Family Man Librarian

A couple of years ago, I happened to read about a software program called Readerware that was created to enable users to catalog their home collections of books, CDs, videos, and DVDs. Being the library geek that I am, and with my background in cataloging, my interest was immediately piqued. I downloaded a 30-day trial version back then and was quite impressed with Readerware’s auto-catalog feature, by which it goes out to predefined sites such as Amazon, Powell’s, the British Library, the Library of Congress, and other sites, and automatically harvests metadata about the item you wish to catalog, using a list of UPC and/or ISBN numbers that you’ve scanned into the system in a batch. Metadata can include (but is not limited to) author, title, publication information, value, and even, when available, cover images. You can pick and choose which sites you wish for Readerware to search, and in what order. You can also specify that it merge data from disparate sites into one record. Furthermore, instead of or in addition to doing batch searching, you can even drag and drop from a webpage containing information about an item into Readerware and it will auto-catalog that item on the fly. E.g. you can use Alibris or IMDB to find a record for something you own, drag the URL over to Readerware, and it’ll automatically parse the descriptive data and create a catalog record. One of the better aspects of the system’s capabilities is that in addition to the auto-catalog feature, it also allows you to periodically auto-update everything, e.g. to keep up with changing values for items you own. The cost for the Readerware bundle (there are three separate versions, one each for books, CDs, and videos/DVDs) is $75. I think that’s a real bargain.

Last week I was finally able to purchase a copy of the software and use it “for real.” Along with the software, I also received a free USB version of the :Cue:Cat barcode reader to enable me to quickly scan in the ISBN and/or UPC information needed to do the auto-cataloging. My wife and my eldest son, Keegan, rolled their eyes as I excitedly worked my way through our collections. I could tell they were thinking, “Oh great, there goes Mr. Library Geek again, wasting time on something technology related!” When I stopped scanning things in for a bit and had only one more bookshelf to do, I decided out of curiosity to review some of the prices of some of our books, just for fun, to see how much they might be worth. I was astonished to find one or two were valued at over $100 or more. When I showed this to Michele, suddenly her tune changed and she said, “What are you waiting for?! Get the rest of those books scanned!!!!” Keegan got very excited when I told him that one of the books that was valued the most was one of his game books! So we’re now singin’ a different tune ’round here. <grin>

Anyway, I think this is great software and highly recommend it to anyone! I’m inspired now to see if I can dabble in buying and selling books on the side. My plan is not to make much money, but instead, to make just enough of a profit selling other books to enable me to collect the books I really want. I see a whole new hobby opening up for me (like I really have time for that)…