Books for OS X
Books
is a nice piece of GPL'd OS X software that allows you to keep
inventories of your vast collections of books. Currently at version 2.0.8, Books
allows you to use various
barcode scanners (including a Neutered Cue:Cat) to scan the
barcodes on your books and automatically fill in all the rest of the details
(including images of the book cover) from various sources from the
net.
In addition to the scanning method, you can also
type in ISBN numbers or Library of Congress (LOC) numbers to get autofill data.
This data can be retrieved from various flavors of Amazon, Barnes and Nobles,
Library of Congress, and Powell's Books. I was able to scan a couple of
bookshelves worth so far (303 books) and it found information on every one,
though some did not have book covers. Using the LOC numbers, I was even able to
get information on books that predated ISBN numbers. Pretty cool
stuff.
Books Import/Details screen:
Books also sports a nice search interface using the "standard" search field at the top of the list screen. When searching, the text you enter is matched against just about every field in the database. Thus, you can search for Stephenson and get all of Neal Stephenson's books, as well as those containing "Stephenson" in the title.
Books Search/Main Screen:
Books also simplifies some of the tasks relating to lending your books to others. It has kind of a mini-library function that allows you to mark a book as lent, as well as who you lent it too, when it was lent, and when you should expect it back. The entries in these fields are available for searching as well, though there doesn't appear to be a way to list, say, all books that are currently on loan.
Books permits exporting of your book data into lots of formats, including HTML, RTF, XML, Emails (??) and iPod-ready text files. There are more options available, and these help ensure your data isn't held hostage by a single app should you need it elsewhere. Importing is similarly feature-full, giving options for most commercial competitors as well as some generic tab-delimited and XML options. Good stuff.
There are a few deficiencies: Most notably, the save function is painfully slow. For my 303 book sample database, saving takes about 30-40 seconds. Ouch. Also, I wish searches were incremental instead of having to hit enter after I enter a search term. But for the most part, this is one solid app.
Download Books today (and get the source!)
Books Import/Details screen:
Books also sports a nice search interface using the "standard" search field at the top of the list screen. When searching, the text you enter is matched against just about every field in the database. Thus, you can search for Stephenson and get all of Neal Stephenson's books, as well as those containing "Stephenson" in the title.
Books Search/Main Screen:
Books also simplifies some of the tasks relating to lending your books to others. It has kind of a mini-library function that allows you to mark a book as lent, as well as who you lent it too, when it was lent, and when you should expect it back. The entries in these fields are available for searching as well, though there doesn't appear to be a way to list, say, all books that are currently on loan.
Books permits exporting of your book data into lots of formats, including HTML, RTF, XML, Emails (??) and iPod-ready text files. There are more options available, and these help ensure your data isn't held hostage by a single app should you need it elsewhere. Importing is similarly feature-full, giving options for most commercial competitors as well as some generic tab-delimited and XML options. Good stuff.
There are a few deficiencies: Most notably, the save function is painfully slow. For my 303 book sample database, saving takes about 30-40 seconds. Ouch. Also, I wish searches were incremental instead of having to hit enter after I enter a search term. But for the most part, this is one solid app.
Download Books today (and get the source!)
Posted: Wed - October 13, 2004 at 10:53 AM
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