From your local library to the classroom to the bookstore, there are a lot of tools available to help you save time and money when it comes to the bound world of information. Today, in the interest of lifehacking your bookshelf, I'm rounding up my favorite 13 "book hacks" for getting the most from your bound literature.
The first three hacks provide ways to integrate your computer with your local library, from a web-based notification tool to a Firefox extension to a killer Mac-only menu bar app.
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If you're still spending a lot of time cranking out research papers, the two "academia book hacks" below could potentially become mainstays for you, particularly the very slick bibliography generator, BibMe.
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This next bunch of tools is intended to help you find free books in both real and virtual forms, or at least as close to free as possible.
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A couple of the following book hacks repurpose unused books and are actually a bit destructive, so beware. If the idea of harming an innocent book makes you bristle, the DIY book binding project is the very opposite of destructive.
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Check out these tips for more on squeezing the most out of your local library online. Finally, since Lifehacker readers are always the last word on this sort of thing, we'd love to hear what great ways you hack your books (including what we may have missed) in the comments.
Adam Pash is a senior editor for Lifehacker who loves anything he can get for free. His special feature Hack Attack appears every Tuesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.
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