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Locations

Jinbocho models your home's physical structure so you always know exactly where every book is.

The Location Hierarchy

Your home is represented as a four-level tree:

graph TD
    R1[🏠 Room<br/>e.g. Living Room] --> B1[📚 Bookcase<br/>e.g. IKEA Billy]
    R1 --> B2[📚 Bookcase<br/>e.g. Corner shelf]
    B1 --> S1[📂 Section<br/>e.g. Top left]
    B1 --> S2[📂 Section<br/>e.g. Bottom right]
    S1 --> SH1[📖 Shelf<br/>e.g. Shelf 1]
    S1 --> SH2[📖 Shelf<br/>e.g. Shelf 2]
    SH1 --> P1[1]
    SH1 --> P2[2]
    SH1 --> P3[3]

    style R1 fill:#BC002D,color:#fff
    style B1 fill:#8B1A1A,color:#fff
    style B2 fill:#8B1A1A,color:#fff
    style S1 fill:#C8602A,color:#fff
    style S2 fill:#C8602A,color:#fff
    style SH1 fill:#D4923A,color:#fff
    style SH2 fill:#D4923A,color:#fff
Level What it represents Example
Room A physical room in your home Living room, Study, Bedroom
Bookcase A piece of furniture inside a room IKEA Billy, Wooden cabinet
Section A zone within a bookcase Top shelf area, Left column
Shelf A single horizontal shelf Shelf 1, Shelf 2
Position A numbered slot on a shelf 1, 2, 3 …

You can skip levels

If your bookcases have no sections, you can go Room → Bookcase → Shelf without creating Sections. Jinbocho adapts to how your home is actually organised.

Setting Up Locations

Add a Room

  1. Open the Locations section from the sidebar
  2. Click + New Room
  3. Enter a name (e.g. "Studio") and optional description
  4. Click Save

Add a Bookcase

  1. Navigate into a Room
  2. Click + New Bookcase
  3. Enter a name (e.g. "IKEA Billy") and optional notes
  4. Click Save

Add a Section

  1. Navigate into a Bookcase
  2. Click + New Section
  3. Enter a descriptive name (e.g. "Left column", "Upper half")
  4. Click Save

Add a Shelf

  1. Navigate into a Section (or directly into a Bookcase if you skipped Sections)
  2. Click + New Shelf
  3. Enter a name (e.g. "Shelf 1") and optional capacity
  4. Click Save

Browsing Books by Location

Location Tree View

The sidebar shows your full location tree. Click any node to see all books at that level:

  • Click a Room → see all books in that room
  • Click a Bookcase → see books in that bookcase only
  • Click a Shelf → see books in exact shelf order

Shelf View (Ordered)

When you open a Shelf, books appear in their position order — the same order they sit on the physical shelf. This makes it easy to find a book by position number when you're standing in front of the bookcase.

Shelf 2 — Living Room › Billy › Upper section › Shelf 2

 [1] The Name of the Wind     Patrick Rothfuss
 [2] The Wise Man's Fear      Patrick Rothfuss
 [3] Il deserto dei Tartari   Dino Buzzati
 [4] —
 [5] Il barone rampante       Italo Calvino

Gaps in positions are allowed

Positions don't have to be consecutive. Leaving position 4 empty means there's a physical gap on your shelf (a book lent out, for instance).

Editing and Renaming Locations

  1. Navigate to the location you want to edit
  2. Click the pencil icon next to the name
  3. Update the name or description
  4. Click Save

Deleting a Location

Books must be relocated first

You cannot delete a Room, Bookcase, Section, or Shelf that still contains books. Move or delete all books before removing the location.

  1. Ensure the location is empty
  2. Click the trash icon next to the location name
  3. Confirm the deletion

Tips for Organising Locations

Keep it simple:

Room: Living Room
  Bookcase: Main Shelf
    Shelf 1 (A–G)
    Shelf 2 (H–M)
    Shelf 3 (N–Z)

Add sections to group shelves logically:

Room: Study
  Bookcase: IKEA Billy
    Section: Fiction
      Shelf 1, Shelf 2, Shelf 3
    Section: Non-fiction
      Shelf 1, Shelf 2
  Bookcase: Corner unit
    Shelf 1 (Art books)
    Shelf 2 (Comics)

Use full hierarchy and multiple rooms:

Room: Library
  Bookcase: A (Classics)
  Bookcase: B (Science)
  Bookcase: C (History)
Room: Bedroom
  Bookcase: Bedside table
Room: Kids' room
  Bookcase: Children's books