My brother put up this post the other day after I was showing him the power of Delicious Library. This is a fantastic app where you simply put your ISBN bar code of a book in front of your Mac’s camera and it reads it, searches Amazon, and reads out to you the title of the book (or game or video, you can even add “tools,” “clothes,” etc.) and adds it to your library shelf. You can imagine how useful this would be. You can create notes and different “shelves” so that you can have one for office and one for home. “Where did I leave that copy of Strack’s Introduction to Talmud and Midrash? Oh, it is at home!” You get the idea.
Well, it is Mac only, hence my brohter’s near miss at Macenvy. He found a free online version called Gurulib (which is currently offline, making the “free” less than useful). I was having a few issues with DL but the update tonight fixed them. Since the online version is free I may well move that direction, assuming that it comes back online and remains free. But I know there are a fair number of unwashed using Windows and therefore do not have the choice of DL so in the spirit of philadelphos I offer this information.
June 23rd, 2008
by Steve Brady
Okay, I admit it. I was briefly tempted to get a Mac. The Mac has this really cool software, called “Delicious Library” that takes advantage of the webcam in the computer to read ISBN codes, and build a database of your personal library. Thankfully, that temptation is gone.
Hello, Gurulib.com!
At Gurulib you can enter books from a web interface, which moves you away from a specific OS, and allows for that whole “open community sharing” idea. This free site not only lets you enter books into the online database by scanning the ISBN (or entering by hand, or searching on the title, or… you get the hint.) It also allows you to share, if you wish, your library with others. Both virtually (a “hey, check out what I like to read” sort of sharing) or literally, by allowing others to request to borrow a book, and allowing for a real exchange. This is another great way to have some “social networks” that connects people with like interests, and enables you to share those interests.
When I was going through a minor existential crisis a few years ago, I read the Bible from cover to cover. The copy I had was the rattiest, oldest paperback version I could find: I got it for two bucks at a library booksale.
