ISBN number reader/scanner/database builder?

greenjeans · 2024-11-13 23:08:55

Okay i'm not sure how to exactly articulate what i'm wanting, it may take multiple things, but let me present the problem and hopefully someone knows of a solution.

My wife has taken over librarian duties in our tiny town's tiny library, it's only open one day a week and only has probably a couple thousand books, but libraries are important and we have permission from the city council now to spend some time and money upgrading the place.

Currently it doesn't even have a working computer, just a bunch of old broken down windoze boxes that won't boot. I'm about to fix that with the help of Devuan in the next couple days now.

So, former librarian wasn't into the Dewey decimal system, nor even alphabetically organizing the books or even separating according to genre`. They are literally just loosely organized according to the date they were donated to library.

What we're hoping, is that some kind of program exists where she can scan or take a pic of the ISBN number of the book, the program then connects to ISBN database and basic details of the book and a short synopsis maybe are generated, which we can build into a searchable inventory/database of all the books.

Hope somebody knows something that might help, we are committed to looking everything up by hand and manually making the database if need be, was just hoping for a shortcut as even a few thousand volumes are gonna take quite a bit of time.

Thanks!
~greenjeans

trinidad · 2024-11-14 12:55:06

Calibre coupled with a hardware ISBN scanner should work.

TC

Dutch_Master · 2024-11-14 13:52:15

Some hardware options:
https://www.amazon.com/isbn-scanner/s?k=isbn+scanner

Never tried myself, so YMMV!

stargate-sg1-cheyenne-mtn · 2024-11-14 16:31:47

did a DDG search for: best linux for "library" administration

here are the links that seem to be what we are looking for:

https://www.linuxlinks.com/LibraryManagementSystems/

https://itsfoss.com/open-source-library-management-software/

https://medevel.com/library-management-systems-lims-1716/

https://linuxopsys.com/open-source-library-management-software

https://opensource.com/article/21/9/library-linux

please keep us posted on your progress and also if you need anything!

greenjeans · 2024-11-17 21:13:34

*slaps forehead*

Thanks guys, and especially stargate, I can't remember what search terms I was using that day but they were dumb, your much better search and the results got me a whole lotta great info!

Building a base system now for 'em and should be squashing it by tomorrow to go load, in contact with the state system now working on what's compatible with their system, and working on some grants for future improvements. And working on a basic site for 'em too.

So very soon we should have things up and running much better, community really needed this, so thanks again to ya'll. The new website will most definitely have a note that the Carthage city library is powered by Devuan. ;-)

golinux · 2024-11-17 21:28:38

Nice to see you, greenjeans. It's been a while. What a wonderful project you're working on! I have a soft spot for libraries as I worked for a while in the University of Chicago library many decades ago. I got pretty good at finding misfiled items many floors down in the musty dark caverns. It was a bit creepy but fun too. Do let us know when the website is launched and we can celebrate your accomplishment!

chris2be8 · 2024-11-21 16:51:41

Reading another forum I found:

For instance, I am presently writing code to populate a PostgreSQL database with information about the books I own. Rather than typing in all the details only the ISBN is entered and the rest scraped from the Open Library. The Perl module which does the scraping, WWW::Scraper::ISBN, sets the user agent. As the source code to that module is available ...
P.S. Actually, the scraper was used only for initial tests. The production code will use the 11G (51G when unzipped) dump of the entire Open Library database now downloaded, as recommended. I have rather a lot of books.

I've copied that rather than posting a link because you have to register to read that forum. And there's not much else there relevant to you. But I though that might help.

It's at https://www.mersenneforum.org/node/2301 … ost1061326 is you want to read it though.

greenjeans · 2024-11-22 16:46:49

Thank you Chris!

In the long term I think something like that would be optimum.

For now though, just getting the place organized and some kind of database is the short term target, it's a tiny library and we may be overly ambitious for it.

Found a program last night, doesn't look like it's maintained in some 4 years, but downloaded an appimage and tested and it seems to be a good interim solution. It's called Symphytum, and it's a very simple database/GUI you customize yourself.

We'll have to set all the params for it, and enter everything manually, about 2500 titles or so, but after it's done we'll have a nice easily searchable database.

I'm going to try and piece together a second working computer from the several older ones they have, so we can have one for the patrons to use to search the database as well, just need a tiny simple system as that will be the only use for that machine, haven't checked yet but i'm guessing the older machines are 32 bit.

Burning a custom version of Vuu-do for it tonight that includes appimages for the browser and the database prog, the newer machine they have is almost the same exact specs as my laptop, so it should run fine even with just 2 gigs of RAM.

Thanks for the help guys, if anybody has some experience with Symphytum please let me know how it worked for you.

swanson · 2024-11-23 05:09:34

Subscribing....

greenjeans · 2024-11-25 03:54:44

Yay we're back up!

Just a quick note and i'll post more later, but I got the system built, and installed on the library's old E-machines desktop that was wiped out by a case of windoze, everything installed great and system is lightning-quick. It's kind of hilarious, the library actually has fiber internet, and they've just continued paying the bill though they haven't had a working computer in several years, lol. So browsing even on that old machine is very fast.

Basically it's Vuu-do 1.08, which is just 1.07 updated with bug fixes and appimages for Firefox and the database program. I think I may go ahead and upload to sourceforge if I can remember my login, obviously it has it's limitations, but on old machines it really breathes new life into 'em.

Now to organize and start data entry. We have to do a lot of re-organizing, the place is a mess.

It kinda broke my heart, as there is a ton of very old volumes in there that are so cool, but at some point some previous librarian went in and marked with a white marker or maybe whiteout or whatever, on the spines of the old books, like the first two letters of whatever author wrote it....arrrgh.

They literally have a first edition of "For whom the bell tolls" by Hemingway....and some philistine wrote on the spine with a white marker....ARRRGH.

chris2be8 · 2024-11-27 17:30:18

Looking through Linux Magazine back issues I found a perl script called upcscan to scan barcodes and add the to a sqlite database. The article is here: https://www.linux-magazine.com/Issues/2 … l-Barcodes

This looks like almost what you asked for in your first post.

greenjeans · 2024-12-11 00:28:18

Just an update: We have re-arranged the place, are cataloging all the books into the basic database. City council is so happy they've given us carte` blanche to do whatever we see fit including buying some new shelves and computers if need be. For right now we're just working with what we have to get a starting point for the future. But there's money in our budget now and we intend to resurrect this old library into something the community can be proud of.

They offered to let me take over the city website too, and do a sub-domain for the library, I accepted and it's badly needed, lol. So everything from here on out is going to be Linux and Devuan.

It's kinda bizarre actually, my whole life i've been an outlaw more or less, old-school GenX hardass. And suddenly I find myself a pillar of the community. I literally have a key to City Hall.

I really want to resurrect some of the old machines, but if not pickup some good newer used ones, and use them for a system to search the library database, but also for some learning and informational programs, I REALLY want to use one or more, as a teaching tool for people to learn Linux.

We're already getting more traffic, people are excited about what we're doing. It's awesome!

stargate-sg1-cheyenne-mtn · 2024-12-11 13:02:42

a brief story in your local broadsheet or even something you print out and put on corkboards in the marketplaces should help in knocking the dust off of residents retired equipment and you should end up with more than you can put to use right away. if you have trouble sourcing enough locally give the forum a shout.

The officially official Devuan Forum!

#1 2024-11-13 23:08:55

ISBN number reader/scanner/database builder?

#2 2024-11-14 12:55:06

Re: ISBN number reader/scanner/database builder?

#3 2024-11-14 13:52:15

Re: ISBN number reader/scanner/database builder?

#4 2024-11-14 16:31:47

Re: ISBN number reader/scanner/database builder?

#5 2024-11-17 21:13:34

Re: ISBN number reader/scanner/database builder?

#6 2024-11-17 21:28:38

Re: ISBN number reader/scanner/database builder?

#7 2024-11-21 16:51:41

Re: ISBN number reader/scanner/database builder?

#8 2024-11-22 16:46:49

Re: ISBN number reader/scanner/database builder?

#9 2024-11-23 05:09:34

Re: ISBN number reader/scanner/database builder?

#10 2024-11-25 03:54:44

Re: ISBN number reader/scanner/database builder?

#11 2024-11-27 17:30:18

Re: ISBN number reader/scanner/database builder?

#12 2024-12-11 00:28:18

Re: ISBN number reader/scanner/database builder?

#13 2024-12-11 13:02:42

Re: ISBN number reader/scanner/database builder?

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