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How to Organize a Personal Library
- 09/05/07
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Suggestions on organizing and cataloging a personal library.
I am developing what I suspect will soon be an extensive personal library. Though it is currently not all that large, as these things go, it is growing at an alarming rate. When we moved into our current house just over one year ago, I had, to the best of my recollection, four bookcases in my office which left me lots of wall space to hang prints of some of my heroes of church history. I couldn't quite fit all my books in there (the military history books are still in boxes in the basement) but it did suffice for all of my other books. A year later the three available walls of my office are lined with bookcases, all of which are stuffed to overflowing. I've only got room remaining for three of those church history prints. In many places books are piled from the top of the bookcases to the ceiling. I have room along my walls for two more bookcases (though they'll have to go between my desk and the wall, meaning that my desk will be pressed hard up against the shelves). At that point every wall in my office will be hidden behind bookcases.
While I do collect books, many of these come in because I am a book reviewer. Some publishers are eager to have me read and review their books (with tens of thousands of new books flooding the market each year they are anxious to have anyone review them!) and new titles come flowing in on an ongoing basis. This growing collection has caused me to have to get a bit creative with managing the library, so in response to questions from some of this site's readers, I thought I'd tell how I keep my library in some semblance of order.
Perhaps it is helpful to first understand the orders of order. In the first order of order we organize physical objects--in this case books. As soon as we do anything with those books, placing them on shelves, sorting them by author, and so on, we have entered into the first order of order. This is helpful, but is best used in combination with the second order of order. In this second order we create metadata, which is information about information. Think of an old-fashioned card catalog--the kind you used to see at libraries. This card catalog contained information about the book, it's title, author, and perhaps most importantly, the place you could find it. It represented the second order of order. To organize my library I depend on both of these orders of order. I'll start with the second.
My Library in Bits and Bytes
LibraryThing is a great service that allows you to catalog your books through their web site. A product of this Web 2.0 world, it also encourages social networking, linking the libraries of various users in interesting and creative ways. While I do not often use the social networking features, I've found the site indispensable in organizing my library and in creating metadata about my books. If interested, you can see the results here: My LibraryThing Catalog (As a visitor to the catalog you'll see the books ordered by title. I created a custom view for myself so I see them sorted by entry date so that the book I added most recently is at the top). As of the moment I write this, I have cataloged 1079 books which represents the bulk of my library (I didn't add some of the older and more obscure theological volumes). Cataloging is a simple process. I simply click "Add Books" and type in a title or an ISBN number. In 99 out of 100 cases, the software will find the book (at Amazon, the Library of Congress, or any other number of places) and all I need to do is click to confirm it's found the correct one. If I have already added that book it will let me know there is a duplicate in the library. Adding a book takes only a few seconds per title. Every time I receive a new book I immediately add it into my catalog. I don't put it on a shelf until it has been added to LibraryThing.
When I first began using LibraryThing I had to invest a fair bit of time in cataloging the books. I went through each book in my library, adding the titles one-by-one. It was miserable, but was a necessary evil. If I had to do it again I would use a barcode scanner (which can be had for only a few dollars through LibraryThing).
While cataloging the books is great, LibraryThing does not stop there: it also allows books to be "tagged." Unfortunately for me, I have not been very creative in tagging books. At some point I intend to go through the catalog to do a better job of this. A tag can be any word at all that describes the book's content. I have tended to use "categories" more than tags: Christian Living, theology, and so on. What would be better would be to be more specific: atonement, justification, holiness, heresy, and so on.
Once the books are cataloged, I can search quickly and easily to see what I've got in my library using the available metadata. The search function will pull up authors, titles, tags, and so on. If I want to see if I've got a book by R.C. Sproul, I simply go to LibraryThing, type "Sproul" in the search box, and can see an immediate list of all of his books in my library. If I want to look for a book about a particular aspect of theology, such as the trinity, I could simply type "trinity" into the search area and see what shows up. Had I done a better job with tagging, the results would be better!
My Library in Atoms
After virtualizing my library, adding it to the world of bits and bytes through LibraryThing and creating that second order of order, I still need to deal with the actual books--those big, heavy, tree-based things that insist on being comprised of atoms and insist on taking up space (and a lot of it!). I need to find a way of sorting them using the first order of order and sorting them in a way that is intuitive. I tend to keep most of the books I receive, but do throw out the worst of the worst. There is little point in allowing some of them to keep taking up space. Every now and again I tend to weed through and cull any that have made it through my first filters and are now just taking up space.
I've chosen to organize my books on their shelves in this way:
- Commentaries by book of the Bible. I have a bookcase that starts with the complete Commentary on the Old Testament series by Keil & Delitzsch. That is followed by the rest of my Old Testament commentaries organized by book of the Bible. I then have the Baker New Testament Commentary set (by Hendriksen and Kistemaker) and it is followed by volumes organized from Matthew to Revelation.
- Church History. I'm not sure why I singled out church history as a category, but for some reason I did. So a church history section follows the commentaries.
- Fiction by author. I chose to separate fiction from nonfiction and organized my fiction titles by author. This is probably the smallest section I've got!
- Reference books. This is a somewhat arbitrary section of systematic theologies, commentaries on catechisms, and other similar reference books.
- Everything else organized by author. And then I come to the rest (and the bulk) of my library. This stretches from Abanes to Zwonitzer and everything in between and spans many bookcases. Where I have many titles by the same author (such as John MacArthur) I have organized the titles alphabetically. When I first organized the library I left the bottom shelf of each bookcase empty so I had some room to grow. Needless to say, it has long since grown into that room!
I'm sure my method is not perfect. But it works for me. We can, I think, be very subjective, very pragmatic about this. When I browse through other people's libraries I see a lot of variety--some are organized very methodically and others seem to be completely chaotic. As long as a person can track down the books he needs his method is a success. This is how I do it and it seems to work just fine for me. A few days ago I had to go through each of the 100 or so footnotes in the manuscript for my upcoming book. The system worked well for me as I pulled book after book from the shelf, never having to look for more than a few seconds for any of the titles.
I'd be interested in hearing how others here organize their libraries and whether you've also found value in using a service such as LibraryThing. Do you rely on that second order of order or can you still exist with just the first?
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I write books and blogs for fun while doing web design and consulting for a living. I worship and serve at 
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Comments (31)
This has been an issue that has been on my mind for quite a while now. I first presented the case on the Expository Thoughts blog in hopes of finding some kind of solution. LibraryThing has been a helpful tool but has some real limitations in regards to the needs of preachers and students of the Bible.
I am anxious to hear from others on how they do it (physically) and how they may want to do it (electronically). I have teamed up with a friend in developing something that takes the idea of LibraryThing and goes many steps forward to meet the needs of the preacher like providing a way to save notes, quotes, and other highlights to the books in their personal library.
So you will be able to add your books just like LibraryThing and then save your own notes in a similar library and sort these items however you wish. Of course, all of your notes will synchronize to your sermons, commentaries, and more (if you desire). And plus, you can add to your library things like magazines, journals, and other things.
Also, we are providing it totally free of charge. Our hopes is to get some publishers involved for Bible translations and much more. The library application (online) is called The Preacher's Library.
If you wish to get involved by testing our applications. Feel free to contact jabshire@t411.com. We are in the middle of development and hope to go to testing before the year ends.
Tim, I hope this does not get your post off track. Forgive me if so!
I have usedDelicious Libary (only for Mac) to catalog my books and then organized my commentaries similar to yours (though I sadly don't have many OT commentaries). Then I've got a fiction section, a CS Lewis section, a poetry section, a marriage and family section, a biography section, a Greek section, a reference section, and everything else by author.
I'm also curious...how would one get to become a book reviewer that all these publishers are clamoring to read their books?
I, too, use Librarything. The Challies library is even one of my closest matches in similar books! I like Librarything because if my house ever burns down, I'll have a catalog outside the house of my books for insurance purposes. Replacement value is in the tens of thousands. I organize mine by broad subject, which only I totally understand. I have a commentary/reference section in shelves above my desk. I have a dead pastors section with Puritan and classics. I have a theology proper section flowing down into Christology and the Holy Spirit. I have a biblical theology section, a general theology section, a biography/missionary section, a preaching and hermaneutics section, a church section, a practical theology/counseling section. I have a fiction section and non-Christian non-fiction section. When it comes to authors of many books (Sproul, Piper, MacArthur), I have all them together in one place because I know the things they've written about, and want them in close proximity. I thought about shelving by author, but when it comes time to research something, books are all over the place. At least in sections, if I want something on the covenants, I go the biblical theology section, and classics section, and I'm set.
I've started using LibraryThing and will be moving my physical library to something simliar to Tim's. I run into a problem when I hit CS Lewis -- is Til We Have Faces fiction or theology? How about Screwtape Letters? Is A Grief Observed biography or theology or "Christian living?" He makes a mess of my library.
The Shepherd's Scrapbook has also been considering the ordering of libraries. Someone might find that discussion useful.http://spurgeon.wordpress.com/2007/08/29/organizing-a-library/
Glad to see you've got the essentials: "The Complete Calvin & Hobbes".
I just finished reorganizing my physical library of 348 book last week. This is simple because all I need to be able to do is find the physical book. Alphabetical by author is probably the simplest. There is some division by Commentaries and reference titles because then it becomes difficult whether to use the general editor or the author of the individual commentary.
The digital library is the heartbeat of the library though. The tremendous benefit is breaking through the physical barrier of only being able to place a book in one category.
I enjoy a program that when I click the program responds, and does so immediately without a log of processor or graphics card working to show me a neat little effect. There is a reason (beyond cost) that many libraries are purely text based in their digital catalogue. For this reason I use Bookpedia (for mac). It is very reliable, tagging friendly, and simply works out of the box. It also has the mac-friendly benefit of a iTunes-like interface including smart folders. This is a great way to set up smart folders to become your topical categories. I also use these folders for my favorite authors and unread books.
Just remember for we who are OCD ... cataloguing books is great fun and fills some deep need within, but reading books is even better. To remind me of this I have a smart folder that says my total number of books, my read books, and my unread books. My read books needs to grow faster than my unread. This also helps to keep my wife happy with my book buying habits.
One more thing! shelfari.com is a site that a friend recommended to me that I use, not to catalogue my whole inventory, but to put up some favorites and current reads as it is geared in the social networking direction. It is quite fun and can serve a reading group for those of use who have a hard time finding friends who read.
Happy ISBN entering!
I use LibraryThing, but predating the use of that I had a physical organization system. I have little folded up index cards with the basic subject written on them. I place that at the start of the books on that subject. So the top three shelves may be books on Christianity--at the very top left of the shelves would be a card marked 'Christianity'. Other shelves hold other subjects. They are in a very general subject classification--christianity, psychology, marriage & relationships, poetry & quotations, etc.
Like you I have my commentaries organised by book in biblical order. I tend to ignore sets - unless Calvin or Lenski or Keil and Delitsche, other tahn that the Hendrikson and Tyndale commentaries are along with teh proper OT/NT book.
When it comes to other books they are categoried after Theological categories
General (Systematic) Theological books - Confessions - Works (eg Shorter Writnings of Packer, or Warfield)
Then
Doctrine of God - Scripture - Jesus - Atonement - Holy Spirit - Sin/Devil - Man - Salvation - Ecclesiology - Sacraments - Eschatology - Apologetics - Evangelism - Evangelistic - Ethics - Counselling -
Christian Living (a whole other bookcase) - Prayer - Jerry Bridges books - John Piper - Whitney - Ryle - random Christian living books.
Preaching - OT introductions - OT history - OT Characters - NT Intros - NT History - NT Characters - Journals
Doing it this way means I can simply pull an entire section of books off my shelves when I am dealing with a topic. I keep an empty shelf beside my desk to move the 'in use' books to.
Happy hunting
Mark
I need to get organized and this is a good time since the elders have given the okay to re-model my office.
I do not yet have my library in a data base. What PC compatible software programs can you recommend to me?
Tim, I'll investigate your suggestions for sure. An outside record of my books would be a real asset. But I can also backup my data on three computers, so it's not essential.
Thanks,Steve
Thanks for the post, Tim!
I follow a similar system, but no software. I have NT commentaries on the bookcase that is closest to me, as I reach for them most often. I also have a shelf of Bibles in that case, since I like to have them in reach. I group commentary series together, and put individual volumes by book of the Bible.
I don't generally sort the rest by author, but by subject - ie evangelism, prayer, classic authors, history, counseling, bad theology (for certain questionable books - grouped together in a Be Careful section) etc... I also try to have a shelf for books I want to read so that I can grab something when I have a moment and read it without much thought about finding a book.
For me accessibility is most important. If I can't see it and grab it quickly, it's no use. I have about 500 volumes in my church office on 5 bookshelves and 100+ but less organized on two bookshelves at home. I wonder how my system will have to develop as my library grows.
By the way, I like Ikea's "Billy" shelves for books, though only one of my shelves is a Billy. Four are some other Ikea ones I got on sale for $30 a pop, a few years ago.
For those of you like Steve who are looking for software, let me recommend to you Book Collector (www.collectorz.com/book/). I prefer it over LibraryThing. It also searches by ISBN and downloads information from various library and book sources (Amazon, Library of Congress, etc.). It allows you to "tag" your books. It is fully searchable. It allows you to customize a few fields. It gives you a "notes" section where I record relevant notes from the book that can then be searched. Found an illustration about forgiveness in a book? Just note it in book collector and then when you search for "forgiveness" you'll find that illustration, even though the book as a whole has nothing to do with forgiveness. I have customized book collector as well so that I store every type of information, music, articles, web pages, you name it. This is the real strength of book collector. You really need to check it out, there is a free trial version, and the cost is low to purchase (you need to get the pro version for sure). It even manages loaned books. You can link to audio or electronic books and websites, leaving you just one click away from opening that electronic media. You really need to check it out (I wish I could get commission for recommending it!)
By the way, one "solution" I've found to the problem of storage space for physical books is to go "electronic." Using Logos Bible Software, I prefer to purchase an electronic book if it is available. Sure, you can't hold it in your hand, but you also don't have to store it on your bookshelf. It all fits on your laptop and so you can take your library with you wherever you go. I have about 450 physical books, and almost twice that number of e-books. Of course, I also catalogue all of my e-books in Book Collector.
As for cataloguing my physical books, I used to use my own elaborate system of ordering, but I got frustrated trying to figure out which category some of my books should fit in (just like the problem ChrisB had with C.S. Lewis). So I have decided to go with the Library of Congress ordering system for my books. Sure, that makes some books go in seemingly awkward places (you can always create your own LOC number if you just don't like how they have assigned the book), but it also keeps me from having to figure out where I should put everything. If the LOC number is not printed inside the book, you can almost always find it by using www.worldcat.org to search other libraries all over the world (most academic libraries use the LOC classification system).
So that's my two cents. I'm very picky about organizing my library, so I really think the above ideas are worth considering, though of course my ideas are not perfect.
"...my desk will be pressed hard up against the shelves..."
Who would DO that? How rookie!
I have a few e-books. Don't care for them. I can't feel the binding, smell the fresh pages and glue, and admire the multi-colored display.
By the way, one “solution” I’ve found to the problem of storage space for physical books is to go “electronic.” Using Logos Bible Software, I prefer to purchase an electronic book if it is available.
I've done that in a few cases (welcome to the third order of order, by the way...) but still prefer a real book to a virtual one. Though in the case of reference titles the electronic ones are almost invaluable. But I HATE reading a full book on my screen. It makes my brain hurt.
By the way, I like Ikea’s “Billy” shelves for books, though only one of my shelves is a Billy.
Those are the ones I use as well. They're solid, cheap, and can be "accessorized" if you want to have a couple of cases with extra shelves, doors, lights, etc.
Ah thanks Tim. This is a great post. I love reading about these 'practical' things. My library is now beginning to grow, and so I wanted to implement some sort of system now, otherwise I may look back at it in 24 months and I find I am lost in a mound of books. You've given me some great suggestions. I think I will give LibraryThing a go, but Jacob Abshire, I'd be interested in your piece of software once it is complete. I have been curious since I read about it on the Expository Thoughts blog. But please make sure you create a feature that will import a LibrayThing library!
I couldn’t quite fit all my books in there (the military history books are still in boxes in the basement)...
I urge you to get those books out of the basement as quickly as possible! This is exactly how I lost several thousands of dollars worth of books about 5 years ago. I don't live anywhere near water, and had (still have) no concern about flooding. Figured those books were as safe in the basement as anywhere else in the house. Then I left to go out of town for a "whirlwind" visit (I was away about 24 hours). Came home to 34" of water in my basement due to a busted pipe (who knows how or why - it wasn't that cold); it took a local company 48 hours to pump the basement dry. Insurance did replace everything that was replaceable, but many of those books were out of print, and of course, there were the notes written in the margins, and notes written on paper that was stuffed between pages -- all gone.
Thanks for this article; I'll definitely give LibraryThing a look.
I must recant and repent in dust and ashes. The last time I ran a check of similar libraries on Librarything, the Challies library came up near the top of my list. Now it's not even on there at all. In fact, Steve McCoy is the only one I recognize from last time. That seems whacked out to me, but I wanted to be sure to maintain truth in advertising!
Thanks so much -- what a lifesaver this info is! I am in the process of moving my thousands of volumes (ranging from theology to homeschooling materials to engineering and economics texts, with a whole lot in-between!) from Philly to Minneapolis, and have been desperate to find a low-cost way to catalog them (mainly for insurance purposes -- should have done it years ago). In fact, I recently spoke to a woman from church who is a librarian to ask her if she had any suggestions for me (she didn't). What a timely post this has proven to be! Thanks again!
I usually place my Bible in the center of my desk, just in front of my chair.
The rest of my 1000 plus volumes I just stick into the nearest hole!
That's about as organized as I care to get. However, ask me if I have a certain book and I can go right to it so what's the point in trying to organize. I know what I've got and I know where it is.
I do plan to place my library on LibraryThing for insurance purposes but I don't know if that can be considered as proof of what I owned in the event that my house goes up in flames. What would prevent someone of simply copying the largest library there are calling it their own?
If you want a more tedious system, Microsoft Works Database has a Book Collection Template. If you use this system and save it to a disk it can be used for insurance purposes.
I have two bookshelves, but have thought of adding a third, especially when I lie them on top of the ones standing up, bending the shelf itself. I'm too rookie to place them in categories like biblical theology, so I organized it mainly by author. There's only three sections in my library: Christian books, small Christian books and secular books (pagan as I like to call them). Small books have to be separated since it's so easy to overlook them when you have two big sized books sandwiching both sides.
As an aside Mr. Challies, have you ever written a post on how to write a book review? I'd love to read your insights into the matter, since you've written so many. Thanks.
Dr. Wilbur M. Smith (1894-1977) was a pastor, Bible college and Seminary professor, and writer and editor; but he is best remembered for his love for the Word of God and for his expertise in the area of theological books. In his autobiography entitled “Before I Forget,” he includes a chapter on his personal library--a library of more than 25,000 volumes. One of the most amazing aspects of Dr. Smith’s life is this: He never attended seminary or graduate school, yet he was ordained, was a pastor for 20 years (4 different churches), taught at Moody Bible Institute for 10 years, and then at two different seminaries, for a total of 21 years---all because he was so diligent in his study of the Word of God and his theological books. In his autobiography he comments on ministers and their acquisition of books: “Most ministers do not spend for books nearly as much as they should. To spend more money on tires or a vacation than one spends on books in a year reveals a disproportionate distribution of money, and in so doing one is cheating his own intellectual life and producing pulpit messages that are much less inspiring and instructive than they ought to be.”He wrote three books on theological books: “The Minister in His Study,” “A Treasury of Books for Bible Study,” and “Profitable Bible Study,” and while all three have *many* book recommendations, in the last one he included a list of the top 100 books for the serious Bible student’s library. All three books are available from internet used book sources. Dr. Smith did a series on ministers’ libraries (called “Chats from a Minister’s Library,”) on “Radio School of the Bible” (Moody Broadcasting) in the 1950s, and at about the same time he also wrote a regular column on the same topic for “Moody Monthly” magazine. Though he’s been gone for 30 years, his expertise on theological books is just as valuable today, and I highly recommend his autobiography as well as his other books.
Carol BlairLongview, TX
Greetings, Tim. Your post prompted me to post the following on my site:
I have a personal library of about 2,000 books. In the last 5 years I’ve often found myself thinking, “I remember reading about this topic in book X, and I’d like to footnote its discussion, and I know I own the book...now where is that book?” I look in the likely spots on my bookshelves without finding it, then tediously scan every bookshelf and pile of books, only to end up not finding the book. Frustrating.
When I worked under the Cataloger in the library at Westminster Theological Seminary, I found the solution. It was time to give up on constantly re-creating my own system of categories for ordering the books on my shelves and do what all academic libraries do: label the books with Library of Congress Call Numbers. It’s the best academic book categorization system in the world, period. Why invent my own categories when I can access the combined wisdom of many thousands of trained academic librarians? And the automation tools exist to make it relatively easy. What doesn’t exist is a description of the process for transforming bookshelves that hide your books from you into a refined, accessible personal library.
So, in the hope it will help you as much as it did me, I now unveil the process I use for labeling my books:
Read more...
Tim,
Have you ever thought of selling the books that you get to review but will probably not read again in the future? It could be a good way to supplement discerning reader and pass some good used books on to others at a savings!
Thanks Tim for the great post.I have been searching for something similar for some time, but couldn't find anything satisfying.I decided to give LibraryThing a try, I'm sure it will prove to be helpful, as my library is growing regularly.
Thanks for pointing out LibraryThing, Tim. I think the name is cool. I have a collection of several hundred books, and I mostly rely on memory to try to find them, not a good thing as I get older. I'm giving my 10 year old son the job of entering books into LibraryThing. As for the physical sorting, I think that will be up to me.
Have you ever thought of selling the books that you get to review but will probably not read again in the future?
Not really. The problem is that I'd want to keep the good books and wouldn't want to sell anyone the bad ones. There aren't a whole lot of good ones that don't get read! Plus, after I read books, they're all covered in notes and highlighting and so on...
I've divided my c. 500 volume personal library into these categories (# of books):
Christian Fiction (10)Non-Christian Fiction (15)Business and Finance (15)Health and Fitness (10)Biography / History (30)Philosophy and Sociology (10)Psychology/Self Help (50)Non-Christian Religions (50)Family and Relationship (15)Men's Issues (10)Commentaries (25)Reference books (dictionaries, systematic theologies, 20)Christian Living (a whole bookcase, blah - 100)Prayer (10)Church Structure (10)Leadership (10)Children's (30)
And the ever growing TO-READ pile (100)
What--no humor section?
I'm happily cataloging our church's library with LibraryThing. As a former librarian, I find that it meets my professional preferences as well as my personal, practical needs (didn't really intend that alliteration, but oh well). As soon as I'm done, I hope to start on our own collection of a couple thousand volumes. Thanks for posting your experience and suggestions!
I have a small library in my home office. four large bookcases 3 with 5 shelves and one with 6 and also 3 small bookcases each with 3 shelves.
The way I have my office library organized is 1 bookcases contains Greek, Hebrew, and general reference (Concordances, dictionaries, ect)a. all the Greek studies tools are at the top.1. Greek concordances, Lexicons, and Grammarsb. then comes Hebrew in the same wayc. then finally General reference
next bookcase contains commentaries and Church history with some preaching references at the bottoma. Whole commentary sets1. Calvin's then Lenski, Thru the bible, The comm. Commentary, ectb. the One volume commentaries on the whole bible or OT NT.c. Church history comes nextd. followed by Preaching references like Martin Luther's sermons, books on preaching, outlines, homiletics, ect.
3rd bookcase has single volume commentaries on a book of the bible in biblical order followed at the bottom by other, misc.
4th bookcase has at the top shelf C.S. Lewis followed by 4 overflowing shelves of different English bible translations.
the 5th small bookcase has apologetic materialthe 6th small bookcase has general reference (other world religions, English dictionaries, and other).the 7th small bookcase is reserved for Cult material.a. Mostly books from the Watchtower Society as I have been working with these folks for some time and found in helpful to have on had their own books.b. Mormon material and other
I have a few books on the Martial arts that take up my office closet and lots of Video and Audio material all over in no real order.
I hope to do a better job organizing these books but at the moment I know exactly where to go for a certain type of book and I only have a small library. As for computer software I have Bibleworks 6 and 7, Wordsearch 7, PC Study Bible 5, and e-Sword. They all have lots of material some things I don't have in book form other things I do but I don't like reading long periods of time on the computer so I mainly use these programs for quick look ups or when I am ready to sit down and write a sermon or Bible study.
I work in an academic library which uses the Library of Congress (LC) Classification. But I find that specialised libraries benefit from using Dewey Decimal (DDC).
So when I was tasked to set up a system for my church's library, I used Broad categories from Dewey system and then customised the sub-categories.
Here's an example:Call nos consist of the Subject code and the first 3 alphabets of the author’s surname or last name. For example: The Celebration of Disciplines by Richard Foster: 240 Fos
Broad Categories:200 - Religion 210 - Philosophy and theory of religion220 - Bible230 - Christianity and Christian theology240 - Christian practice and observance250 - Christian pastoral practice and religious orders260 - Church organization, social work, and worship; Denominations270 - History of Christianity280 - Other religions and comparative religion290 - Fiction
Sub-CategoriesBible220 - Bible 221 - Old Testament (Tanakh) 222 - New Testament 223 - Bible Study Aids (Concordances. Dictionaries, Handbooks)224 - Bible Study methods
Christianity and Christian theology230 - Christianity (General) 231 - God232 - Jesus Christ; Christology 233 - Holy Spirit, Baptism in the Holy Spirit234 - Salvation (Soteriology) and grace 235 - Spiritual beings 236 - Eschatology (Doctrine of the Last days)237 - Humankind238 - Apologetics (Defending our faith)
I supposed for personal libraries, books can be arranged according to how the individual usually searches for the books - whether by subject or author. It is good to observe how we use the library and then set-up a system to facilitate retrieval. Allow freedom for creativity according to personal taste is the best way to go as long as there is some structure ;).