Book Cataloging?

[stevekenson]

Our household has a lot of books: roughly ten floor-to-ceiling bookshelves worth, with even more stored in boxes, and that’s not even counting the comic books!

In addition to a New Year’s purging of unneeded volumes, one thing we’ve been looking to do for quite some time is to catalog all of these books so we can track what we’ve got and, to a degree, where it is, since it can be difficult to recall if we have something (and if we still have it, or have given it away or sold it at some point).

So I turn to the collective wisdom of my readers: do you have any recommendations for library cataloging software? Mac OS X is a requirement (we’re a Mac household), with features like ease of use and portability (accessible from different machines on our network) high on the desireability list. Bonus points if it also works for any or all of: 1) comic book collections, 2) Board games and RPG boxed-sets, 3) DVDs, and 4) cabinets of herbal ingredients.

Any suggestions?

Comments

[technocowboy.livejournal.com]

I created a database on MS Access (if you have that -- or something similar) for our library. I'm thinking about re-doing that, though, so that I can add DVDs, CDs, pagan-cabinet stuff, and games.

rainbear TOTALLY wins. Hell, I'd switch over to THAT!

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

Delicious Library!

http://www.delicious-monster.com/

Basically, if the UPC can be found on Amazon, it can be automatically catalogued! If not, you can still enter the information manually. I've not tried it with comic books, but just about everything else works fine. :)

[technocowboy.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, that's awesome. If only I had a Mac. Is there something similar for PC that you might have heard of?

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

Not sure... but yes, it is awesome! :)

[xomec.livejournal.com]

Man, that's looking pretty sweet. We may have a winner!

[rainbear.livejournal.com]

And you can either use your iSight to scan the UPCs, or you can try and luck out on eBay (like I did) and find a handheld bluetooth UPC scanner to scan your collections. :)

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Delicious Monster used to sell a BT scanner along with the software at a (as far as I could tell) a reasonably decent price. I used the software to try cataloguing my DVD and book collection. Some caveats of the version (fairly early) that I used: it used Amazon as the back-end service to do lookups on the UPCs that you scan. This is reasonably OK, except, of course that some stuff doesn't show up in Amazon's catalog.

What you don't want to do is rocket past your bookcase scanning codes willy-nilly without knowing the precise order in which you've scanned things. If you do this, what you end up with is a bunch of entries that Amazon cannot find: and then you have to go back and figure out which of the things you've scanned are the ones that didn't resolve.

And the lookup speed isn't nearly as fast as the scanning speed.

So, the right way to approach the task (I think) is to brutally restrict yourself to scanning one shelf at a time in strict order; making sure that you put stuff back on the shelf in the same order that you've scanned it. Then, wait for the lookups to resolve, one way or another, for the entire shelf; then, go back through and fill in the entries that the software couldn't find.

Otherwise, you're in for an evening of frustration... 8)

[jkusters]

The only problem I have with Delicious Monster (and I stress that this is the *only* problem) is that it's not very network aware. You can "share" your library with other computers running the program, but it's read-only, a la iTunes. I wish it were more network aware in that there was a central repository of information, and any computer with the proper license could access and update that library. (Having it be multi-user aware, so that each user of the library could maintain separate ratings and other data, would be icing on that Delicious cake.)

Despite that "flaw" I strongly recommend it as well.

[myrddin7.livejournal.com]

found a link for MAC software for cataloging all kinds of things.

www.collectorz.com

[capricorn01984.livejournal.com]

We are book people too. We anxiously await moving to a place with more room for shelves. We could probably fill your ten easily. Right now we have five cases with stacks on the floor.

We don't quit have the purging thing down. I have an English Degree, to purge books is like selling your child on the black market.

Although, we're pretty good about not accumulating unneeded volumes so I guess it helps. But a witch must have his reference books!

I am not sure on the software. I'll ask Eric though, he's resident techno geek.

Delicious Library

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

No question, this one is a great product. It handles books, CDs, DVD, computer games, your iTunes collection, and other objects that you want to add.

http://www.delicious-monster.com/

[illious.livejournal.com]

I'll have to check out what has been recommended... I have been using "Libra" but I don't know if it's Mac compatable... but it will output a web page ;)

[illious.livejournal.com]

now that I look at Delicious-monster, it looks a hell of a lot like Libra.... same book shelves and all.

[bruceb.livejournal.com]

Belatedly, another very satisfied Delicious Library user here. Amazingly nifty stuff (and the MobileMe export does indeed included well-formatted pages for iPhone/Touch browsing - I just bookmark the Mobile Me page and whoomp, there it is).

[adamjury.livejournal.com]

DL is cool! As others mention though, it uses Amazon for info, so some older stuff -- and RPG stuff -- is not categorized particularly well.

[msblibrary.livejournal.com]

A web-based solution would be LibraryThing (www.librarything.com). It's obviously mobile and items are searched on Amazon or library catalogs.

[righteousfist.livejournal.com]

I use Library Thing for books, and it works quite well. They even sell a pretty cheap barcode scanner for fast inputs.

[capricorn01984.livejournal.com]

The problem is Library thing only allows 200 books per account before they start charging subscription fees.

Good Reads is a better site, however, they don't have anything like the cue cat of Library Thing to my knowledge.

[sethanikeem.livejournal.com]

The library thing cost is not a big deal, especially considering how very easy it is to enter books. You get 2000 free, then it's $10 a year. Small potatoes.

I've got a spare scanner I could send you guys. It hooks into the USB port and is pretty much ready to go.

Here's mine: http://www.librarything.com/home/kheperu

--M

[xomec.livejournal.com]

I've got a spare scanner I could send you guys. It hooks into the USB port and is pretty much ready to go.

Oh, yes, please! That would be very handy.

Another vote for Delicious Library

[kenmarable.livejournal.com]

I haven't tried version 2 yet, but I love version 1. I don't even need to catalog, but as long as you are not in a hurry, it's actually fun. (And like most good software, they have a free trial version which sold me on the final package.)

I know in version 1 they had some little Easter eggs in there... just scan anything with "Star Wars" in the title. :)