Absence

I apologize for my period of absence but my cumulative exam is now over.  I am just waiting upon the results!  Hopefully I’ll know within the week.  I’ll have to change the premise for my blog now from graduate student to “person seeking employment in high school or community college” lol.

Until then, I proudly post this picture of my accomplishment in reading for my exam.

Organizing my mountain

So after needing to determine what era of history is underrepresented in my book collection (for teaching purposes), I decided it was time to get organized.  I didn’t want to pay an arm and a leg for a program that I could use MS Excel or Access to do.  However, I also didn’t want to take the hours of time to set up a database on Excel or Access either.  I wanted something that I could type in the title or ISBN number and update all the rest from the internet, an attractive frontpage, and the ability to do subcollections.  Off I went to Google!  After about 45 minutes of sporadic searching, I had installed and uninstalled numerous demos and free programs that just did not do what I wanted.  Then the heavens opened and the angels sang.  I ran across myCollections software and fell in love.

The people who created it seem to have a genuine love for their product and the people who use it.  I emailed them asking if it could do what I wanted because I was confusing myself (imagine that!) and within 8 hours they emailed me back with detailed instructions on how to do the subcollections.  It turned out the problem was between the keyboard and the chair and I had downloaded an older version.  The new version is sleek.  Please see my screenshots below and visit their website if you’re looking for a similar program!  The developers are so responsive if you have any questions!

This is the myCollections frontpage.  I’m still in the beginning stages of adding my books but I wanted to throw praise on this program early.  For those of us who are visual, the book covers provide for quick memory recall and organization.  You can also sort by various categories.

This is the “Add Book” page of myCollections.  I am just sitting here looking at my bookshelf typing in the names of the book and clicking “Web Update” and it fills in all the rest of the information as you see above.

This is the genre category list that you can use to categorize your books.  It is completely customizable as you can see from my list.

All in all, so far, it is the best program I have found for a book collection.  You can also add movies, songs, and other collections.  The best part- its completely free and it runs on Windows 7.  I’m happy to answer any questions you have about using this program as I learn to use it myself!  Just ask in the comments or send me a message.

Check it out: myCollections http://mycollections.codeplex.com/