To say I have an extensive collection of books would be an understatement. My book collection is one of my favorite things in my room — plus I love going to bookstores, picking up the newest edition of a comic that I’m reading, or thrifting a gorgeous edition of a favorite book. I try my hardest to keep my collection organized, which can be a struggle, especially because I’ve elected to organize my collection by color rather than by series or author. The larger the collection has grown, the harder it’s become to remember the books that I own (especially with comic books and manga). I prefer to go into stores to buy physical books rather than purchasing them off of Amazon if I can, but I’ve always struggled to remember which volume I last left off on and end up leaving without buying anything so I don’t risk purchasing a book I already own. The solution to this came in the form of a random Instagram reel one day during winter break, advertising the app Libib.
Quite literally on the first day of January, I was scrolling through Instagram and stumbled across a reel by the user @rainydayslibrary. She’d proudly shown off a book scanner that she had received, and walked users through creating their library on the Libib app and scanning in their physical books. I had sent this reel to a friend, joking that I wanted to do this and that it could become my latest obsession. Not even an hour later, I had Libib running on both my laptop and my phone and was scanning through my book collection. Luckily, you don’t need a physical book scanner to use Libib; you can use your phone camera! I started with my video game collection — as it was smaller — and was amazed at how easy it was to log each item. The process? Open a video game collection, scan the barcode on the game case, and watch while Libib logs the game and all of its relevant information including the ESRB rating (the rating video games receive on which age demographics should play them) and the game’s cover image. Some games I didn’t have the case for anymore, either because I only owned them in a digital format or simply misplaced the case. Luckily, Libib lets you search for items to add to your collection even without the barcode!
Once I had my game collection categorized for my Nintendo Switch (44 games, if anyone was curious), I faced the issue of my bookcase. The process was just as easy, thank goodness! Plus, even if Libib didn’t have a book in their database, it was incredibly easy to import the book’s information on the website version of the app. Scanning my books became almost like a game. Each book found its home on my bookcase, and I rediscovered books that I loved in the past but hadn’t read in a while because the mess that was my shelf had obscured them. Using the Libib app also helped me realize just how many books I had (currently 247 physical books!) and aided me in setting a New Year’s resolution not to purchase any physical books and opt instead to use my library or my Kindle.
What had started with “Oh, this could be fun!” quickly developed into a full day of exploring my personal library. I hadn’t expected to love Libib as much as I did, but it was easy and fun to use. It allows me to carry my library with me wherever I go, something I appreciate greatly as the majority of my collection doesn’t live with me. I highly recommend Libib to anyone who collects books, video games, board games, or movies (Libib can log those too!). Check it out and see what your collection looks like!