Great idea. Someone please build a public database of tables of contents and indexes, keyed by ISBN, so we can skip the scanning and OCR steps. And dear publishers: when this database emerges please add to it as you publish new works. Thanks.
Eat Your Books [0] is amazing for this, but is limited to the cookery world. You tell it what books you own. It knows what’s in them but does not show you the contents . You search for whatever you have in the fridge. It tells you to go to book x, page y, and there’s the recipe. Oh, and it includes magazines. [0]: https://www.eatyourbooks.com/
Build a better Bookshelf
31–40 of 66 posts
Re: Build a better Bookshelf
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ha! Me too. I was expecting some kind of analysis of the perfect shelf material and optimum depth and height of each shelf based on the number of books by genre and their dimensions.
Ha! I am making some shelves for myself and spent the weekend measuring the dimensions and weight of all of my books to later divide into different bins based on height, depth and weight (density).
Finished bookcase:
https://twitter.com/jdhoek/status/885499829052485632
The four common shelve-heights I chose are 4, 5, 6, or 7 bird's beak 'units' spaced apart vertically.
You can see the configurable parts here:
Re: Build a better Bookshelf
#33I was actually hoping this was about actually building your own DIY bookshelf (for actual physical books)...
Re: Build a better Bookshelf
#34Re: Build a better Bookshelf
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ha! I am making some shelves for myself and spent the weekend measuring the dimensions and weight of all of my books to later divide into different bins based on height, depth and weight (density).
I ended up with four different shelve heights based on my measurements (paperbacks, hardcovers, misc., and art-books), and used the classical technique of bird's beak shelving supports to make all shelves configurable. Finished bookcase: https://twitter.com/jdhoek/status/885499829052485632 The four common shelve-heights I chose are 4, 5, 6, or 7 bird's beak 'units' spaced apart vertically. You can see the configurabl…
Re: Build a better Bookshelf
#36I was actually hoping this was about actually building your own DIY bookshelf (for actual physical books)...
Re: Build a better Bookshelf
#37Re: Build a better Bookshelf
#38Great idea. Someone please build a public database of tables of contents and indexes, keyed by ISBN, so we can skip the scanning and OCR steps. And dear publishers: when this database emerges please add to it as you publish new works. Thanks.
Google Books more or less did this already, with mixed results.
Re: Build a better Bookshelf
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google Books more or less did this already, with mixed results.
mixed results engendered by lawsuit.
But I guess making available only the index would fall under fair use. IANAL though.
Re: Build a better Bookshelf
#40I was actually hoping this was about actually building your own DIY bookshelf (for actual physical books)...
Just based on the title, I was already imagining a self-sorting physical bookshelf using robotics.
I've wanted a app that I can take a digital picture of my 12' x 8' wall of uncatorgized books, and the program will tell he roughly where the book looking for is physically.
For instance, the "Book you are requesting is located top right, second shelf from the top."
I've thought about building one, but I don't see a market. Maybe, Librarians, and what's left of book stores? For instance, "Hay the computer says we have that book, but someone probably put it in the wrong section? Go use that app?"
App: take picture, hard part (would pull titles on spines of books, and put into database. Don't have a clue if that's even possible, without huge financial resources? Yes-it would be OCR, but what open source program could I fool with?)
(I'm also considering getting rid of most of my books. It's kinda tough. I've spend a lifetime collecting reference books, and 1st editions. To get a idea of the used book market, I have had over 100 pretty current computer/programming books on CL for $500, and one person was interested, and that was a scam.)