Project

[msmemory_archive]

Project for the day: update the SF Books list so that we don't buy (any more) duplicates at Worldcon.

Second project: cut out Viking dress.

Comments

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

I've finally found what seems to be decent cataloguing software, and with a barcode scanner, entering individual books should go quickly. The problem is that there's still so many that it's a daunting task. I also don't have nearly as much shelf space to display even a significant fraction of them, so it'll mostly be cataloguing boxes. That should, at least, make it possible to find a book more easily, and cut down on the the duplicates.

Another part of me says that in an effort to reduce clutter, I should get rid of the books that weren't memorably good.

I once lived with a couple of other book fans, in a house with many built in shelves. That was the last time my collection was catalogued, since we each tracked our books to make it easier to split the library when we moved on to other digs. We suspected there'd be an interesting household dynamic when we realized there we each owned and had read Machiavelli's The Prince.

[galaneia.livejournal.com]

What program are you using? I'm still trying to settle on one (made a little more difficult by the fact that I'm using a mac).

[mikekn]

My first book list was done on a mac - I used a simple database program (FileMaker, I believe) and just typed everything in. It was a lot of work up front, but I've been able to maintain it ever since then. It's now in SmartListToGo, a PC/Palm database program so that I can have my complete list with me when I'm shopping.

[oakleaf-mirror.livejournal.com]

I'm on a Mac, too.

The program that looks most promising is Books. This is a free Cocoa app under active development, with source code available, for tweaking.

I have to make one tweak to this to make it really useful to me. On the ISBN list import pane, I want to put a 'location' pull down list. Since one is likely to be entering a number of books from the same place at once, pre-setting that for all books imported in that pass (the other fields are auto-filled from a net source) will simplify things. Then, I can set it to 'Storage Box 1,' say, scan all the bar-codes, and get title, author, genre, cover image and more auto-filled from Amazon, while when I later look up that book, I'll see from the location that it's in 'Storage Box 1.'