Matthew Slowe

My search has, thus far, been fruitless so I am asking here as a last ditch attempt …

I am looking for a self-hostable web based application to be an inventory of the (real, rather than e-) #books in the house. It should be able to accept a list of #ISBNs as input for importing items and look them up (with covers) to ingest their metadata.

It doesn't need #library style circulation (I don't want to run a library so don't want #Koha or equivalent)

I've been using #HomeBox which is ok but only understands "things" rather than "books" (I've written a isbn2homebox script to make that easier). I'd like something purpose designed for books though.

Does anyone use anything like this? There are plenty of free or subscription things available online, but I want to run this myself.

Thanks ☺️

#selfhosting #inventory

Mar 29 at 3:24pmWeb
Show threadMekkiMar 29
@fooflington I used DataCrow for this purpose a decade ago. Looks like it's still around and has a ton of new features: https://datacrow.org/
Data Crow – Your Ultimate Collection Playground | Customize, Catalog & Cherish

Step into Data Crow: the free, open-source toolkit that lets you customize modules, catalog everything from books and movies to games and photos, and keep your data safe and local. Turn your collections into adventures: get started now!

Data Crow
Show threadpcfeMar 29

@fooflington I use Alexandria
https://github.com/mvz/alexandria-book-collection-manager/

for me, the ISBN import has good days and bad days, so YMMV.
Recommend to give it a testrun before investing time and money into a solution for barcode scanning in bulk and then feeding the ISBNs to Alexandria (that's how I entered my books initially)

Since I tend to add less than a dozen books a year, when the ISBN lookup is not working that day I tend to shrug and just fill the hand full of fields manually

GitHub - mvz/alexandria-book-collection-manager: Fork of the Alexandria Book Collection Manager

Fork of the Alexandria Book Collection Manager. Contribute to mvz/alexandria-book-collection-manager development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub
Show threadMatthew SloweMar 30
@pcfe thanks for the pointer, if I can't find a web-based one I'll give this one a try!
Show threadDanny GarsideMar 29

@fooflington
It's designed to be social, so this might not match super well what you're wanting it for, but: bookwyrm?

https://docs.joinbookwyrm.com/

Bookwyrm Documentation

Documentation for using and contributing to BookWyrm

Show threadMatthew SloweMar 30
@da5nsy I'd shied away from it for that reason but might have a look, thanks 😃
Show threadjandiMar 29

@fooflington Haven't used it, but BookLogr fits the description: https://booklogr.app/

It searches in OpenLibrary, I added a couple ISBNs in the demo and worked fine. It has an API so I guess you could add a list of them programatically more or less easily. Seems actively maintained.

It even has a share with Mastodon feature! (the author is here @mozzo and has favorited this very post!).

Hope it helps.

BookLogr

Self-hosted reading tracker

Show threadAndreasMar 29
@jandi Thank you for sharing my project! @fooflington if you do try it out, I hope it fits your needs. I'm always looking to improve the app, so feel free to ping me if you have any questions, find any bugs, or have ideas for new features.
Show threadjandiMar 29

@mozzo @fooflington Oh, that's so nice to hear, I love this moments!

Thanks to @distinctdipole for boosting! See what you did!

Show threadOllie 🇪🇺🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🇵🇸🇺🇦Mar 29

@jandi @mozzo @fooflington All part of being a good fedizen.

Though I must admit, not totally altruistic. I'm about to tackle a project that needs something similar. Thanks folks!

Show threadjandiMar 29
@distinctdipole @mozzo @fooflington That's even better 🤗
Show threadMatthew SloweMar 30
@jandi @mozzo @distinctdipole Thanks, this looks very promising, I'll give it a spin and let you know! 😃
Show threadMatthew SloweMar 30

@mozzo looks lovely! My first quick spin threw up two things you've got issues for already:

  • Import csv documentation
  • (Location) tagging

    • Will get a proper amount of data into it and play some more, thanks

    Show threadAndreasMar 30

    @fooflington Thank you for testing it out. The issues that you have encountered are definitely something that will need to be addressed.
    There are currently two open issues for this,
    Issue for bookshelf, location, tagging feature: https://github.com/Mozzo1000/booklogr/issues/56

    Issue for export/import docs: https://github.com/Mozzo1000/booklogr/issues/68

    If you have any specific way you would like to handle location/tagging, I would love to hear about it.

    [Feature Request] Add book shelf information · Issue #56 · Mozzo1000/booklogr

    Hosting a hardcopy book library database would be much more useful if the user could add information to "where" the book is located in their library. A shelf row / column information (i.e. "shelf 3...

    GitHub
    Show threadMatthew SloweMar 30
    @mozzo thanks, had already subscribed and was pondering commenting on the issue when I'd worked out (reverse-engineered the source code) with the CVS format for future visitors
    Show threadMatthew SloweApr 7

    @mozzo I went with a slightly different route and implemented an importer script using the API instead:

    https://hal.mafoo.org.uk/foo/isbn2booklogr

    isbn2booklogr

    Script to take ISBNs and import them into [Booklogr](https://github.com/Mozzo1000/booklogr).

    hal
    Show threadAndreasApr 7
    @fooflington Wow this is really cool! Thank you for sharing!
    Show threadBethan M. JenkinsMar 29
    Uncertain if it fulfills all you criteria, but
    https://www.shelf-cat.com/
    Home | ShelfCat

    A better way to organise your library

    Show threadJohn WestonMar 29
    @fooflington @quixoticgeek I’ve toyed around with TinyCat in the past (is free for personal use), and the LibraryThing backend is great. https://www.librarycat.org/
    TinyCat

    TinyCat for Small Libraries