BookDB2 location

Question

I have several hundred books in my BookDB2 private (home) collection, shelved in 7 book cases, each with 5 or 7 shelves.

I have found in Book DB2 a reference to "Location 1 - location 30", but I cannot discover anything else about this function. As I cannot find any reference to it in the English online manual, I am at a loss how to proceed further.

My problem is that I need more than 30 (at least 35) locations. My present manual book location code consists of 3 characters:

Char.1: bookcase (1-7)
Char.2: shelf within bookcase (5-7 shelves per bookcase)

In addition, independent of the bookcase+shelf ID there is a third character in the code:

Char.3: Book Special Classification Identifier (this is an ad hoc ID value e.g. D=book for disposal, S=book for sale, R=book ready to be cataloged; another value for this special char.3 is a single letter to identify a large number of specialized books (a whole private library) of very many different content categories that I have inherited from a deceased friend and wish to be able to identify as such in the DB at any time, irrespective of where they are located. The latter may change over time, for instance if I re-categorize the book; but for the inherited books, the char. 3 will remain constant. This will enable the inherited books to be passed on as a complete collection when I am no longer around. For my remaining books this char. 3 remains blank.

I need to see this code in the online 'Book' listing, but the 'Location', even if it were usable for my problem, is not displayed there. For me to find the book on a shelf, this value is more important than, say, the ISBN.

Can I use 'Location' to solve this problem? If so, how? And if not, what do you suggest?

Thank you for any help that you can offer.

Answer 1

I think that you've misunderstood the meaning of the location feature because you are trying to use Location per books when it's used and designed for copies only. This function allows you to have multiple copies in different locations. Locations cannot be modified or changed above number 30 which is the limit you can use. I believe that the only method remains ISBN look-up as it's more accurate then the locations in shelves. When ISBN lookup is used, it will display all the entries in its possible locations.

Answer 2

Many thanks for the explanation! I had indeed misunderstood the location feature. Your suggestion to use the ISBN is certainly good for sorting the majority of the books as such, but unfortunately, many of my books are older than the ISBN system, so the field is blank for all those volumes. Using a fictitious ISBN might well work for that specific purpose, but it would entail writing it in each respective book. Besides, I do need to locate and list books by using "1 shelf = 1 location" as that is the purpose-built way that I have worked for years. I am not a lending library. Changing my present system might well entail re-shelving ALL the hundreds of books!
Thanks again, though, for the clarification. I really think that it should be defined in the user manual for this otherwise very useful programme.