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Ask Slashdot: High-Tech Ways To Manage a Home Library?
DeptofDepartments writes "With Kindles and ebooks on everyone's lips (sc. hands) nowadays, this might come as a surprise to some, but besides being a techie, I have also amassed quite a collection of actual books (mostly hardcover and first editions) in my personal library. I have always been reluctant to lend them out and the collection has grown so large now that it has become difficult to keep track of all of them. This is why I am looking for a modern solution to implement some professional-yet-still-home-sized library management. Ideally, this should include some cool features like RFID tags or NFC for keeping track of the books, finding and checking them out quickly, if I decide to lend one." For more on what DeptofDepartments is looking for, read on below.
DeptofDepartments continues: "One problem seems to be the short lifetime of RFID tags (only 5-10 years). Given that many books will probably only be read or checked out once or twice in this period at best, the administrative effort seems very large. I have also been largely unsuccessful in finding tags or solutions that go beyond the cheap 5 to 20 item 'starter kits', yet still remain affordable and below the industrial scale.
Also, what would be suitable and affordable readers/writers for the tags in this context?
Finally, as many of the books are old folios or fairly precious first editions, everything must be non-destructive and should be removable without damage to the books if need be.
(Note: Scanning ISBNs with a hand-held barcode scanner is not an option, as many books are old (pre-ISBN) or special editions).
Software-wise, I would like to have a nice and modern-looking, easy-to-use software that can interface with the hardware side as described above. I do not necessarily need multi-user or networking capabilities at this point.
I hope the CSI (Combined Slashdot Intelligence) has some helpful ideas and pointers for me on this!"
Also, what would be suitable and affordable readers/writers for the tags in this context?
Finally, as many of the books are old folios or fairly precious first editions, everything must be non-destructive and should be removable without damage to the books if need be.
(Note: Scanning ISBNs with a hand-held barcode scanner is not an option, as many books are old (pre-ISBN) or special editions).
Software-wise, I would like to have a nice and modern-looking, easy-to-use software that can interface with the hardware side as described above. I do not necessarily need multi-user or networking capabilities at this point.
I hope the CSI (Combined Slashdot Intelligence) has some helpful ideas and pointers for me on this!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book
Organize your books using Dewey, make or buy slip covers, and while you are physically labelling them enter information in a card catalogue database.
If you're going to keep books as a labour of love you can make time to catalogue them.
I have no experience in this area, so this is purely how I would approach the problem from a blank slate.
I would go with good ol` fashion "bunch o` lines" bar codes. Easy to make yourself, should be easy to attach to a book (or not, maybe just have it loose between the cover and first page), lots of cheap readers and most just emulate a keyboard so easy to interface with.
From there I'd probably throw together a little home brew. What you are asking for does not really sound complicated, the software side sounds like a weekend project for just the basic requirements. Even if you just do it as a basic web app. Be sure to add a title based search for if the barcode gets lost, so the bar code just becomes a convinience and not a requirement to use,
Put them in alphabetical order. Use a ledger to record lending.
You're welcome.
I would reccomend taking a polaroid of the person you are loaning the book to and then leaving the picture on the shelf in the place reserved for the book. Other viable database options include a chalkboard log of the Dewey Decimel numbers or scanning each book to a tape drive for safe keeping.
Try Delicious Library. http://www.delicious-monster.com/
Simplest solution - use the ISBNs - plenty of bar code scanning apps exist to scan these in... For books without the ISBNs - create your own QR codes to catalog/scan them all...
legacy.audacious-software.com/products/books/
I've used this for years. Hold the book up to the camera to ID it. Easiest way to do this is via ISBN -- you can always create your own barcodes for the books that don't have them, and affix these somehow (I affix inside with acid-free glue, this may be sacrilegious to some). Otherwise, you can use an image recognition module. Contains complete check in/out functionality and is open source.
I've been thinking that there should be some way to add a plugin for Calibre that can do all of this too, but Books already does everything I want.
If you're dealing with rare or valuable books, I'd forego RFID. The adhesive on security tape and RFID tags is somewhat acidic and ultimately destructive. You have to balance the desire for security with the desire not to harm the books. But any adhesive is somewhat destructive, by its very nature.
RFID equipment is also less than cheap. I think in small numbers, you're looking at about $0.60 per tag, and the equipment itself is a few hundred dollars for encoding and sensitizing/desensitizing.
I work in a library, and these are discussions we have regarding rare and collectible books.
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Something cleverI have about 6000 books. Some of them are quite old (passing the century mark). Many of them (about 1400 that I know of) lack bar codes or ISBNs.
I've been down this road before.
After a few fancy tries, I got lazy and loaded an android app called Book Catalog on an old phone. It does everything I need, though I wish it had a way of syncing databases across multiple devices. I manually enter those I can't scan. I don't bother with bar codes. I identify by name, author, date, and location (shelf, room). I keep the books in order on the shelves. I pay attention when re-shelving them. A little bit of self discipline goes a LONG way.
In all honesty I haven't got everything catalogged yet, but I'm in the...checking...2788 range. I enter anything new I pick up (both so I don't get further behind and to avoid duplication) and scan/enter a few books at a time whenever I'm in an OCD mood.
I use Shelves for Android to keep track of all my Books, DVD, Games, what not.
It has functions for loaning out materials and uses the barcode scanner software you install on your phone or tablet device.
Shelves at Google Play
Perhaps Bill Adama had it right - give books to people, never lend them. Then you can't get upset if they never make it back to you.
Best way to add books is to type in the ISBN, then the website searches online databases, to include Amazon.
You can also add tags to your books, like fiction, non-fiction, read, not read, etc.
Every book I read this year gets a "2012" tag, so I'll always know how many books I read in a given year.
He who laughs last is at 300 baud.
http://www.librarything.com/
Polaroid licensed Instagram for their cameras?
I drank what? -- Socrates
Good suggestions!
For those books which lack a bar code on the jacket, make a book cover and apply the bar code to THAT. (Was a rite of passage every school year as a child that we'd make book covers for all our books. By ten-years-old, I was doing all my books unassisted. We just used paper grocery bags, but you could certainly use some kind of low-acid paper if you'd prefer.)
As for constructing a bar code, there's free bar-code software out there (I've used pbmupc). The basic format is a 1-digit type, a 5-digit manufacturer code, a 5-digit product code, and a check digit. Create a manufacturer code that's reserved for your non-UPC'd books (31337 would be cool, but I think it might already be taken), and then just use a sequence number to identify the individual books.
Lastly, have fun! It's certainly a more interesting project than writing a "hello world" program!
The software I use is done by a Dutch company called Collectorz (Yes, it sounds VERY reputable). It's one of the few bits of software I've genuinely felt worth purchasing for the value. It does pretty much everything you are looking at, cleanly and effectively. It allows you to export databases in a variety of formats, and has a matching app for android and apple products.
It does the classic things like search Amazon for books, either by ISBN or author/title, but it can also hit the Library of Congress as well as several other major national libaries (I know it does the UK as well as Canada). Multiple hits on a single ISBN/title let you select which you import in, and there's a wide selection of data tags you can use, as well as several user defined fields
One thing you may find useful is that the book assigns, in addition to everything else, a unique ID number to each book, which can be used in lieu of a barcode or more cumbersome ID method.
Koha http://www.koha.org/ is an open-source library catalog.
It has circulation and database. Use barcodes or RFIDs on the books (the tip of extra cover is good).
Many real libraries use Koha for their library database and circulation.
YMMV
How many do you think you are going to lend out? To how many people? Be realistic. Making a card per person and write in the book they lend and when might be easier.
On a card you just write the name of the person. Then when lending out a book, write down the name of the book, the author and the date. Then when they bring it back, fill that out.
I would go for a per-person approach and not a per book approach as libraries do it, because you will most likely have less people then books.
Having it on paper and not electronically will make it easier to use for the next 50 to 100 years. No real reason to update. Instead of cards, a paper notebook would do the trick as well.
You can even use it for other members in the family to keep record who read what and when. Nice to look at in many years time.
I would not go with anything electronic. Just make sure that you know what kind of notebook you want, need and how many columns you need. An extra is that other people will be able to use it when you are no longer alive. That way they can get the books back (if they want to) without any knowledge of the way databases work at that time.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
"(Note: Scanning ISBNs with a hand-held barcode scanner is not an option, as many books are old (pre-ISBN) or special editions)."
I recently scanned all my books (~250) into a Goodreads account using an Android app. Only a couple of dozen or so didn't have ISBNs. And for those I just typed in the name and it was able to find the book. I believe there is also an option for adding a book if Goodreads can't find it.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
I did the inventory of my 500+ book collection here and while it took a few days, the upkeep is minimal, and gcstar allows me to also keep track of people I lend the book to. The interface is awful, but it does connect to Amazon and so on to get book details, including cover pictures, if you have an ISBN. If you don't, then it's likely that Amazon doesn't carry it and you'll have to enter the details by hand anyways, but that's still fairly easy.
I do not label the books with stickers, RFID or bar codes of any kind. I simply rely on the book name for reference, and since I have very few duplicate books, this usually works. Duplicates can usually be told apart by printing dates or something similar. The library itself is physically arranged by loosely defined categories - I did *not* bother with Dewey.
I have written a complete article about this that may be useful to you. You may also want to contribute to that wiki page which compares different software offering.
Semantics is the gravity of abstraction
we were still using cue cats!
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A tested technology.
Got an iPhone? There's a personal inventory app called MyStuff2 ($5.00) that I use for a whole lot of things, and it already comes with "Books" as a category. When you're adding items, it can use the camera for a barcode scanner and look up your titles on Amazon; it then automatically populates fields like title, author, publisher, genre, page count, edition, ISBN, publication date, and cover photo. For books that don't have a barcode, you can manually type the ISBN. Or you can enter all the data manually.
Once an item is in the database, there are action codes you can select. Item Lent is built in by default, and records the current date. It's up to you to type in the name and info of the borrower. When you view a loaned item, there's a convenient "return item" button to tap.
You can browse the list of all items in an action state, such as "lent" or "returned".
The program is very flexible. You can modify the database schema, adding other data you might find useful, like price, vendor, condition, notes, or what have you. You can modify the actions as well. For example, I modified the "lent to" field of the Loan Item activity to be an address book contact field instead of a typed name. So when I look at the loaned item list, I can tap on an item, tap on the contact, then tap dial to call them.
The app supports importing and exporting data a few different ways (CSV, Excel, PDF, HTML) so you can work with it on a separate machine. It can use all kinds of tools to back up the databases, including Box, Dropbox, iCloud, or you can FTP it to your own systems. And it's always with you, which is great if you're just out and about and happen into a book store.
I also have other categories of stuff in the database. I keep data about all of our home appliances and electronics in there, with information about warranties, repair history, replacement parts, and maintenance schedules.
I originally bought it to keep track of our orchid collection, but it's proven very useful for all kinds of home inventory needs. Best $5.00 app I ever bought.
http://www.maddysoft.com/iphone/mystuff/
John
This requirement makes things more difficult for you:
Finally, as many of the books are old folios or fairly precious first editions, everything must be non-destructive and should be removable without damage to the books if need be.
RFID tags, barcodes, and stickers are nifty and serve useful purposes, but they usually cannot be removed from a surface without causing damage, particularly after the adhesive has cured. So you're talking custom book jackets for every book. Given your reluctance to go with RFID, think optical, such as UPC codes or QR codes... but carefully consider their purpose. It sounds like you basically just want to keep track of lending books out. It doesn't sound like you need subject searching capabilities for your collection, and it doesn't sound like you'll be circulating thousands of titles per year. So what would take less time over the remainder of your life span: manually entering a title and the borrower's name into a calendar (w/ a reminder set to go off after a ~4 weeks) a few times a year, or creating thousands of book jackets, cataloging the data, and syncing it with QR codes... then manually entering the name of the borrower? Or will you create a circulation account, and give your friends cards, as well? (You'll still need to enter their personal info once, anyway.)
So keep track of the physical collection this way: face your books. This means align them so that the spines rest at the edge of the shelf (rather than pushing them as far back as they can go.) While it won't fool a careful book thief, most people don't even notice when a shelf is faced. When shelved this way, it's easy to see what books have been dislodged. Keep track of your circulation by just entering borrower name/title into a google calendar as a future appointment, and have it set to email/text you a reminder to get it back.
Even if you donate to the library, they are not obligated to add them to the collection. If a number of your books are pre-ISBN that pretty well guarantees they will not. They need contemporary books people want to read. Unless they are a university or archival library, they are not interested in keeping old stuff. They'll just booksale the stuff they don't want.
librarything.com is a pretty easy way to get your books cataloged. I use it for my collection of over 2,000 books. Calaloging is not just a matter of finding a Dewy number and sticking it on there. MARC (Machine Readable Catalog) is a very intensive and complex method of tagging everything from size to subjects. The neat thing about librarything is that once you get your books in there, with as minimal effort as possible, you can downlad a comma delimited file of the full record to import into any system you want. Cataloging is intensive and time consuming so you want someone else to do the bulk of the work. Don't underestimate the amount of work involved here.
If you REALLY want a serious library automation system there are a couple of open source systems out there: Koha.org is one and Evergreen (open-ils.org) is another. These are real and complex systems with OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog), check-in/out, etc. I wouldn't do this unless you were really hard core.
Google home library software and you will find a ton of stuff.
P.S. I worked in the library automation field for about 30 years as one of the first "systems librarians."
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
Marry a librarian, and just leave your books around. A system will develop.
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