I've tried desktop based cataloging of a couple different kinds, and I was never able to get them to do what I wanted them to do.
For a couple months now I've been using http://librarything.com/, which is evolving into an incredibly powerful, flexible cataloging tool. It's not desktop based, and that turns out to be a blessing, because I can access it anywhere -- including from the public library -- to see if I own a particular edition of a particular book, or what other Thingamabrarians have said about it.
the social/community aspect of LibraryThing is addictive, in that you can find people with similar tastes and go through their catalogs. I've discovered a lot of new authors and books this way, and struck up some interesting discussions.
But for me personally, the biggest attraction of LibraryThing is the fact that Tim takes the library science end of things very seriously. Amazon is one -- but not the only and certainly not the best -- source of cataloging information. I can add a book to my library by querying one of more than thirty libraries in the U.S. and overseas -- including the Library of Congress. I can also query Amazon (US, England, Germany, wherever), but adding through the Library of Congress provides much more complete and reliable data, including the MARC record. I've got 2,500 books in my LibraryThing library, and I've experimented a lot with the system. The ability to target high quality cataloging data is not matched by any other program I've looked at.
The bottom line: a cataloging system that is dependent on Amazon alone is one that is going to be full of errors.
Finally, there is a good community of people really interested in the various social, technical and computing aspects of LibraryThing, and new features are often added as a result of input we provide to Tim and his coworkers.
Really, I don't know why anybody would bother with any other program.
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For a couple months now I've been using http://librarything.com/, which is evolving into an incredibly powerful, flexible cataloging tool. It's not desktop based, and that turns out to be a blessing, because I can access it anywhere -- including from the public library -- to see if I own a particular edition of a particular book, or what other Thingamabrarians have said about it.
the social/community aspect of LibraryThing is addictive, in that you can find people with similar tastes and go through their catalogs. I've discovered a lot of new authors and books this way, and struck up some interesting discussions.
But for me personally, the biggest attraction of LibraryThing is the fact that Tim takes the library science end of things very seriously. Amazon is one -- but not the only and certainly not the best -- source of cataloging information. I can add a book to my library by querying one of more than thirty libraries in the U.S. and overseas -- including the Library of Congress. I can also query Amazon (US, England, Germany, wherever), but adding through the Library of Congress provides much more complete and reliable data, including the MARC record. I've got 2,500 books in my LibraryThing library, and I've experimented a lot with the system. The ability to target high quality cataloging data is not matched by any other program I've looked at.
The bottom line: a cataloging system that is dependent on Amazon alone is one that is going to be full of errors.
Finally, there is a good community of people really interested in the various social, technical and computing aspects of LibraryThing, and new features are often added as a result of input we provide to Tim and his coworkers.
Really, I don't know why anybody would bother with any other program.