Richard Pennycuick recently summed up a past MCML discussion about how to
classify CDs on the shelf.  They were:

a) alphabetical by composer, with anthologies "placed according to either
   whim or logic (RP's own method);"
b) haphazard (Don); and
c) adding new items to the end of the collection (Walter?).

If I understood correctly, all three required keeping a database of what's
in the collection.  I'd love to have such a database, but I'd hate to
always need to update it.

I've found that filing by nationality is pretty effective, and rids one
of the bother of keeping a database.  Mind you, my mostly 20th century
collection is still smallish, at under 1,000.  Also, there are one or two
qualifications to this method:

While many 20th century European composers became USAmerican citizens
(Stravinsky, Hindemith, Bloch, Surinach), I don't see them as US composers.
They're found in the sections for their countries of origin.  That said,
composers like Tcherepnin and Tansman are more French to me than anything
else, so that's where I put them.  And the Canadians have sidled up to the
USAmericans, so it's really my CDs' North American section.

The big exception to this nationalities rule is for favourite composers
(Holmboe, Martinu, Rautavaara, Rozsa, Tubin; also Bach, Beethoven).  These
I keep separately -- making them handier and freeing up space in their
countries' sections.

In other cases, composers are left to swamp their country's section
(Hindemith for the German, Bacewicz for the Polish, etc.).  A couple of
countries have much smaller representation (Swiss; Czech; Belgian), while
other sections represent entire regions (Nordics; Latinamericans).

Oh yes, anthologies are also "placed according to either whim or logic."

Despite its many qualifications, this system works for my collection.  But,
when it gets bigger:

Must I resort to one of the systems above, and a database ...or is there
another way of classifying CDs that I should know about?

Bert Bailey, in Ottawa