Library Management of Your Stuff

So this isn't meant to start a debate on licensed content vs. physical media. But all the discussion about eBooks and services like Steam have gotten me thinking a lot about WHY I obsessively collect physical stuff, when over the past several years I've been making an attempt to de-clutter my life due to my semi-nomadic lifestyle. And I started to realize, while there are some aspects of physical media I adore, cover art, liner notes, and the like, I mostly obsessively collect partially out of a quest for completeness (sequentially, not spiritually), and because I have a terrible memory. Browsing my own bookshelves and DVD collection is as much a journey of discovery as when I'm at my local used bookstore. Even for books I love, I often couldn't tell you what they were about in as little time as a week later, but if I get involved in a discussion about them all of those details will come back to me.

It's a trait that may explain my penchant for multiple-choice tests.

So to that end, it's crossed my mind that media management software might be up my alley. And I was surprised to find out that it's actually a fairly robust category of software, but many of the offerings have little to no exposure. So if anyone has some suggestions, or have actually tried out any of these, please let me know.

Mac:

Delicious Library 2: Seems to be the gold standard, but it's Mac only. I actually have a Macbook, but I hardly ever boot into OSX. Reasonably priced at $40.

Windows:

Mediaman: The Windows clone of Delicious Library 2. DL2 has stated they have no plans or desire to make a Windows version, so he's not really treading on anyone's toes. Think of it like Krystal vs. White Castle. Also $40.

Linux/Windows:

GCStar: Open-source spiritual successor to the above two programs. Like even the best open source software, lacks the polish of the previous two, but delivers much of the same functionality, with some minor quirks and problems. Free! But I crashed it when trying to add my first item, X-Com.

Online:

iTrackmine, Listal, and Lib.rario.us: I have absolutely no knowledge about these three. I'm starting to become concerned about online databases of my information, due to interesting choices Facebook and other social sites seem to be making in those realms. I haven't begun the great paranoid purge of my information yet, but being more careful and aware about what information I make available has definitely crossed my mind. Still, online would definitely be the easiest solution when location and computer hopping, but backing up your information would put you at the mercy of the particular service you're using.

My only criteria are really ease of use and categories that at least involve video games, books, music, and movies (which is why sites like Goodreads and Librarything aren't listed, as they focus solely on books, although they are excellent). Data backup/portability would be nice as well.

Does anyone else use this type of software? Did you try out any of these or have a recommendation for one I haven't listed?

And as a small note, I'm really starting to love Alternativeto.net.

Thanks for this thread. I recently started adding books to Goodreads and while doing so the same subject crossed my mind. Definitely gonna give GCstar and MediaMan a go!

I have been meaning to try GCStar.

I'm a mild-mannered library cataloguer by day, and by night an obsessive cataloguer of my own things. I guess that's like being a superhero?

I use Delicious Library 2, but I don't think I'd call it the gold standard. It's a pretty convenient program, and with version 2 can now manage many types of media and other things. I use it for my books, movies, video games, and board games (i.e. the toys collection). But DL2 is more style than substance. The webcam barcode reader is getting better and better, but it pulls all its information from Amazon, which isn't the most robust, accurate, or consistent source. If you want to sort, group, or meaningfully analyze your collections by anything deeper than creator/title, without checking and plugging in a lot of data manually, then DL2 won't cut it. Easy but simple, good for insurance purposes and eye candy.

I'd recommend checking out Bruji's *pedia programs, Bookpedia, DVDpedia, Gamepedia, and CDpedia (all OS X only). Hopefully you don't need to catalogue your toys or tools. I bought Bookpedia for my dad so had some time to play around with it. I wish I had heard about these before DL, but one day I'll switch over. For instance, Bookpedia connects to Z39.50 databases, which is the library standard (what I use at work for copy cataloguing from other libraries) so you should be getting much better and more useful metadata than what DL2 can grab from Amazon. In addition to most of what DL2 offers, the *pedias also have database statistics, wishlists, and smart folders. They're $18 each, but there are bundle discounts depending on how many you buy.

Another online service is LibraryThing. It's books only and free-ish, and your collection can be as private you'd like. Its metadata comes from Z39.50 libraries and Amazon. It's also got all the social connectioniness that the kids love these days, only geared towards book recommendations, so maybe not kids these days.

I've been playing around with a number of Library software over the years and here's what I'm using now:

Games: Collectorz.com's Game Collector (Windows, OS X) - relies on a company-maintained, user-contributed game database. Great database, decent UI (since v3), supports external barcode scanners but meh reports. Also has an iPhone version if that's a criterion (especially since DL2 for iPhone is now dead)

Movies: Collectorz.com's Movie Collector (Windows (incl. Win MCE), OS X) - almost the same as Game Collector except it's slightly older software and hence has a bigger community around it. You can download some templates that can jazz up the HTML export the software does (for example, there's one that can create a webpage styled to look like NetFlix)

Books: bookjetty.com - better looking than LibraryThing (that's for sure). Relies on the Amazon database so you should be able to find what you are looking for. Best feature IMO is it's integration with many public libraries so you can search for books in their catalogues from inside bookjetty. Has plenty of social features - tagging, friends lists, activity streams etc.

Gravey wrote:

I'm a mild-mannered library cataloguer by day, and by night an obsessive cataloguer of my own things. I guess that's like being a superhero?

I'm actually a mild-mannered archivist by day, and semi-obsessive collector by night. My (extremely) brief foray into the world of MARC to investigate getting our finding aids into the OPAC has left me with very few nice things to say about the standard, which seems purposefully obtuse. Or about most head catalogers (for whom a friend of mine has coined the term "Wolf Sweaters"). It's kind of remarkable how long it's remained serviceable, but it's time for a change. Who wants to spend that much time arguing about the appropriate fields and sub-fields?

After using DL2 and Mediaman, my biggest problems with them are actually the exclusive use of Amazon for object data. And I have no real desire to manually enter in my data, as I spend enough time doing that at work. I actually don't need rigidly accurate metadata (says the man who spends hours correcting his MP3s and selecting the appropriate cover art) but Amazon can be pretty terrible.

The *pedia and Collectorz software suites actually look like quite nice packages. Ideally I had wanted to limit myself to a single program and single database, but Jack of All Trades, I suppose. The Z39.50 is definitely intriguing, but something I could live without (despite my abandoned attempts to sort my books by LOC, just for kicks). However, access to any database besides Amazon would be nice. Give me options, damn you (the programmers, not you guys)!

RE: Librarything and Bookjetty

I'm actually a long-time user of LT, and I attempted to use it to build a basic catalog/OPAC for a volunteer-run library I was working with a few years ago. But having so many accounts on these "2.0" book sites is actually one of the motivations for my trying to find a single place to store my data. And LT at least lets you export your data, which doesn't seem to be a very common feature.

I'll be sure to check out both of your suggestions, thanks!

I use DVD Profiler for my movies. It is also very handy at providing the movie covers when I import my DVD's into Media Center (Note - I have to manually do this, it isn't an 'auto' feature). 30$ Lifetime.

unntrlaffinity wrote:
Gravey wrote:

I'm a mild-mannered library cataloguer by day, and by night an obsessive cataloguer of my own things. I guess that's like being a superhero?

I'm actually a mild-mannered archivist by day, and semi-obsessive collector by night. My (extremely) brief foray into the world of MARC to investigate getting our finding aids into the OPAC has left me with very few nice things to say about the standard, which seems purposefully obtuse. Or about most head catalogers (for whom a friend of mine has coined the term "Wolf Sweaters"). It's kind of remarkable how long it's remained serviceable, but it's time for a change. Who wants to spend that much time arguing about the appropriate fields and sub-fields?

My daily use of MARC leaves me with nothing nice to say about it. I use an ILS that knows nothing of usability to finagle formatting rules designed for card catalogues (born in 1980, never used one) into a computer format created when goddamned punchcards were state of the art. I'm sure it was all a great idea at the time, but Jesus Christ there's cultural momentum, and then there's just plain masochism. You're too right it's time for a change. The technology is embarrassing really, and I can't (read: can) wait for when the next iteration of cataloguing rules is finally published (RDA) and we get to manhandle that into MARC.

I liked "Wolf Sweaters", I'll pass that on to my super (note: not a Wolf Sweater).

unntrlaffinity also wrote:

The Z39.50 is definitely intriguing, but something I could live without (despite my abandoned attempts to sort my books by LOC, just for kicks).

I started doing that, but then finally got a library job and my enthusiasm for that project quickly evapourated.

Preliminary report:

The *pedia software is fantastic. It's simple and robust, without sacrificing functionality for the sake of eye candy (Delicious Library). Unfortunately, it also seems to rely too much on Amazon, Z39.50 functionality aside. The games results were essentially the same as DL2 or Mediaman. And it's Mac only, which I only booted into to try out the programs (I know DL2 has this same drawback.) Sidenote: Every since I installed the release version of W7 Enterprise my school gave me on my Macbook Pro, it's run even better than the beta. Smooth like butter.

The Collectorz software is also great. They definitely feel more like Windows programs than OS X programs, as you're almost overwhelmed with status bars and option menus, but it runs in both OS X and Windows (I have no idea which came first), and the games database is a step above any of the other offerings that rely on Amazon. Eyecandy-wise, which is the least of my concerns, it is also definitely the ugliest entry. I'd say it's biggest drawback is that, like *pedia, it's several different programs instead of a unified, Jack-of-All-Trades suite. I haven't tried any of the non-default themes yet.

If I could resign myself to hand-keying entries, and wanted a single piece of software, DL2 for OS X and Mediaman for Windows would definitely be my choices.

If I wanted the best programs for the job, *pedia for OS X (Amazon database grumblings aside) and Collectorz for Windows.

I might give GCStar another chance, but I crashed it again.

Haven't looked at DVD Profiler yet.

Disappointing news if you were hoping to use the Collectorz iPhone Apps - they were using the Amazon API for images and have got served with the same ToS violation that killed DL2 on the iPhone: http://is.gd/6MLz9

Seems pretty strange that they have such a good database for the PC/Mac versions but chose to go with Amazon on the mobile platform.

If the Collectorz apps are dead, is there another iOS option yet? I'm OK with book-only functionality, and would appreciate something that can export for GoodReads or Amazon, but it's not crucial.

Otherwise, I have cameras on both my desktop and laptop. Has anyone heard of this hidden Amazon web program to create lists?

GoodReads comment wrote:

On Amazon it's kind of hidden, but if you're at Amazon and logged in to your Amazon account, there's a dropdown menu on the left side of the screen called "Your Lists." In there is an option called "Your Media Library." If you click on that, it takes you to the main page for the books and DVDs that you own. There's a tab at the top that says "Your Collection" with a dropdown arrow to the right of it. Mousing over the drop-down arrow gives you a lot of choices, the last one being "Add to your Collection." That screen gives you the link to click on to scan items with your webcam.

(source)

wordsmythe wrote:

If the Collectorz apps are dead, is there another iOS option yet? I'm OK with book-only functionality, and would appreciate something that can export for GoodReads or Amazon, but it's not crucial.

I didn't think it nessecary to necro the thread just to mention this till now, but the Collectorz apps came back from the dead - Collectorz stopped using the Amazon API and built their own backend database. You can see details about their iOS (incl iPad) apps here - http://www.collectorz.com/book/clz-b...

It's worth pointing out that their iOS apps require the full-desktop Apps (Windows-only) to be installed for syncing.

I was thoroughly unimpressed with the forgiving (even with all "assists" disabled) driving model of GT5: Prologue.

For a game that calls itself "The Real Driving Simulator", it was pretty bumper-lanes video-gamey when put next to Forza 2 and Forza 3.

Hopefully GT5 proper brings the "simulator" part again.

Legion wrote:

stuff about Gran Turismo

Think you got your threads confused, Legion.

Legion, as usual, is wasting my time.

Malor wrote:
Legion wrote:

stuff about Gran Turismo

Think you got your threads confused, Legion. :)

Um... I was absolutely NOT in this thread when I posted. I was in the "November 22 - November 26" front page story.

I hadn't even *read* this thread until right now...

I was wondering why I didn't see my comment when I went back there!

Great. You broke the site. Way to go, Legion.

Does Game Collector also work as a launcher for PC games?

I'd like to have one central place from which I can browse through box art and such, then click a button to play a game. "Add non-Steam game to Steam" means no pretty pictures, and the Windows 7 game browser is underwhelming.