From Adams to Zelazny, I have a lot of books. If all my books were recycled, I wouldn’t be saving trees, but entire ecosystems. That’s my lifestyle: I’m a pack rat who loves to read.
I have a pretty good idea of perhaps fifty percent of my book collection’s contents. The rest are either literature I haven’t yet read, or others I’ve since forgotten about. (This, by the way, is a great bonus in having a bad memory – the capability to reread an old book and enjoy it all over again. Hawking, Einstein and Edison really missed the boat.)
If someone asks if I own a certain book, I might be able to tell them. If I loan a book out, I might remember who borrowed it a year later. But usually I can’t and I don’t.
Save hassle and time: Keep track of your book collection on a computer. Like an electronic library, book collection software displays your library contents. Track information about your library, like if you’ve read a book, who borrowed it, and when they’ll return it. Automatically download images of a book’s front cover, and track other helpful information, like back cover text, author, cover price, and books missing from your collection which you’d like to buy.
Data entry is easy and fast, important when electronically cataloging a huge book collection: If a book has a barcode, use a handheld scanner to read barcodes and transfer all information to computer.
Handheld scanners and electronic library catalog software are an inventive use on existing technologies. Collection tracking software is certainly worth the price, particularly for those with large collections.
Now that I’ve completed the wind-up, here’s the pitch: “Collectorz” book collection software, when combined with the Flic scanner, does everything I’ve detailed above and more.
The program by itself supports manual entry of all information: Just type a book’s ISBN number (a special number uniquely identifying a book), and the Collectorz software will automatically find and download the rest of the book’s statistics for you.
Purchase the optional handheld Flic barcode scanner and automate the entire process: Scan your books’ ISBNs via barcode. But to abuse an old saying, “be careful what you scan for, as it may not come true”. Some books have two barcodes, other codes may be located inside a book’s front cover or are covered by bookstore stickers. It takes some experimentation to find the right code, but get the basics down and you’ll be scanning books at dozens per minute.
The Collectorz book collection database software is $40, and the Flic barcode scanner is $100. Both are available at http://www.collectorz.com. But don’t stop at just books – Additional collection software is available for music, movies, comics, video games, MP3s and photos. For those needing to track information on large collections, or for true enthusiasts needing powerful tracking software, use Collectorz to take the hassle out of collecting and, more importantly, add to the fun.