How do I generate an index or unique number for books in my library?

adding many items that are non-published and do not have ISBN / LC classifictions. How do I get LibraryThing to assign unique reference numebr to each item so I can generate a catalog for sharing?

I'm not sure I get exactly what you want to do, but everything you input in your catalog has a unique number...

Where does one find it? I currently keep a running number of all books that was generated by Access before I moved everything over here! If one can cut and paste the number easily then that might be nice but if it is a very LONG number then that becomes problematic for humans. We love to transpose digits!

Specifically, the "book ID" number is globally unique across all of LT.

http://www.librarything.com/work/2041406 is Desert Solitaire; http://www.librarything.com/work/2041406/book/45974613 is my copy. 45974613 is the book ID. You can see this individually by going to the book pages for your books, or by exporting the tab-delimited version of your catalog.

However, I think we need to ask why you want this. You certainly don't need it to "generate a catalog for sharing"; all you need to do for that is to make your catalog public! Then anyone who knows your username can see it, just like you can see mine (and despite a common and somewhat baffling misconception, people can of course see your catalog without being able to edit it!) With your current private account, even with the book ID nobody will be able to see your catalog. So it would help to know who you want to share it with, and why a unique ID number is helpful for your use-case; there may be another way to do it.

I'm one of these silly guys that assigns a serial number to the world. It's back from my inventory control days. It assures uniqueness of all items AND it assures that if I do happen to make a mistake, both items will not get merged together and unique information will not get lost. . . that's how my brain works!

Thanks for the feedback. Using this resource to catalog manuals and doc. in a shared workspace. Want to physically label each item with Book Id and store on commonly accessed shelves.

Is there a way to get 'book ID' into any list or catalog of my books, other than the tab-delimited version? Eg. I would like to print it off with the cover pictures and place by the shelves.

#6

Well if you want to assign your own numbers rather than use the LT book number (which will jump quite alarmingly as others add books) you could use the BCID field. Start with something like BT 00001 and increment from there - however that will be a purely manual process and LT will not check uniqueness. The BCID can be shown on your catalogue - I don't think the book ID can

6>

Ah, a physical hardcopy catalog! That's what I was missing!

Book ID may not be your best fit in that case since as andyl points out it's globally unique, rather than unique within your catalog - I have ~2500 books and my book ID range from about 130000 to about 98000000. Assigning your own ID is probably the best approach.

From my amateur study of museum studies you could give them accession numbers. 2013.001.01 where the first is the year acquired, the second group tells if it is part of the first, second, and so on gift or purchase of the year, and the third group tells which item in that group it is.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd...

for a more detailed explanation by a better writer.

me 2

You can even get LT to assign numbers using the barcode feature.

https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/HelpThing:Settings_—_Barcodes