Apps for organizing books

[Alana]

Sorry if I shouldn't be starting a new thread, but I didn't see one that was quite my question. I know in other threads there have been discussions about various audiobook apps, and most of you have extensive audio libraries. I don't buy audiobooks, at this point I only check them out from the library or get the occasional disk set at a yard sale, so I don't have the extensive audio shelves. I do, however, have an immense number of physical books, which I like to keep track in while I'm listening to the audio. I don't know why, it just helps me to keep track visually somehow, and sometimes there are pictures or other things that are vital to the story, such as in Dan Brown's novels. Anyway, do any of you use an app (for an Android device, in particular) to catalogue the books that you own? Place them in categories, keep track of what you have or are missing in a series, that kind of thing? Which one is best? I don't necessarily need to stick with free ones, I don't mind paying a little for a really good one. I just want something user-friendly but where I can notate the book, what number it is in a series (and change the name or number if necessary for my own shelves), whether it's paperback or hardbound, if it's one I own, but maybe want to replace because it's falling apart, that kind of thing. And are there any that will sync w/ a program on my pc? I want to have a backup in case something happens to the phone. But I don't want to carry a huge list with me when in a store or at a yard sale and I just can't remember whether I own that book already or not.

Any suggestions? I've found Bookshelf and Book Catalogue and even Inventory that look interesting, but I don't know anyone who's actually used them.

[The Pfaeffle Journal (Diane)]

try bookcat http://www.fnprg.com/

[Nichole ~Bookaholic~]

While this is more for series I have found it very helpful... http://www.fictfact.com/

I am also trying out this for cataloging all my audio books since I get them from several different places, I don't know if there is a phone app but there is a free download BookDB2 http://www.spacejock.com/BookDB.html

I have not done much with it yet but seems pretty user friendly so far...

[Alana]

I have been trying out the Book Catalogue app for Android, it's been working ok so far, although every once in awhile it seems to totally freeze up the phone and crash. But I'm also still adding all my myriad of books, so perhaps it just gets overwhelmed?

[Alina]

I use the Goodreads app on my iPhone. I can pull up my TBR and sort it by author, date, etc. This is especially helpful when I'm looking for an audiobook at the library as they are listed in author order. However you shelve your books on Goodreads, you can pull up that particular shelf. Why maintain two different lists?

[Alana]

I like having a list I can access without having to access the internet. Plus, with an app, I can shelve by series and number, which is important when I'm trying to decide which books I'm lacking. It's really just a little tool to use when I'm out looking at used books and can't remember when I have one.

[Maxic]

Diane wrote: "try bookcat http://www.fnprg.com/"
BookCat seems to be dead. They never replied to my questions and their online store is closed for at least a month.
Finally, I've got All My Books program from http://www.bolidesoft.com/allmybooks....

[Alan]

Maxic wrote: "Diane wrote: "try bookcat http://www.fnprg.com/"
BookCat seems to be dead. They never replied to my questions and their online store is closed for at least a month."

Just out of curiosity, what email address did you use when you contacted the BookCAT developer?

Although the program's development and sales are on hiatus, the program's author, Fredrik Nordbakke, is still providing support to existing customers via his email address:

FNProgramvare Support

He is currently applying changes and updates to the internet download modules used to obtain online information for all of his CAT products.

I realize this information probably doesn't do prospective customers much good, since they can't buy the program in the first place. However it does indicate that the status of BookCAT should be checked now and then to see if development and sales have been re-started. The quality of the product makes it worth the investigation.

In the meantime, the product that's closest in technology to BookCAT, as far as I can see, is Collectorz Book Collector. Unfortunately, while it supports storage of lots of different kinds of book information, including contents titles, its text importer is crippled. It only reads 3 fields from a text database: Author, Title, ISBN. This makes it useless if you have a large existing database containing more information than those three fields. You'd have to manually restore all the other fields after importing the first three. Collectorz claims that many of the extra fields could be restored via downloading from their proprietary book database. That might work if the fields you need to restore happen to correspond to any of the fields in their database. This approach probably won't work for any custom fields and/or notes in your old database.

That said, here is the website for the Collectorz line of products:

Collectorz.com Collection Database Software

For someone starting from scratch, it might be worth investigating.

Happy listening,
Alan Mintaka

[Alan]

Maxic wrote: "Finally, I've got All My Books program from http://www.bolidesoft.com/allmybooks.... "

That one does look interesting. I've been playing with the trial edition. I have a few technical issues with it but have tried to address those in the support forum.

I hope they can help - it looks like they're on the right track as far as automating the data entry process as much as possible via barcode input and/or manual ISBN entry, followed by downloading the book data from online resources.

I think that regardless of the technical issues, the sticking points for me will be:

1. How comprehensive is their import tool?
2. Does All My Books store contents title information?

If I can learn anything useful about the program I'll post my results here.

Happy Listening,
Alan Mintaka

[Handoko]

I think goodreads already cover your needs for cataloging books?
You don't need to backup the catalogue since its already on Internet, but you can export book list if you need it.

you can make virtual shelves to keep track the book movement (lend to friends etc).
you can create shelves like: genre-fictions, genre-nonfictions, own-audio, own-ebook, own-book, wish-sept2013 (for example for books scheduled to be released on sept'13), condition-perfect, condition-wornout, status-buynew, status-giveaway, etc.

sounds complicated at first, until you get used to the structure you created. (I think) :D

[Alana]

I just like having a list on my phone that doesn't require an internet connection if I'm out and about shopping and can't remember if I already have a book.

[Hunchback Jack]

I use iBookshelf on the iPhone, and there's an android version. It has a few quirks - barcode scanning multiple books at a time is a bit finicky - but of the ones I've tried, it's the best.

You need an Internet connection if you want the app to look up the book details based on barcode, but all the book data in your library is local to the device. You can export to csv, too.

HBJ

[Empress]

I'm using Calibre.

[Handoko]

Calibre is for ebooks. You have to have the ebook file to make a new entry.
You may be able to create an empty book just to add a title.

@Alana:
Goodreads is much better. I have Internet connection all the time, so it's not a big deal for me. Maybe you coukd just export a shelf (wishlist shelf) and save it on you phone for easy access when you go to bookstores?

[Alana]

dokue, I ended up using the "book catalog" app, it's been working well for me. I can create shelves, etc, and don't need any internet connection so it doesn't use up any of my monthly allotment.

[Handoko]

Great, didn't read your post about it, thought you still looking for alternative :p
Looks good, I'll try side loading it to my BB.
Here's the link, for others who needs it:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/de...

Thanks