P.S. the advantage of an e-book collection is the full text search.
ever stood before your book shelves not sure about the exact sentence you want to read again and not remembering which book it was in?
with your e-book library software, it's like a google search: type the words in you do remember and hit enter. tadaaaaah!
I used to be a scientific librarian by trade and university degree. bibliophile, you could have called me.
But I had to leave behind so many books whenever I changed countries or continents, I now totally embrace the e-book world!
eBooks I think are something for consideration down the track - after the current "book problem" is resolved.
BTW I, like probably many of the older members, grew up on Arthur Mee's "Children's Encyclopeadia" - I was almost illiterate until the age of 10 or so - when I did start to read I just couldn't get enough of Mee's.
I saved my pocket money and eventually bought a set from the local Pawn shop...I was in my element!!
Well, now, over fifty years later, I have collected four sets, I think (!!) - I always wanted an early pre-war original set (No publication dates, and the same illustrations doesn't help to identify them...)
I mention this as it compounds my dilemma.......
I just put shelving in every room on every wall, up to the ceiling, that had a safe environment from the books. And replace your doors with hidden-bookshelf doors.
Problem solved, and you can pretend you're batman when no-one is looking
Yes, Merlin, I know what you mean about eBooks, but it is the way of the future though, Maybe multiple iPad's are the go (Hmm, any excuse to buy more technology). However, the problem with eBooks, at present, you just can't get what you want, particularly in technical reference/astronomy material. I would really love to be able to carry around all my useful reference material in one slim device.
Like you, I do a lot of research too, mostly using the Internet, so know how it can be having several sites open at once, but then, that is why I have multiple screens, just love having lots of screen "real estate", to spread multiple open documents over.
Cheers Peter
I have all of my astronomy and other textbooks scanned so that I can carry them around for just that purpose, and kindles are cheap enough now to have a couple of them (wifi model with keyboard is currently $79 at my local woolworth's supermarket.)
You can contract it out, or hire a book scanner to get it done.
A surprising amount of books are available as PDFs in China and India. I don't worry too much about the copyright issues as I already have the books, so that is another option.
Ken, while it doesn't solve your problem you could talk to the Astronomical Society of Victoria about the books you cannot keep. They have a library at the Melbourne Observatory.
Yes,
The ASV is always an option, I'm a past President and 30 year member..
I'm not sure some of the books on Astrophotography using 2415 Hypered film would be of general interest....
I tried to get a Compactus unit approved....no go!
The converted outside dunny - has some appeal!!
I think the honest solution is to bite the bullet and accept that "downsizing" is the order of the day...
I just put shelving in every room on every wall, up to the ceiling, that had a safe environment from the books. And replace your doors with hidden-bookshelf doors.
Problem solved, and you can pretend you're batman when no-one is looking
I did see, in the local antique shop one of those 1920's bookcases where it was a square section with books on each face - sat on a lazy susan...I wonder if instead of 2' high I could build a couple of units 6' high...like an oversized display stand?
If you can still see a wall then you still have space for books. I've always built my own bookshelves when I've moved to fit those odd spaces to put books. They do make a practical insulation layer (sound/thermal). If you organise the books by size then you can build shelves of the right size to maximise use of available space. Even small places you tend to have a lot of wasted wallspace, especially up high, so you can put a single shelf a foot down from the ceiling that runs along every wall and above every door. Tons of shelf space that way, and the books are not in the way. Line hallways floor to ceiling with shelves (hallways are never built 2ft wide so you can always find the space if you want to).
There are always ways if you are willing to live with the books. Ebooks will never be the solution (they have existed for two decades already and never replaced any real books or publications yet, only the file formats change and the reliance on certain platforms). Kindles etc are great for paperbacks but not very practical for reference material (though text searching is great to have of course). If there is any empty air then there is always a way to use it, generally I find organising any storage area by like sizes (kitchen cupboards, linen cupboards etc) lets me add extra shelving. Then I can store things more efficiently. If you always put dinner plates on the front of a shelf but leave the rear empty because its too hard to reach then you have empty space you can use for something else you rarely need to access (like those blender attachments you never use but have sitting in the 95% empty blender box taking up a large volume). What about converting stairs into shelves, the space between the lounge and the wall, what about walling up that window you never use and always keep heavily draped?
If you can't find a way to house you're books you're not trying hard enough. If you're not trying hard enough perhaps they aren't important enough.
Convincing your spouse however is beyond the scope of this reply
Sil,
To quote:
If you can't find a way to house you're books you're not trying hard enough. If you're not trying hard enough perhaps they aren't important enough.
Hmmm
I have a friend in Hurstbridge who definately subscribes to your model.
I'm sure his books are actually holding the weatherboard house together.
His system (!!) was books laid flat - to be read; standing - read and colour coded dots on the spine by topic.....
Not sure I could get management approval for such a "intensive" storage system.....
How about replacing the walls with concealed sliding panels and using the wall cavity to house books? I guess I'm used to having organised clutter, if I have something scribbled on a piece of paper I just know where in a pile of magazines and papers it is.
If you did dispose of them are your circumstances likely to change in the future and will it become a source of regret then? Are you likely to have the space for them?
A nice library is itself a thing of beauty even if you don't read and re-read every volume. I would suggest the rarer ones and larger sets you try to hang onto. A bunch of large cheap containers to line a garage wall floor to ceiling even. Cheaper more common books might be better suited as ebooks. I don't know if this is a possibility but what about asking a library if you can donate your collection on the proviso the books are kept together and you can reclaim any/all at a later date, particularly if you have many that they wouldn't have. That way you get good free housing for the collection and others will be able to make use of the books within the library. A university library might be willing to do something along these lines, perhaps even as a reference library in their astronomy rooms (if they have such). What about a local observatory you could loan the collection to? I think there may be options that don't involve you disposing of the collection permanently, and indefinite loan to some establishment/society is a possibility.
why shouldn't e-books be for use with reference material, Sil?
Practicality.
More often than not I found I lose more benefit than I gain. I find non e-ink screens difficult to read from for any length of time (its basically a bit flat torch constantly shining in your eyes). e-ink screens are very good on the eyes because they need the same sort of lighting as you would use for paper and there's also no flicker.
Reference books are generally larger format than a regular paperback so to fit on a smaller screen of a tablet (for portability) everything has to get squished, you lose fidelity. Reference books are understandably PDFs (which was created to be PORTABLE across systems, its aim it to retain layout, so reflowing to a smaller screen and adjusting font sizes doesn't work very well). Images in ebooks are a lower resolution, which bugs the hell out of me, so they might look nice at a glance but when you are actually using the images as reference (eg trying to find the position of that faint star in the cluster you want to look at) they lose the practicality.
Reference books are essentially the best resolution reference material you'll have, ebooks will always be inferior in this regard as images get scanned and resized to a low resolution and stored in a compressed format in order to keep the filesizes reasonable. Current ebook formats (eg epub) are essentially a container format for text that uses basic HTML for simple formatting and image files. So you often encounter images just appearing in random places because the ebooks get created via an automated process.
Almost every book is created and laid out for a printed version, the ebook versions are then converted from that. The ebook versions are almost never created from scratch and those that are get created with a specific device in mind which may or may not work as expected on the device you actually have. Devices come and go so the digital world is left having to re-invent new document formats for the next big thing that comes along. Or more often just try to automate a conversion of the formats from the previous generation. I've encountered some commercial books for my Kindle that still contain code that shows they were converted from a decade old .lit version for the PocketPC platform. Whatever the cheapest and quickest method for creating an ebook is the publishers will take it.
There are also the limitations of the devices themselves. I've got stamp catalogues in PDF format which are 500MB+ in size each. Ever tried flicking through something like that on a Kindle? It can't compare to flicking through a paper version and the images are far lower resolution which makes it impossible to identify plate flaws and varieties that are clearly visible in the printed versions of the same catalogue. I would be willing to bet you are not going to be able to find a single reference book in an ebook format where the book contains a number of high quality photographic prints in the middle which are replicated in ebook in a colour accurate ultra high resolution digital image (which on todays screens means you should be able to zoom into a 1cm square part of the screen and see no loss of image detail). High resolution images themselves are very large so an ebook might end up with only a few hundred kilobytes for its text but several gigabytes because of the images. Portable devices only have a limited memory so no-one is going to produce ebooks with images that match the printed resolution which end up becoming several gigabytes in size allowing your device to only have a couple of books on it before its full. So they are scanned low resolution and compressed (producing artifacts), so your ebook reference becomes useless to rely on its images as reference material. You also have batteries which are un-changeable and have a finite lifespan (whether you use them or not lithium battery technology is dead after a few year years, but thats ok because vendors would have convinced you to buy the next big thing anyway by then).
Books that contain no images (or a few images that are themselve just illustrations and have no reference value themselves) can work well in ebook format. Paperback novels fit this perfectly as they are just paragraph after paragraph text, no need for fancy colours or complex layouts. So ebook devices can then control font size and the text reflows and it all still looks clean and readible. This is great for reading novels and allows users to set preferences for their eyesight and reading comfort. They are also searchable which is the only real benefit an ebook has over a printed version (and built in dictionaries are great too). I started reading far more since I got my Kindle, but only novels. I tried using it as a portable reference library but it just wasn't practical. A real reference book is just handy to be able to make notes in and stick bits of paper in places etc....which can be replicated in a digital format but again not as practical or convenient. Every reference ebook I've bought I ended up quickly buying the printed version anyway (in some cases it turned out cheaper to buy the printed version too).
Plus so many people are reliant on online storage to keep their growing digital libraries. When those providers go bust you lose everything. When their security is compromised your personal and credit card details are too. I find it scary how people blindly trust these systems and then complain when someone drains their accounts or takes their identities. A book has no such security concerns.
A book can be given without worrying about device formats.
A book is low in calories and high in fibre.
A book kills 99% of known household pests (with a strong arm and good aim).
Ah, very nice. Thank you for summarizing your view.
I can follow your thoughts and agree.
What I conclude is that there is a need for a bigger e-book reader.
One that fits student's text books in A4 and one that fits even bigger picture books like your beautiful stamp catalog in A3.
At least, for the current book layout that we are used to.
Over time that will evolve, of course.
I reckon, the insects will follow and develop into species that can be killed with ebook readers.
Sil,
You sound like a real "kindred spirit" - I think I'd enjoy sharing (what's left) of my library with you over a glass of Heathcote Shiraz....
Your points were very well made.
Thanks for the excellent contribution.
(I must look out so of the photos I have of the original library - a sort of "before" and "after" - Oh and you also need lay-up space to spread out the references - I had pull-out reading trays fitted in every second section of the bookcase)
Here's another idea, buy a caravan and put it in you back yard for the misses and kids. Don't laugh, I actually knew someone that did just that, with his house filled up with his train sets, literally!
I feel your pain, having bitten the bullet and started to downsize, myself. I made the decision that, at 3 score and ten, I would never have enough time to read more than a very small proportion of the books I had collected over a lifetime. I gave away or sold those books which had value for other people and donated the rest (3 carloads, not just the boot but all the seats as well) to charity bookfairs. I have still more books left than I can ever hope to read again, but at least I have an extra room available to live in, in my new place.
However, the problem with eBooks, at present, you just can't get what you want, particularly in technical reference/astronomy material. I would really love to be able to carry around all my useful reference material in one slim device.
Don't laugh, I actually knew someone that did just that, with his house filled up with his train sets, literally! 
