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Internet Book Database?
Anonymous Coward writes "Just about everyone has used either the CDDB
or freedb CD databases. And many
people are also familiar with DVD
Profiler, a well developed database for DVD fans. Each of these public
databases have a number of wonderful strengths, and a few weaknesses, but they
are well thought out and well developed. After searching Google, sourceforge and every other search engine I could think of, I have come to the conclusion that there is not a well developed internet book database. While many people would be quick to point out the various commercial websites (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc),
and the various library databases (Library of
Congress, Boston Public
Library, and other online catalogs),
none of these online databases offer the same ease of use of DVD Profiler, or
the open structure of the online CD databases. The closest program I could
find was the shareware program Readerware.
This program will search several web sites and download the pertinent
information, but it is extremely inefficient, as it does not then store the data
in a central database to make it easier for the other users, and in my opinion,
the UI is terrible. What programs, if any, do those of you reading /. use to keep track of your books? If you were to start an open source internet book database project, what
features would you include in it?" Books in Print is the definitive book database; apparently it costs about $30,000/year to license it.
The most likely reason for this is, at least so far, the difference in format between books and digital discs of any kind. It's very easy and direct to examine the structure of a disc, but until books become digital as well this won't be as simple.
Books In Print is a great resource, if you have access to it. Amazon works well as a poor man's version.
In conjunction with a barcode scanner/CueCat, it could make it a lot easier to start private libraries. I have a couple thousand books, about a hundred of which I lend out at any given time. Be nice to make a catalog, and a freely available cddb-like ISBN-based system would make that a lot easier.
My use for such a database is partly for to make sure I haven't already read something (I just love buying the same book twice because the cover changed), and for insurance reasons.
I want to be able to use a barcode scanner (or even type the ISBN by hand), and pull all the relevant information from a DB to my local machine. This is exactly the point of CDDB, as I see it.
If I don't have to enter all the information by hand for a CD, why should I have to do it for a book?
--jcwren (owner of about 2700 books)
What if you could scan it, it brings a copy of that record into your local database, prints out a book plate, and the can set up a borrowing schedule for it? That'd be cool. And very helpful for small libraries.
I have come to the conclusion that there is not a well developed internet book database.
Why do we need this? Books are not searchable by nature so making it easier to find information about a book still leaves the issue of how do we get access to it. Making an eBook DB makes some sense. The ISBN numbering has been in effect for a long time and you can find any book reference that has a write up or reference on the net via Google. Thirdly the research community has oddles of system for referencing articles and papers.
Help fight continental drift.
Some people ask `what is the point?'.
My answer to that is the following: It would be nice to be able to lookup info about a book, given a small amount of information. Suppose you are a library and you want to catalogue books. Instead of having to type in all the information yourself you could just type in the ISBN and all the information get downloaded to the local catalogue.
I have had to make a database and enter data for a library and that would make life a lot easier!.
Seems to be a project of 37signals. Some interesting work in their portfolio.
Well, if you only own a couple hundred books or so, keeping track of them isn't hard. If you own thousands, having some system is needed. I have about as many bookshelves as I have wallspace, and even then books are stacked 2 or three deep on them.
So you also fail to see the usefulness of the Internet Movie Database? I, personally, visit the IMDb almost as much as I visit /.
In the same way that people research CDDB and IMDB to see who has recorded what and who has directed what and who starred in what, people also want to see full author bibliographies, checklists for book series, edition lists (there are people who collect multiple editions and sometimes even printings of the same book). Then the hunt begins. There are more uses of catalogs and libraries than just adding metadata to your own collection. There's also research.
Take a look at the SFDB for an example.