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Internet Book Database?

Posted by michael on from the readin-ritin-and-right-clickin dept.

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.

2 of 231 comments (clear)

  1. Re:To keep track of my books? by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  2. Would be good for small libraries worldwide by line-bundle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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!.