Wednesday 19 September 2007

Libra

I discovered this gem of a utility yesterday night. It is something I have been looking out for in quite a while, and I am simply astonished that this particular version I found can be so full featured - and FREE!

If you have a considerable collection of books (as I do), and you have been thinking of cataloguing them inside a personal electronic database, but you never got around to doing it because you simply don't have the time to input all those information into the computer, then Libra could just be the program you have been waiting for.

The "smarts" of the Libra program is that instead of entering all the voluminous book details of each book (book title, author, synopsis etc), you enter just the ISBN number (a 10 digit or 13 digit number that uniquely identifies every publication) into the program. Libra uses the ISBN number to cull all the nitty-gritty details of the book from the Amazon.com database, and transfers this information into your own personal database! Because Libra will also pull the book jacket image from Amazon, your book collection is presented in a very pleasing fashion as the following screen capture will attest:

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/njwong88/Libra/photo#5111727272205672498

As you can see from the image, Libra can also catalogue music CDs (the 3 titles on the bottom shelf). Libra can also catalogue video DVDs. (The titles in the screen capture are some books/music in my personal collection. You can click the "View largest photo" link to see the book/CD titles more clearly if you want to know what I have been reading during the past few months )

The program is dirt easy to use and requires no tutorial. And despite its already outstanding feature set, the author has even included a feature which allows you to use your webcam to "scan" the ISBN barcode instead of typing in the 10-digit (or 13-digit) number manually. However, I couldn't test this capability as I don't own a webcam (currently).

Amazingly, this program is developed by a Singaporean company (CodeJam Pte Ltd at Noel Building in Playfair Road). It is sad that instead of reading about this amazing-amazing software from this local company from our veritable Straits Times, I have to learn about it from an American

You can download Libra (and read a much better sales pitch of it) from here:

http://www.getlibra.com/

Remember to click the "About Us" link to read the authors' humorous description about themselves...

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