Book Books and a library

[Martin Shaw]

I have been collecting railway books for something over half a century and I have a lot of them currently looking like this,
so a plan is underway to rehouse them in the refurbished study/library which is just awaiting the carpet fitter. Then the enjoyable bit can commence.


It's been a ****** expensive exercise thus far but I guess it's worth it. Can't say I think much of Mr Ikeas veneered chipboard shelving, or his shops or meatballs, but nothing else is available anywhere near as cheap and bespoke cases would cause a severe wincing in the household budget.
Regards
Martin

 

[simond]

Martin,

do enjoy putting your books in order!

I have more than a few, but nowhere near as many, but I do have some Ikea furniture, “Billy” shelving & cabinets IIRC, and it has lasted very well indeed, I think it is over 20 years old.

Our kitchen unit carcasses & fronts are also Ikea, topped with some not-at-all Ikea granite, and they too have stood the test of time, I built the kitchen in 2006, about three weeks before we emigrated…. Despite the depredations of three years’ lodgers, it’s still in pretty good shape!

 

[oldravendale]

Hi Martin.

I'm with Simon about Billy bookcases. Mine are in their third house and, like Simon's, at least 20 years old.

Brian

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Can't say I think much of Mr Ikeas veneered chipboard shelving,

Once they're full you won't notice them - just need to make sure you have enough shelf space. As my neighbour keeps saying - you can never have too many shelves.

 

[michael080]

These Ikea shelves are grossly underrated. Mine are at least 20 years old and they still look good.
I think Ikea has very rigid standards and they have a industrial style production for huge quantities. Most competitors are producing in a workmanship style in much smaller numbers, so that their same price products cannot compete in quality.

Many years ago I have been working as fitter for a furniture store and it was shocking to see what low quality high price products had. Many of them were "one time assembly, then dump it" quality.

Michael

 

[Tim Giles]

Martin,
Thanks for showing the photos, my collection of around 500 books are also in Ikea Billy bookcases (mine also has the glass doors) and it is nice to show the wife that I am not the only one with such a library, and that it is normal for railway enthusiasts to have this sort of thing. Although recording them on a database with shelf locations in my "library" might be a little over the top!!
Tim

 

[daifly]

Although recording them on a database with shelf locations in my "library" might be a little over the top!!

Oh dear. I've done that. In my defence, I'd just mention that there are over 1700 books in it and I can lay my hands on any volume in just a few seconds.
I tried to arrange them thematically but publishers are so inconsiderate and not all books are the same size which can end up being very wasteful of space! My shelving is nothing like as smart as Martin shows. As the book collection has grown over the years, so another bookcase has been added. No two are the same!
Dave

 

[Osgood]

Martin,
Thanks for showing the photos, my collection of around 500 books are also in Ikea Billy bookcases (mine also has the glass doors) and it is nice to show the wife that I am not the only one with such a library, and that it is normal for railway enthusiasts to have this sort of thing....
Tim

Unfortunately this is of little help to me as I think I'd need a 4 tonne tipper to shift my collection.
I fear that showing this thread to Mrs O would only result in severe chastisement.

It is topical however as we're currently creating a replacement library, and the question of shelving needs urgent resolution.
I too prefer to stack the shelves thematically.

A while back I managed to source 10 x 6ft high bays of used pale grey Dexion rolled edge shelving that had seen just 2 years use holding examination papers at a central EDEXCEL storage facility, they'd even taped corrugated card to each shelf so it was effectively brand spanking new - at the price I couldn't not take it.

The steel shelving is now earmarked for out-of-sight domestic storage and I'm told we should be looking for something a little bit smarter.
Well that's all well and good but the cost is just crazy and I've yet to find anything that I'm confident will take the weight that the Dexion supports.
Interesting to read approval of the Ikea stuff (and BILLY was relaunched in improved form last month) - I shall take a look.
But I fear it may have to be more industrial shelving - maybe a respray, say into a vibrant purple colour, might meet with approval......

 

[Martin Shaw]

I would basically agree, the Billy bookcases that came out were certainly not new and whilst the shelves had bowed downwards under the weight upon them they were by no means broken. The thing that has changed is the widget that holds the shelves in place has got smaller. I expect it will be alright but the but is big enough. Tony raises an interesting point about the Billy redesign, my new ones appear to have greater choice for shelf spacing, but I can't quite put my finger on the niggle, the old ones worked well for spacing, we'll see in due course. I gather it won't be available until next year, the cynical in me suggests it will be less substantially made for the same cost. When it's all done perhaps you would allow me a gloating photo.
Regards
Martin

 

[MoatLane]

My Billy shelving is over 30 years old and is bowed but by no means broken. I don't know about today's quailty but can't think of anything else to recommend. Metal is stronger but ugly.

 

[Dog Star]

Oh dear. I've done that. In my defence, I'd just mention that there are over 1700 books in it and I can lay my hands on any volume in just a few seconds. I tried to arrange them thematically

Dave (@daifly),

I am interested in how you have arranged your books for ease of locating what you need, please tell me more. Yes, I am aware of the potential of the Dewey code... the local libraries seem to be less reliant on the Dewey than they were, some of the Basingstoke librarians do not even recognise the "name" should I ask where Dewey "123" is to be found.

The Winchester Railway collection has Dewey codes of the form XXX.YYYY and there are many books with four digits after the full stop, makes one wonder just how those codes are thought up / allocated (I did ask once and was informed that the books had been coded aeons before the librarians "were born"). A few weeks back I was able to visit the reserve collection at Winchester and I estimate that there were more than 10,000 books on the shelves.

regards, Graham

 

[Joe's Garage]

"A little over the top....." Well I may have gone further...I just "Googled" the Dewey system...Melvil Dewey produced the first version in 1876!!
Lovely collection of books and nice to see that they will be out for display. I agree with the other comments, IKEA does produce decent stuff providing you treat it well.
Julian

 

[Focalplane]

I have Billy bookcases that were bought in Singapore in 1980, taken apart and shipped to Houston, again to England and again to France in 2009. I also repainted the dark brown stain to pale blue with white shelves to match the French decor. They still hold books without serious bowing of the shelves. As to data bases, I usually find the book I am looking for is in the wrong country!

 

[daifly]

I am interested in how you have arranged your books for ease of locating what you need, please tell me more. Yes, I am aware of the potential of the Dewey code... the local libraries seem to be less reliant on the Dewey than they were, some of the Basingstoke librarians do not even recognise the "name" should I ask where Dewey "123" is to be found.

Graham
I'll call mine the Welsh 'Dewi' system. Books are recorded alphabetically by title but searchable by author, publisher ISBN etc. The bookcases are referenced A - G, the shelf is 1 - 8. That narrows location down to two or three feet of shelving. The rest is simply a good memory for what the book looks like! If a book needs to be moved, just the bookcase & shelf reference changes. No need to make it complicated!
Dave

 

[Richard Gawler]

I have nine Billy bookcases at the moment. Three for books, five supporting a layout, and one as general-purpose shelving. All are the 400 mm width, I think these are stronger. I am pondering buying more, two short ones fixed side by side will take a pair of doors and make a cupboard. As noted above, they seem to last forever.

 

[Ian@StEnochs]

Mine sagged quite a bit so I added additional vertical stiffeners in the middle of the shelves to cure the bowing under the weight problem. Just pieces of 6mm ply wedged in.

Ian.

 

[Osgood]

Sample weighing of typical A4 sized railway books provides a maximum weight of 85kg per metre run.
A 6-shelf 1000mm wide shelf unit might hold over half a tonne of books.

Billy design loading is 30kg per shelf (regardless of width) - equivalent to 37kg per metre for the 800 wide units, 75kg per metre for the 400 wide.
Ikea do advise to use 400 wide shelf units for the heaviest books, so no surprise that in time the 800 wide shelves are likely to sag.
So I wonder if the 400 wide units could cope long term?

Decision time gets closer and in order to avoid sag at an affordable price (or face remedial surgery ) I'm tempted to go the industrial / commercial steel route again.
Industrial steel shelving is typically designed to take 100+kg per metre.
It doesn't have to look awful - this is one of the back-to-back bays of shelving I mentioned earlier, let down in the main by the drab grey colour:



But I very much doubt I'll find an as-new bargain like that again and so have been looking at what is available new.
So far a white coloured no-bolt shelving system looks to be a possibility - Delta Plus by ANCO.
Cost is likely to be around twice that of Billy 400mm unit equivalents.
Mmm - maybe 400 Billy is the more cost effective option?

 

[Richard Gawler]

The 400 version is a lot stronger. I scrapped an 800 Billy and replaced it with three 400s side by side. It is easy to join them side by side with screws through unused peg holes.

If you chose the white version, how about reinforcing the underneaths of the shelf fronts with 12x12mm aluminium L section? This loses some height for books on each shelf, but the shelves will never sag and it ought to look like part of the design. If they sag at the back, this doesn't show.

 

[MarkR]

Sample weighing of typical A4 sized railway books provides a maximum weight of 85kg per metre run.
A 6-shelf 1000mm wide shelf unit might hold over half a tonne of books.

Billy design loading is 30kg per shelf (regardless of width) - equivalent to 37kg per metre for the 800 wide units, 75kg per metre for the 400 wide.
Ikea do advise to use 400 wide shelf units for the heaviest books, so no surprise that in time the 800 wide shelves are likely to sag.
So I wonder if the 400 wide units could cope long term?

Decision time gets closer and in order to avoid sag at an affordable price (or face remedial surgery ) I'm tempted to go the industrial / commercial steel route again.
Industrial steel shelving is typically designed to take 100+kg per metre.
It doesn't have to look awful - this is one of the back-to-back bays of shelving I mentioned earlier, let down in the main by the drab grey colour:

View attachment 169611

But I very much doubt I'll find an as-new bargain like that again and so have been looking at what is available new.
So far a white coloured no-bolt shelving system looks to be a possibility - Delta Plus by ANCO.
Cost is likely to be around twice that of Billy 400mm unit equivalents.
Mmm - maybe 400 Billy is the more cost effective option?

Looks good, plus some nice titles on the shelves!
Mark

 

[NHY 581]

Never mind book shelves, I've so far built five layouts on IKEA LACK shelves or table tops....

That said, our entire house is pretty much full of IKEA furniture. No real issues to report with several bits more than 15 years old.

Rob.