Library catalogue

  • Thread starter Thread starter Avraham Hanadari
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A

Avraham Hanadari

I have been searching for a simple library data base. Susan was kind
enough to suggest one, which seemed to be more sophisticated than I
need. I found something by Spacejock Software (Australian) called Book
Database.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~simonh/spacejock/

Has anyone tried freeware from Spacejock? Did you get scanned when you
visited? May have been a coincidence, but I was under constant attack
while on the site.

If Susan reads this note, have you any other suggestions for converting
my Open Office table into a simple data base? The table is already ten
pages long, and I'm less than a quarter of the way through the shelves.

Avraham
 
I went to their site and stayed for quite a while and at no time was I
scanned.

But then again I refused entry to their cookie....................

That may have had something to do with it.


fran..........!!!!!
__________________________

Avraham said

but I was under constant attack
while on the site.
Click to expand...

____________________________
 
Avraham said:
I have been searching for a simple library data base. Susan was kind
enough to suggest one, which seemed to be more sophisticated than I
need. I found something by Spacejock Software (Australian) called Book
Database.
http://members.iinet.net.au/~simonh/spacejock/

Has anyone tried freeware from Spacejock? Did you get scanned when you
visited? May have been a coincidence, but I was under constant attack
while on the site.

If Susan reads this note, have you any other suggestions for converting
my Open Office table into a simple data base? The table is already ten
pages long, and I'm less than a quarter of the way through the shelves.
Click to expand...


Hi Avraham,

BookDB (Spacejock) and

OXD Software Book Organizer
http://www.bookorganizer.com/

have been mentioned in ACF before - I haven't tried either.

I gather you have about 2000 books to catalog - could you tell me a
little more about what you want to accomplish with the cataloging - what
information you are listing (title, author, etc. etc.) - what kind of
searches you want to be able to do? What you didn't like about Home
Base? As I mentioned before I use a spreadsheet - but another solution
might be better for you. I've played around with various other ways of
storing book info . . . also have saved info on some other apps - don't
want to offer other suggestions until I have a better idea of what you
hope to accomplish . . .

Susan
--
Pricelessware: http://www.pricelessware.org
PL2003: http://www.pricelessware.org/2003/about2003PL.htm
PL2004 Review: http://www.pricelessware.org/2004/2004nominationsPL.php
alt.comp.freeware FAQ (short) - maintained by John F.
http://clients.net2000.com.au/~johnf/faq.html
 
Francesca said:
I went to their site and stayed for quite a while and at no time was I
scanned.

But then again I refused entry to their cookie....................

That may have had something to do with it.


fran..........!!!!!
__________________________

Avraham said

but I was under constant attack



____________________________
Click to expand...
Thanks for the check.
Avraham
 
Susan Bugher wrote:

Hi Avraham,

BookDB (Spacejock) and

OXD Software Book Organizer
http://www.bookorganizer.com/

have been mentioned in ACF before - I haven't tried either.

I gather you have about 2000 books to catalog - could you tell me a
little more about what you want to accomplish with the cataloging - what
information you are listing (title, author, etc. etc.) - what kind of
searches you want to be able to do? What you didn't like about Home
Base? As I mentioned before I use a spreadsheet - but another solution
might be better for you. I've played around with various other ways of
storing book info . . . also have saved info on some other apps - don't
want to offer other suggestions until I have a better idea of what you
hope to accomplish . . .

Susan
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. A quick count by shelf with a hand calculator
comes to a bit over 1000 books, but that's very approximate, and there
are other items I would like to include.

The column headings in the table are as follows:
Code, Collection, Subject, Author, Title, Subtitle or Search Terms

Code: first three letters of author's or editor's name, on spine of
every book.
Collection: physical location, as in Anthology, Reference, General (no
indicator), Antiquities, Tall,

General includes fiction and non-fiction works by a single author.

I can sort according to any of the headers, and search the entire
document, so the table is already quite serviceable. There's also a
database front end for the OpenOffice spread sheet, which I haven't yet
figured out. Maybe that would be the best answer, if there were some way
to transform the table into a spread sheet.

Thanks again.

Avraham
 
Avraham said:
Susan Bugher wrote:
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. A quick count by shelf with a hand calculator
comes to a bit over 1000 books, but that's very approximate, and there
are other items I would like to include.

The column headings in the table are as follows:
Code, Collection, Subject, Author, Title, Subtitle or Search Terms

Code: first three letters of author's or editor's name, on spine of
every book.
Collection: physical location, as in Anthology, Reference, General (no
indicator), Antiquities, Tall,

General includes fiction and non-fiction works by a single author.

I can sort according to any of the headers, and search the entire
document, so the table is already quite serviceable. There's also a
database front end for the OpenOffice spread sheet, which I haven't yet
figured out. Maybe that would be the best answer, if there were some way
to transform the table into a spread sheet.
Click to expand...

Hi Avraham,

IMO a spreadsheet is a very good place to store your data. :)

FWIW I have about the same number of books (1300-1400) but use a lot
more fields (enter a lot more info about them).

Changing the table to a spreadsheet *should* be simple. I can copy
tabular data and paste it into the spreadsheet I use (QuatroPro)- each
tab is pasted into a column - I suspect it works that way in an
OpenOffice spreadsheet too.

If not you should be able to import .csv files into OpenOffice. Your
OpenOffice table data can be imported into dbEdit (which uses the .csv
format) by copying the data and using the dbEdit open file from the
clipboard option.

http://www.arachnoid.com/dbedit/index.html

re: searching the database (with other apps)

I haven't tried OpenOffice but my impression from reading posts in ACF
is that the database front end is not quite ready for prime time.

dbEdit is searchable but file sizes are limited - IMO when all your
books are entered you will have too much data (I just ran a couple of
tests).

Treepad has a nice search. I have imported book data into Treepad using
..csv files. Each line/ record imports as a separate node (page) making
it very easy to read. OTOH it is not as easy to export data from Treepad
to a spreadsheet. Using a spreadsheet for the *master* file gives you
the most flexibility for exporting to other apps.

Good luck. Please let me know how you make out - success or questions,
problems etc.

Susan
--
Pricelessware: http://www.pricelessware.org
PL2003: http://www.pricelessware.org/2003/about2003PL.htm
PL2004 Review: http://www.pricelessware.org/2004/2004nominationsPL.php
alt.comp.freeware FAQ (short) - maintained by John F.
http://clients.net2000.com.au/~johnf/faq.html
 
Hi Avraham,

IMO a spreadsheet is a very good place to store your data. :)
Click to expand...

G'day Susan,

Did you leave a "not" out of that? :-)

Spreadsheets are NOT good places to store data. Databases are good
places to store data.

Spreadsheets can not be "interrogated" like a DB can, they can only be
sorted and "analysed". They are also only useful for relatively
trivial datasets.

But then, it's not so many years ago that CEOs typed their letters in
a Lotus 1-2-3 cell if their secretaries were away, because that was
the only program they could use. ;-)
FWIW I have about the same number of books (1300-1400) but use a lot
more fields (enter a lot more info about them).

Changing the table to a spreadsheet *should* be simple. I can copy
tabular data and paste it into the spreadsheet I use (QuatroPro)- each
tab is pasted into a column - I suspect it works that way in an
OpenOffice spreadsheet too.

If not you should be able to import .csv files into OpenOffice. Your
OpenOffice table data can be imported into dbEdit (which uses the .csv
format) by copying the data and using the dbEdit open file from the
clipboard option.

http://www.arachnoid.com/dbedit/index.html

re: searching the database (with other apps)

I haven't tried OpenOffice but my impression from reading posts in ACF
is that the database front end is not quite ready for prime time.

dbEdit is searchable but file sizes are limited - IMO when all your
books are entered you will have too much data (I just ran a couple of
tests).

Treepad has a nice search. I have imported book data into Treepad using
..csv files. Each line/ record imports as a separate node (page) making
it very easy to read. OTOH it is not as easy to export data from Treepad
to a spreadsheet. Using a spreadsheet for the *master* file gives you
the most flexibility for exporting to other apps.

Good luck. Please let me know how you make out - success or questions,
problems etc.

Susan
Click to expand...

Cheers, Phred.
 
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