Maintaining your home library
Thanks to the NY Public Library, home libraries can be as well-organized as your favorite institutional library. NY Public Library Special Collections Cataloger Kathie Coblentz has created a database program (with fields for genre, subject, size, illustrations, et cetera but also a field for who is currently borrowing the book) and an accompanying 130-page book (explaining the basics of cataloging and maintaining a home collection). If I wasn’t already a librarian, I’d buy this today.
Comments:
I’d love to read the 130-page book — but I’ll stick with the program we already use, thanks. (Yet another reason to use Macs…;)
Mac or no Mac, it’s still a great idea. I love it!
Another nice one for Mac folk: Library by Chronopath. They’ve redesigned their site so all you see is the scary “$149!!” when you load it up — but it’s actually a cheap shareware program that you can use with any barcode scanner or through manual ISBN entry. The $149 is only if you buy their own branded scanner which is totally unneccessary. Pick up a cuecat for $5 on eBay and get scanning!
I used Library for awhile, but found it somewhat limiting for certain things. I’ve switched to Readerware, for both Mac and Windows, and isbn’s can be scanned as well. Shareware for $40 I think it was, at readerware.com.
Can anyone recommend anything for Linux (running Mandrake 9.2)? I’d be willing to pay something if I can scan bar codes or type in ISBNs, and not have to type out the book details longhand. I realized I need some system when I began to buy duplicates of trade books. . . .