Today I moved twelve boxes of books into my new office. Yay new office! As the newest prof, I get the smallest office, but it is more than adequate for my needs: lots of shelves, new desk, new computer, plenty of filing cabinets.
I'm pretty sure these books haven't all been on the shelves at the same time. My last few jobs ranged from "lots of shelf space" to "half a shelf in a shared office," so I've been storing various items for a while. Other books were shelved, piled, or boxed at home. Now I have to figure out how to organize them.
So, gentle readers--assuming you're still out there--what are your favorite methods of office organizing? By period? By author? By color? (Some friends once rearranged my shelves by color as a prank; the result was striking but a little surreal.) Primary sources separated, or mixed in?
8 comments:
By period, then by author. Only so I can find them again... ;)
It does throw off my sense of order, though, to have taller books and shorter books all mixed up like that, but it's functional. Although if anyone is ever misfiled, I can't find them again. LOL.
Oh, and congrats on the shiny new office! Have you selected the adornment yet?
Was so excited about the first thing I bought for my new office: a Georgia O'Keeffe print. Maybe cliched but I feel still happy every time I look at it.
Let me just say that I *love* the idea of arranging my books by color. Hell, it might even work, since when I go looking for something, I usually start by thinking: "Medium-sized, blue spine."
BUT... right now, what I have are broad subject shelves ("gender"; "church/religion/spirituality"; "primary sources"), then chronologically within. I generally also keep the one closest to my desk for "Books I'm teaching with this semester."
(Oh, and don't neglect the obligatory 1-3 "piles of crap that have accumulated all semester and that I'll just end up throwing out the week after finals anyway" shelves.)
There's actually a set of shelves behind the door that will be great for the random piles of crap!
Has to be alphabetical by author for me, because that's how I think of them in my head. "Dammit: need Salrach. No, Bonnassie. Well where is it then? Bowman?" etc. The thing that does bug me, and I may yet reconsider, is printouts and photocopies. Having them with the books spoils the look of the shelf but if I had them separately they'd all be indistinguishable lumps of A4 print-out...
Ah, I do have a plan for the printouts & copies: in file folders in the file cabinet, alphabetically.
Oh, and no, I haven't really decorated. I have quite a few postcards with medieval art, which will get stuck on the door or the walls somewhere, but I do have space for larger pieces, and I haven't decided on those yet.
In my last office, I had one shelf for primaries and misc piles of paper, one shelf for women's/gender, and two shelves for general stuff, with each filled alphabetically. It worked great, until the w/g shelf overflowed into the general ones :)
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