First before I get started on what I’m talking about today I have to say I am writing this under the shade of my new gazebo sunshade in my backyard. I feel like a princess-it’s huge and gorgeous! Ahhhhhhh….
Now the important stuff!
One of my favorite things to do with my books-other than read them- is to “play” with them-I like to alphabetize, categorize, journal about them, recommend them, catalogue them-just generally touch them. I love the feel of books.
So it stands to reason that I have a book catalogue. And that my friends is what I want to share with you today. I have had several calls at work from people asking to help them design databases for home libraries and comic collections. Plus, I do it a lot at home. I have tried several incarnations- an excel sheet, a program online called BookDB. And finally my Ipod app, called, appropriately, iBookshelf. Now all of them were highly useful if all you were wanting to do was catalogue, but iBookshelf wins hands down for professional looking, easy data entry and easy entry removal. With BookDB it looked like a database you would never want anyone to see-geeky and complicated. It really wasn’t, but at first glance that is how it looks. I should point out too that all of the applications I’ve tried have been free, because, well, I’m cheap and the less I spend on other stuff, the more I have for books.
What is great about iBookshelf is that when I turn my iTouch on its side it becomes a slideshow of my books' cover art. I can scroll through them in alphabetic order to see what I have. The thing that makes entries so quick is that you only have to enter is the ISBN number. Then it searches its databases and enters the author name, title, cover image, publishing date, edition, genre, etc all on its own! This of course becomes a bit of a problem when you have an edition for which there was no ISBN number, or it can’t find the ISBN number-and that does happen. But in that case I just suck it up, search by title alone, choose a different version of the same book and make a note in its notes field that I don’t own this exact edition.
Another feature is that it isn’t just for books you own. When you catalog an entry you can choose own, borrow, loan or want. Then on the main screen you can choose to just view the books by this category. So if I am in a book store looking for a new purchase I can peruse my want list, or if I can't seem to find a book I can look through my loan list to see if I gave it out, etc.
When you choose own you can choose to enter a library name. So for example, I have a bookshelf upstairs, a bookshelf of my husband’s books and a shelf in my bedroom, and 3 more in the basement next to my husband’s books. So I use this library feature to enter in the location of the book in my house. In the borrow field I can enter in who I borrowed the book from, when I borrowed it and when I returned it. I can also sink this feature with my day timer and set a reminder to return the book. The loan feature allows me to note who I lent a book to, when and whether they returned it and when.
The downside to this feature is that the backup is done through email and I have yet to figure out how to reinstate a backup as I lost everything when I upgraded to OS4 (lets not even get me started but apple, I’m loving you a little less recently. Your fantastic applications are the only thing making me stay in this relationship).
This is still the best free application I have came across, even if I do end up having to type them all in again. Why? Because it is quick and simple. It looks good too. And its portable. With excel or the BookDB, if I didn’t have my computer with me-or at least a memory stick and access to a computer with the same programs, I couldn’t access my home library list. But with the iBookshelf, it doesn’t matter because my itouch goes everywhere I go!
So of those I have tried, if you’re an ipod user, go with that. If you’re not I would stick with excel. It’s customization allows for you to make your database whatever you need it to be.
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