Spinoff of the "how many books do you own" thread

[nukeswife]

If you catalog your books how do you do it? I've honestly thought of getting a UPC reader just so that I can have a listing and know if all of our boxes of books has made it each time we move.
We don't have nearly as many books as some on this board do and it's not that we don't want them. We've only be hsing 2 years so I'm sure we'll keep adding books in leaps and bounds. A lot of dh and my books are in storage at our old house as it just got to be too much to move every 18 months.

[Beth in Central TX]

I use the Book Collectorz software to catalog our books at home. I decided not to get the UPC reader because I can enter the ISBN via 10-key faster than I can get the scanner to read the code.

[Eliana]

I have the Book Collectorz (http://www.collectorz.com/book/) software also.

Getting the books cataloged was an enormous project (we did it in bits and pieces over a couple of months), but maintaining it has been very easy. I love it that for most books all I have to enter is the ISBN, and it finds the book, the cover art, the cover price, author, title, etc.

[GraceinMD]

librarything.com

[Sophia]

I've never heard of such a thing.
Does it come with a scanner that you put over the isbn and it inputs all data?
Then catalogues it for you?
Does it show pictures of the book too?
Sounds like something I could use:001_smile:

[GraceinMD]

For librarything, you can purchase a scanner that plugs into your USB port; once you scan the ISBN (or enter it manually), it shows that title, author, ISBN, cover, etc., etc.

[Plaid Dad]

I use librarything as well. It's great for us. I did enter everything by hand, but we don't actually own that many books.

[nukeswife]

Thanks all. I use Library thing to keep the books we're currently using as read alouds to post them on my blog, but I wanted something a bit better to keep a database of our things. I looked at the book collectorz site and like what I see. I'll have to think on it a bit more but it may be just what we need.

Thanks again for the ideas

[Jenny in Atl]

Another happy LT user. I also have Bookpedia, but don't use it as much.

[Mrs. Readsalot]

on the library thing site I go by Karen in Maryland (what I used on TWTM old boards) I need to update Library thing though as I am seriously reducing the number of books in our home.

[True Blue]

I'm supposed to organize them? Uh, oh.

[Eliana]

I've never heard of such a thing.
Does it come with a scanner that you put over the isbn and it inputs all data?
Then catalogues it for you?
Does it show pictures of the book too?
Sounds like something I could use:001_smile:

You can purchase a scanner for Book Collectorz, but I chose not to. You can download a free trial version and try it our for yourself!

I use the "add books (advanced mode)" and enter in one ISBN number after another. I choose which databases to have it search (includes non-US ones as well!), click 'search' and it pulls up all the information the database(s) I selected has - including an image of the cover!

For books old enough to not have an ISBN, I enter title and author and it pulls up all the possible editions in the database(s) and I select the matching one.

For really, really obscure books I manually enter the data I want included and add the book to the collection that way.

You can choose to add more information (if a book is being borrowed and by whom, where it is located, etc.), and you can set up how you want things sorted and displayed. You can export some or all of the data to a .txt file or an .html file (in the slightly more expensive version) and you can print out lists.

I appreciate how easy it is to use, and that I have been able to set things up in the most usable way I could imagine - for me and the way I use the database.

It has definitely repaid its cost just in the number of duplicate books I have been prevented from purchasing!

[pixelroper]

I almost purchased the very pretty Delicious Lib.($40), it can use your web cam as a scanner too. Then I found the freeware Books, it works with an iSight cam. Very convenient to be able to print lists out.

[mom2abcd]

You can purchase a scanner for Book Collectorz, but I chose not to. You can download a free trial version and try it our for yourself!

!


So you don't have to buy anything?

[mom2abcd]

I almost purchased the very pretty Delicious Lib.($40), it can use your web cam as a scanner too. Then I found the freeware Books, it works with an iSight cam. Very convenient to be able to print lists out.

Where do you find freeware Books?

[Laurel]

Has anyone used a barcode scanner? Have any recommendations? I'm hesitant to spend the money without knowing if they're easy to use, and if they work well.

[Eliana]

So you don't have to buy anything?

You don't have to buy anything to try it. It only allows you to enter a certain number of books and not all the features are enabled (if I remember correctly). When we were comparing software, we downloaded free stuff and trial versions and I played with them all until I found the one I was most comfortable with. None of the others I looked at were as easy for me to use or as customizable to have things the way I would really use them.

I would strongly recommend trying a number of programs before settling on anything - if you don't find something that you can use easily, you're much less likely to keep using it at all!

[pixelroper]

Where do you find freeware Books?


it is for macs go here (http://books.aetherial.net/)

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

Currently I have everything in a MS Access database I created. And yes, hand entered all of them!! I have been looking at Book Collecterz and Readerware as options as well. I would like to upgrade to something easier to use on a PDA if that is an option. I can convert my database to excel and keep it on the PDA but it is awkward to search that way. And yes, having such a database does cut down on duplicates. Please, any opinions on Readerware?

[melissaL]

I don't catalogue my books as a library would, but I do have them organised. I have the fiction organised in history years, ancients, medieval, etc. on different shelves, all encyclopedias in one bookshelf, and reference books in their own bookshelves.
MelissaL