Catalogue my books
July 22, 2018 5:15 PM Subscribe
I'm having trouble keeping track of my books. Choose me a software system to do it for me!
After enough acquisitions, moves, and cleanings-out, I've gotten to to where I can't keep track of where my books are. I need an easy-to-use software system!
Things I want:
- Quick input (ideally iPhone app that can scan barcode
- Quick lookup of LoC catalogue number (I have a strong, if irrational, preference for LoC over Dewey)
- Location tagging (is this book at home? In my office?)
- Tracking lendings (have I lent this book out?)
- Tracking books *I've* borrowed (and probably need to return)
- Export to some open format (CSV? sqlite file?)
- Offline access and/or backup
- Reliability and ease of use
- Privacy: I'm not thrilled about a list of my books living in somebody else's database---this is pretty personal---in the first place, but I'd surely rather not see it shared or sold without my explicit, well-informed approval.
Things I'm skeptical of:
- "Social" features
- a web app (cf above on privacy)
I do recognize that I'm not going to get all my desiderata, but how much can I get?
Is LibraryThing what I want? What are you folks' experiences? What are the things I want (or need) that I don't know about right now?
FWIW I'm guessing I have 500-1000 books total. That number's ... probably not going to get smaller.
After enough acquisitions, moves, and cleanings-out, I've gotten to to where I can't keep track of where my books are. I need an easy-to-use software system!
Things I want:
- Quick input (ideally iPhone app that can scan barcode
- Quick lookup of LoC catalogue number (I have a strong, if irrational, preference for LoC over Dewey)
- Location tagging (is this book at home? In my office?)
- Tracking lendings (have I lent this book out?)
- Tracking books *I've* borrowed (and probably need to return)
- Export to some open format (CSV? sqlite file?)
- Offline access and/or backup
- Reliability and ease of use
- Privacy: I'm not thrilled about a list of my books living in somebody else's database---this is pretty personal---in the first place, but I'd surely rather not see it shared or sold without my explicit, well-informed approval.
Things I'm skeptical of:
- "Social" features
- a web app (cf above on privacy)
I do recognize that I'm not going to get all my desiderata, but how much can I get?
Is LibraryThing what I want? What are you folks' experiences? What are the things I want (or need) that I don't know about right now?
FWIW I'm guessing I have 500-1000 books total. That number's ... probably not going to get smaller.
Best answer: I'm a fan of LibraryThing. You can set your library to private.
posted by kbuxton at 8:36 PM on July 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by kbuxton at 8:36 PM on July 22, 2018 [2 favorites]
Seconding LibraryThing. Been using it since it went live in 2005. I have over two thousand books, in several languages, including Russian, Japanese, and Chinese.
The social features are minimal and optional.
posted by fraula at 12:40 AM on July 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
The social features are minimal and optional.
posted by fraula at 12:40 AM on July 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
Thirding Library Thing.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:24 AM on July 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by wenestvedt at 5:24 AM on July 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
We use Libib for our ~7 000 book collection. It's free if you use it to catalogue only but cost money if you want to use it to lend (though in your case you could get the free option and just tag with "borrowed by..." or something). Looking at your list, it does everything on it except function offline. For Home/Office I would just make two libraries (rather than tag everything) and move the book to the appropriate digital library as it moves physically (this would also work for books you've loaned and books you've borrowed). I can't speak to privacy though, it's not something we've had to look out for at our center.
posted by eisforcool at 6:40 AM on July 23, 2018
posted by eisforcool at 6:40 AM on July 23, 2018
Fourthing LibraryThing.
posted by snarfois at 2:39 PM on July 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by snarfois at 2:39 PM on July 23, 2018 [1 favorite]
Nth-ing LibraryThing. I recently added all of my books (currently around 1,400), and the scanner on the phone app saved me a HUGE amount of time. And the books I own which do not have barcodes (mostly poetry chapbooks) were simple to add with the web interface.
posted by JohnFromGR at 7:08 AM on July 24, 2018
posted by JohnFromGR at 7:08 AM on July 24, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by jzb at 7:23 PM on July 22, 2018 [1 favorite]