Book cataloguing

Cafe Society
1

So I’m getting ready to buy a scanner and start cataloguing my books. I’m looking for recommendations, and I know there are lots of book-addicts here. What do you use, why do you like it, what don’t you like? I’ve listed the ones I’ve found below - any thoughts on those? Any others I should check out?

It must have a scanner, but also must allow manual loading for books without barcodes, books without SBN, etc.

I’m not really interested in online-only such as Google books. I want to have my own little database, where I can make my own little notes, such as the physical location of the books, who I’ve loaned to, etc. Do exporting, printing, and so on.

Of course, I’d also like a portable version, so I could quit duplicating books, forgetting what books I’m looking for, etc.

Intelliscanner looks kind of cool; I could inventory EVERYTHING in my house! But it worries me that they specifically mention other catalogue types (comics, wine, assets) and books only in passing.

BookCat looks great except for that little problem of no scanner input. But I love the flexibility. If only they had a scanner!

ReaderWare seems like a good possibility. Although I wish it had an interface for the smart phone that I’m getting ready to buy, instead of just palm os.

Primasoft looks like a possibility. I’ve never heard of it before, though.

BookCollector is definitely a contender. I think. Geez, that’s a horrible website. It makes me not want to buy your software.

2

I purchased Readerware software and also got a CueCat from them. I used the CueCat to enter all of my books, CDs and DVDs into the databases. But for individual purchases, it’s easy enough just to type in the UPC number for the item to add it to the database, rather than dig the CueCat out of the pile.

After looking at the website, it looks like they’ve updated the software, but the interface is still kind of primitive. And as you pointed out, smart phone support would be nice. (I’d like to have the lists on my iPhone with me when I go to the store.)

3

Yeah, typing in the number will probably work once I’ve got the existing books in.

But that will take a while. I’ve got a lot of books. No, more than that. Way more. :eek:

I’d most definitely like to have a list on my phone. Once I get one.

How was the CueCat? I was looking at the options and trying to decide between that and a laser scanner.

4

It was fine. You have to sweep it back and forth across the barcode a few times before the code is recognized. And the Readerware people sold it for only ten bucks when I bought it as part of the software order.

Although to do the initial entry of my books, CDs and DVDs (about 500 books, 50 CDs and 125 DVDs), I borrowed a barcode scanner from the office. This was one of the handheld types similar to the ones a supermarket cashier might use and it automatically swept the laser beam back and forth. I checked, though, and such barcode scanners cost about $100-150, which seemed too much for a one-time project.

5

I’ve been using the CueCat scanner I got with ReaderWare to catalog my DVD collection and have never had any problem. I started using it for my library and noticed that occasionally the titles it came up did not match the book I had scanned. I can’t remember specifics because this was several years ago when I was trying to pack the library for moving, and had to abort the project due to time constraints. Another problem I had was with my CD collection; a good portion of my CD library was purchased through a music club, and those did not have identifiable barcodes.

6

Yeh, we had one here at work at one point, I thought I’d try to find it first before I bought one.

I know I have some that are too old for bar codes. I also wonder if the earlier bar codes will still be good.

I saw some for under $100, which would probably be worth it for my one-time project. Last time I counted (maybe 15 years ago), I was upwards of 10K books. On the bright side, I probably have maybe 20 DVDs. :stuck_out_tongue: