Adding copies of the same book

How are you handling adding more than one copy of a book? e.g. we have 9 identical copies of the Bible.

We use the Dewey Decimal System; I was lucky that some previous librarians had already given all of our Bibles call numbers. Other than that, you could go into "Edit your Book" and at the bottom you can indicate how many copies you have ...

For purposes of individual identification, we list each copy as a separate book. We have a brief alphanumeric call number, e.g., A/JON/1002, where A indicates it is "Quakerism and Quaker History," the JON means the author's name starts with the letters JON, and 1002 is the accession number (the 1,002nd book to be assigned a number). (In the book, these are stacked into three lines; on LibraryThing entered on one line.) Many books can be A/JON, but only one will have the number 1002. Thus, several copies of one book will each have an individual identity. Inside the book and on LibraryThing, under the call number, we enter Copy 2 (etc.).

This serves several purposes. The most obvious is that it informs the searcher that more than one copy exists. Another purpose is in keeping inventory of the library collection. Also, when a book goes missing or past due, we know which borrower has which copy. Yet another advantage, for us, has been that we can search for Copy in that field and come up with a list of books with multiple copies. This was most useful when Australia Yearly Meeting acquired a retreat property and asked for donations to begin their library. We invited them to retrieve the multiple-copy list and select books they would like to have. In some cases, there is good reason to have multiple copies, but in most it is a situation created by donations. We were able to give them all but one of the books they selected.

In the case of pamphlets, we do not identify multiple copies.

Thank you for your helpful information. In LT where exactly do you enter your one line alphanumeric call number? When I click Edit Book, I cannot find the "call number" field; would it be "Number of Copies"?

I assume that "at the bottom" you mean in the "Summary" field?

We have been using the "Comments" field for call numbers. LT has asked us to stop using the "Review" field for book descriptions, back-cover blurbs, table of contents, and anything that is not a traditional judgmental review. Instead they say we should use the "Comments" field for that. With no place to put the call number, we have been dragging our feet about making changes.

They mentioned they planned on adding another call number field labeled "Other." This hasn't happened. However, they have added a field at the bottom labeled "Where from" or something to that effect. They say this can be used for anything. But it does not allow multiline entries. We have been putting the call number on line 1, copy number on line 2, and sometimes other identifying information on line 3. These are all issues that we need to resolve.

I spent quite a bit of time looking at other people's "misuse" of the "Review" field to see if there might be some possible solution. I couldn't find a solution to our specific problem -- we just need another call number field -- but I did notice that most people who used it improperly were not using the "Comments" field for anything. It appeared to me that they hadn't noticed the field at the bottom; I thought maybe moving it to a position closer to the top would solve that problem. I wrote a report of my "research" and suggestions and sent it to LT. I received a scalding reply accusing me of trying to get LT to make changes for my personal use that would be of no use to anyone else. That was silly, since we could not benefit from any of the possible changes. But when someone is that riled up, I just drop it. They ask for your suggestions, but on a bad day, they don't want to hear it.

If you are still dealing with this problem, LT recently added an "Other Call Numbers" field. Here's talk about it: http://www.librarything.com/topic/188345