So one of the last purchases I made before I froze all unessary spending was to pick up a copy of Delicious Monsters, Delicious Library 2. Not only does DL2 keep track of books but also movies, video games, you iTunes Library and more. You can also create shelves where you can sort your items. You can do this manually or via a “Smart Shelve” where items are automatically depending on various criteria. It will even keep track of items that you have loaned out to your friends. Item details are entered automatically via Amazon.com lookups so unless DL can’t find the item all you need to enter is the UPC or ISBN number.
Right now I am entering every thing by hand, typing in barcodes and ISBN numbers. I can ten key fairly quickly so it’s not too bad. There two ways to speed things up for those of you who can’t typed quickly or who have a lot that they want to enter. The first is by using a webcam you use it to scan the barcodes. Of corse the downside is you have to bring everything to the computer to scan it and get it lined up with the camera properly. The quickest way is to purchase the optional $215 bluetooth barcode scanner.
I’ve been using it for a couple of days now and it’s well worth the $40 I paid for it, but I would like to see a couple of improvements.
First better help file, right now DL2 does not have an included help file and the help section of the website is lacking. That said there is a forum page and stuff seems to be answered fairly quickly but forums do not replace a good help file.
Second a better way to bulk enter items. While you can bulk enter items with the barcode scanner the cost is out of a lot of peoples budget. If I could import a text file of UPC/ISBN numbers or simply have a multiple new item option instead of the open new item dialog, enter item UPC/ISBN, choose item, open new item dialog again shuffle. I can enter about 2-3 item per minute that way but a multi item dialog would speed things up greatly.
There are few of things that could be done better such as keeping track of read/unread books and currently there is no way other then in the notes to track when you read the book so searching for books you read durning a given year is out. The is talk that this may be in a future version. Lastly is font is in the detail pane. For someone who is visually impaired as me the details pane uses a painfully small font size and I have yet found a way to make the font bigger so I am often having to lean forward in my chair in-order to read it or make changes. I bet on a bigger monitor the problem would be worse.
All that being said I love the book shelf interface as I tend to be a visual person, and often remember cover art better then I can remember book titles. DL2 also can use Amazon site other then the US site so it was able to look up several of my Japanese import manga. You can also use it to quickly sell the book and movie you no longer want via Amazon. Just right click and pick the sell on Amazon item. It calls up the sell page and away you go. Hopefully we will be seeing more improvements out of DL and other great software out of Delicious Monster.
I prefer DVDpedia and also use Bookpedia, CDPedia.
http://www.bruji.com/dvdpedia/
With DL you can keep track of all movies, dvd, games, cds, using the same program so you don’t need to switch from one to the other to find stuff.
…. that’s a good point.