How to use Biblio? Biblio is too flexible and too broad to come up with simple answer to this question. Instead we'll show how Biblio could be used, without pretending it's the only way, or even the best way.
A new title
Somehow, maybe a friend told you, or you read about it in the paper, or you saw the movie, you got interested in Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain. There is still a pile of books on your night stand, so you decide to enter the title in Biblio for future reference.
You enter Charles Frazier as an author. Curious who the chap is, you hit the search button and find his entry in Wikipedia. You copy some biographical information in his record.
Then you create a new title. You drag Charles into the authors list and fill in the title. Maybe you have a category 'English Literature', or maybe you differentiate between American and British literature. You drag your choice of category into the categories list. Perhaps you also have a category 'Unread'. That category gets dragged into the list as well. Assuming you plan to read the original, the language is English. Keywords could be romance, Civil War, etc.
Reading
One day you browse the F shelves of the public library and you see Cold Mountain. You pick up a copy and read the tale. This is the time to append your information about this title. You record the date and write a short impression of the book under 'Review'. You might think it useful to summarize the title under 'Summary'. Or you could just give 5 diamonds to this moving love story.
Meticulous as you are, you also enter the book you lend in Biblio. You enter the ISBN and hit the look up button to fill in the other fields. The cover of the book appears.
Buying
You enjoyed Cold Mountain so much, that after you returned the book to the library, an empty feeling remains that can only be chased by a purchase. You buy a copy and record in Biblio when you bought it and for how much. Since it is a paperback, the moment you carried it out of the shop its value plummeted, resulting in a value of 50p.
Lending
Your enthusiasm for Cold Mountain is infectious and all your friends want to lend the book. To keep track of the book's whereabouts, you enter in Biblio who has lent it when, and let the application send an email if someone hogs your book.
Catalog
Your books collection has grown over the years and your bookcases have barely kept up, so it's a bit of a chaos in your library. You're not bothered, you print out a catalogue and use this paper version of Biblio to organize it all.
Keep on top of your books!
© 2007 Marbo
