iBookshelf & the start of my collection

I have officially started my book collection!  I have so a couple art teaching books in storage back in Wisconsin.  Books like Lines that Wiggle, and Uncle Andy's.  But I knew from the start of my new teaching job that I wanted to expand the book collection in my classroom.  

My teacher friend (and bestie!) recommended I visit a secondhand store called Savers.  If you have one near you, I would suggest checking it out.  I am SO glad I did!  They have children's picture books for $0.69 each, and the best part? If you buy four books, you get the 5th book free!  That meas I got five books for just  $2.79.  I ended up getting 35 books.  I spent less than $20 which is great, because I recently bought four books from Amazon and paid almost $30.  As you will see, the majority of the books I bought are classics, and most of them look new.  I was shocked to see that all these classics ended up at a thrift store.  I NEVER find great books like these at my local Goodwill.  Here is a sampling of what I bought.  I think they will be very useful for lessons in the future!

 Since I now have all of these books, I thought organizing and cataloging them would be a good idea.  I am bringing these books into my classroom without being reimbursed by my school for them.  I want them if I ever leave, or for when I have children of my own!  I did some research and came across iBookshelf.  They have both a paid and free app.  I tried the free app just to see if I would like it.  There is a 20 book storage limit on the free app, so I ended up upgrading for $1.99.  With the upgrade I have unlimited storage AND I can change the theme of my library (notice the peacock feathers!).

There is an option to backup and store your book database online, which I think is a great idea.  On the right, you can see the different ways to view your book collection.  I think I will find this especially helpful when I am buying new books.  No doubles!

I love that there is an option to scan books into the database with a barcode scanner.  It makes importing books really easy.  You can import the rest of the information based on ISBN number, or with the title and author.  There are also fields for status and price.  This makes it easy to track books checked out to students or borrowed to other teachers.  The price feature tracks the total value of your book collection.  

Overall, I am very happy with my purchases.  I am excited to start a great book collection :)  Want to help add to my collection?  Click here for my book wish list!