Tracking Books - Loans & Currently Reading

Just wondering if there is a simple way to implement a way to track books in the library that are currently not there. For me this comes down to two categories: 1) books that have been loaned to someone; and 2) books that are not on the shelves because we are reading them or using them for reference. I've been doing this by adding two "collections" that are "Loaned" and "Reading", but this is a bit clumsy.

Is there a better way to implement this capability?

Thanks!

Well, there is the loan system built into Librarything or TinyCat.
There's the inventory system built into Librarything.

Have you explored either of those?

If you use the standard "Currently reading" collection, the books will show up on your profile.

Please explain how to use the "Currently Reading" feature

>4 Blythewood: Add the book into the “Currently Reading” collection. That’s it. The home page module shows the book in that collection.

You can do that from the edit page of the book, for the catalog or even from the work page (the book box at the top with your name and tags also allows you to manipulate the collections). That is one of the default collections so as long as you had not marked it inactive, it will be available automatically to add to it. (From the looks of it, you do not use collections yet so look for the column called collection or the field for it on the edit and/or work page). Books can belong to multiple collections at the same time.

>5 AnnieMod: thank you - I'm going to start using this feature.