I am a very organized person so every time I look at our collection of videos, I cringe. We have tried to keep them in alphabetical order according to title at a number of times in the past, but as the collection grew the system broke down. Newer videos were relegated to the “to be viewed” piles which were haphazardly located throughout our house. This disorganization has led to the purchase of double copies of a number of movies and television series. So recently I decided to try to organize the entire collection. It struck me at the time that I should take advantage of this physical organizing to create an electronic catalogue at the same time. I did a quick search on the web and found that there are a number of applications that can perform this task (e.g. Delicious Library, LibraryThing, Libib). I settled on Libib since there was a free version available and there were many positive reviews.
Libib is a cloud-based application that allows you to catalogue your collections of books, movies, music and videogames. The free version of the application is ideal to catalogue personal collections. It has a 5,000-item limit and you can create up to 100 separate libraries. There is a subscription-based version (Libib Pro) that would be more suitable for schools, libraries and other power users that may require advanced lending features. I found that the free version had most of the features that I was looking for in a cataloging application.
To get started all you need to do is to setup an account which can be done through the Libib website or by downloading the iOS or Android app. Since the application is available across platforms, you can access and edit any libraries that you create using a computer, smartphone or tablet. Once you create a library you can start inputting items into it. In my case, I found that using my smartphone was the most efficient device to add movies and television series since most of these have a scannable barcode on them. After giving the app permission to use the camera on my smartphone, it was only a matter of lining the items up and pointing the camera at their barcodes. It usually only took a second or two to recognize the barcode and then bring up information for the item which it then puts into your library. Since barcodes were established before most commercial videos (e.g., VHS tapes, DVDs and Blu-ray discs) were manufactured, the application recognized more than 90% of the items I scanned. For the items that it recognizes, it will populate the database with the item’s cover art and other basic information such as year created, summary and length of feature. If the software does not recognize an item, then you are able to manually input it into your library, including a copy of cover art which you can upload. For the cover art I either took a photograph of the item or used a scanner to obtain a jpg. If you use computer to add items, then you have the option of manually inputting the barcode number, importing information from a CSV (comma separate value) file or manually inputting the item’s information.
Since the application recognized most of my media, it took only an afternoon to input the more than 350 items in my movie and television collection. I even had extra time to input the 60 pre-recorded VHS tapes that I had lying around. Once the items are in your library you can sort them by title, author, date added or date created. The free version of the application also has basic search functionality so you can quickly determine if you already own a particular movie or television series using your computer, smartphone or tablet.
If you are using the application to input books, then you will have the option of inputting items using their ISBN (International Standard Book Number). I decided to test the application to inventory some of my books. Again, depending on the device you use you will have different input options. Many of my books were published in the 1950’s and 1960’s so some did not have an ISBN so these required manual input of their title and author. Of the books that did have ISBN’s, about 90% were recognized by the Libib database. For the input of books, the computer user interface worked the best for me as I inputted the ISBN’s manually. Many newer books had barcodes on them but the application did not seem to recognize as many books in this way as it did movies and television series.
Once you have inputted all of your items into the database, you can quickly browse your collection using the computer, smartphone or tablet interface. If you would like to customize your output, you have the option of exporting your data into a CSV (comma separate values) file which is readable by spreadsheet programs such as Microsoft Excel. This raw data file can then be easily manipulated using the third party application. Also if you decide to close your Libib account or if the company shuts down, you will not lose your data. You could also re-import the data in this CSV file into Libib if you wish to re-join at a later date.
In summary, I would highly recommend this application as it allows you to quickly inventory your media. The application is available across most platforms which makes inputting and accessing your library a snap. I did find that some data that it inputted was incorrect or incomplete so that I had to review the database to make corrections.
gadgetscanada 