May 10, 2004

6:53 PM

Anyone out there have recommendations for book cataloging software? I'm looking for something heavy-duty. Barcode capabilities are nice, but since a good chunk of my collection dates from the 19th c., they're not necessary. The ability to export to a webpage would be a plus. I've been googling around for a bit, but would like some firsthand testimonials.
posted by thomas j wise to (9 comments total)

I've been happy with ReaderWare.
posted by willnot at 9:21 PM on May 10, 2004

Does anyone know if it's possible to import, say, a comma delimited file with, say, author and title, to ReaderWare to build the database (or to any of the other products that might be mentioned). I have such a list (which numbers something over 10000 lines now) for my book collection, and am also thinking I'd like to have a more powerful db-based tool for managing it.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:07 PM on May 10, 2004

If you're not planning on selling the books, readerware works well. It is a bit kludgy, but it can import comma deliminated lists and do everything else you might want. If you have an old cuecat lying around it'll take the output no prob.

If you are planning on selling there are several inventory tools, I think Abebooks has one amazon another, that do everything you ask with the added bonus of price mangement and listing at online marketplaces.
posted by Grod at 10:33 PM on May 10, 2004

stavros - Yes, ReaderWare has an import menu option that says it will take CSV, Tab delimited or Homebase 2.X. It doesn't let you map fields, but a simple test shows it guesses pretty correctly if you have column headings. It got Title, Author and Publisher. It missed Publication Date.
posted by willnot at 10:34 PM on May 10, 2004

That's version 2.75 by the way.
posted by willnot at 10:36 PM on May 10, 2004

Thanks!
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:43 PM on May 10, 2004

If you want free, one option might be to use bibTeX and any of a vast horde of front-ends and managers for it. Hit CTAN or just google for "bibtex manager".

Barcode capability won't be there. You'd be able to enter basic bibliographic information, the sorts of stuff you'd use if you were building a bibliography (which is what bibTeX is meant for).
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 12:37 AM on May 11, 2004

I haven't tried it yet, but there's Books for Mac OS X. I'm using a custom-built FileMaker database to catalog my music collection.
posted by hyperizer at 8:19 AM on May 11, 2004

There's also Booxster for OS X. I have used it and "Books" mentioned above, and both are decent, if not perfect. My main complaint (and this could be rectified in later versions) is that they did not properly look up LoC numbers, not hit Amazon France.
posted by Mo Nickels at 12:02 PM on May 11, 2004