library is a little more formal than the books I keep on my own shelves, I knew I’d have to dig for something a bit…more.  And I stumbled across Libib.

Libib is free, unless you want to use the Pro version which is $5 a month.  With the pro version, you can have as many patrons as you want, and you can list up to 100,000 books.  Patrons can check out books or request them directly online.  Basically, for a special librarian managing a small library, this is perfect.  There are even Libib apps that scan bar codes to check books out for you. 

I ran this by our IT guru and firm management; everyone seems intrigued by this.  It simplifies life all around… especially since we are preparing to launch our intranet and the Access database was just too complicated for general use.  The simple solution is to link our library catalog in Libib to our intranet site – and thus, the hero’s quest is finished and the return home can commence!

So, note to self, there is always free/inexpensive software when it comes to librarians.  It’s like our ethics to make information available extends to the tools necessary to provide said information.  That, and I think being helpful is just written into our very nature.

Once I've used Libib for a more extensive period of time, I'll post a part deux so if anyone else is in a similar situation they can consider how it's worked for our firm.