Software for organizing a book collection?

Question

I am trying to help this grandmotherly old woman who, God bless, collects books. Classics for the most part. Everything from Hardy Boys to Zane Grey. She wants a computer program to organize her collection so she can tell what she has, in what condition, and what it is worth. I figure a data base should be fairly easy to set up, but I was wondering if anyone had any recomendations. I should mention that the woman in question types by looking at the keyboard for the letter, looking at the screen to make sure the letter typed was the correct one, then looking for the next, so somethng without a whole lot of typing is good.

Ok, she's asked me because I have a computer, therefore in her eyes I know everything. And she doen't have a lot of money to fool with.

Answer 1

Well, I'm a grandfatherly old man who needs to do exactly the same thing. I've just retired and haven't had time to begin yet, but I do have the resource. Check

http://www.librarything.com/

After 200 books, there's a minimal charge, but you get complete library information just by typing in ISBN # or title and author. It can be organized in any number of ways. And the first 200 title are free, just for registering.

I don't think it can be relied upon to give a current market price, but it will help. You actually have to do that yourself. One realtively easy way is to compare what you have (its edition, binding, condition, condition of dust jacket, and the like) with books listed, say, on

http://www.abebooks.com/

Good luck.

Answer 2

I know of one, but forgot the name. I will look it up, but first I want to tell you that it requires a scanner and very little typing because of this ("steals" the information from websites-legal though). The program is very usable for sales tracking as well. The reason I mention this is because of the expense. Is the expense a big consideration? Please let me know this since I don't know where I left the information and don't want to look for it, if she can not afford it anyway. Thanks.

Answer 3

You can look for the kind of software used in libraries, just look in the Internet for library software options

Answer 4

http://bibliophil.org is an online community that allows users to list books they've read, books they own, and provide ratings for how good they are, their condition, and their value.

Answer 5

http://www.collectorz.com/

This is what we use at our house and we are very happy with it.

Answer 6

use BookCAT 8.10.01