How to catalog your home library¶

Once a book collection passes a few hundred volumes, "I'll remember where it is" stops working. Cataloging your home library means you can answer two questions instantly: do I own this? and where is it right now?

This guide shows a simple, durable way to do it — for free.

1. Decide what a "location" means in your home¶

Don't catalog into a flat list. Mirror your real space so search can point you to a physical spot. A four-level model covers almost any home:

Room — Study, Living room, Bedroom…
Bookcase — the piece of furniture
Section — a column or group of shelves
Shelf — the exact row a book sits on

2. Add books by scanning the ISBN¶

Typing titles by hand is what kills most cataloging projects. Scan the barcode on the back of the book instead: the ISBN looks up the title, author, cover, and publisher automatically (Open Library and Google Books are free sources). A book takes a couple of seconds to add.

3. Pin each book to its shelf¶

As you scan, drop the book onto its Room → Bookcase → Section → Shelf. Now your catalog isn't just a list — it's a map. Later, searching a title returns the room and shelf.

4. Keep it usable for the whole household¶

If more than one person adds or borrows books, you want a shared catalog with separate users — so "who has the second volume?" has an answer.

5. Own your data¶

Pick a tool that lets you export everything (CSV/JSON) and, ideally, that you can self-host. Your catalog should outlive any company.

A tool that does all of this¶

Jinbocho is a free, open-source, self-hosted home library manager built around exactly this workflow: four-level locations, ISBN scanning, a visual shelf map, multi-user family accounts, and full export.

git clone https://github.com/jinbocho/jinbocho-infrastructure-v1.git
cd jinbocho-infrastructure-v1
docker compose -f docker-compose.ghcr.yml up -d

Prefer to look before installing? Open the live demo.