Ask HN: How can I automatically scan and catalog a mountain of books? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How can I automatically scan and catalog a mountain of books?

#131

Post by nik61 » Sun, May 05, 2019, 9:24 PM UTC

sseagull wrote: post #68

thaumaturgy wrote: post #12

First, is this really a problem that needs to be solved? Personally, his place sounds like my favorite kind of book shop. A lot of bookworms prefer wandering through dense forests of precariously-balanced piles of books. Is he getting those people, or is he getting people that are expecting Barnes & Noble? If they really do need to be cataloged, then the next thing is to forget all about trying to inventory the entir…

> Also might not be a bad idea to talk to your local librarian. They're book nerds too and he or she might have an actual library science degree. This would be right up their alley. I second this. Also, maybe check with university libraries or university MLS/MLIS programs (Masters of Library Science). This is not a new problem, and they would be aware of existing tools/methodology. Also, maybe you could get a grad st…

Smartphones of both flavours can load cheap or free apps that are quite effective enough to read barcodes and identify books. Librarything and its various catalogue tools can help with the metadata too. That said, the advice to get specialist help is well-founded.

Re: Ask HN: How can I automatically scan and catalog a mountain of books?

#132

Post by swayvil » Sun, May 05, 2019, 9:38 PM UTC

ahazred8ta wrote: post #130

swayvil wrote: post #110

Dump them all in a shredder. Blow the shreds through a well-lit tunnel full of digital cameras. Assemble the books from the images. Now it's just a software problem. (This isn't my idea. Either Rudy Rucker, Vernor Vinge or Cory Doctorow thought it. I forget exactly who.)

The ham-handed Librareome digital preservation project from Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End >> "The raging maw was a "NaviCloud custom debinder". The fabric tunnel that stretched out behind it was a "camera tunnel" ... thousands of books that had already been sucked into the "data rescue" equipment"

Has anybody tried that? It seems like a fun software problem.

Re: Ask HN: How can I automatically scan and catalog a mountain of books?

#133

Post by GnarfGnarf » Sun, May 05, 2019, 11:45 PM UTC

GnarfGnarf wrote: post #79

Photograph the books, a dozen at a time. Put a box number label next to the books. Put the books in their box, glue the label to the box. Stack the boxes. Sort the boxes by height, line them up in a row. Put slats of wood between the rows to distribute and stabilize the load. I wrote a program to automatically generate simple HTML files to display the images. See sample: http://kyber.ca/b/index.html Use OCR to digiti…

Hire Mechanical Turks or cheap offshore labor to type titles & authors from the photos (no need to ship the books).

Re: Ask HN: How can I automatically scan and catalog a mountain of books?

#134

Post by GnarfGnarf » Sun, May 05, 2019, 11:47 PM UTC

juskrey wrote: post #42

This would be my MVP: I'd implement simple inventory app based on ISBN scanning and simply enumerated boxes with, say, 50 books each. Scan ISBN - put in the next empty box, take another box when full, and so on. Then based on title demand, I'll sort popular titles in their own boxes.

20 to 25 books is about the max that can be comfortably lifted.

Re: Ask HN: How can I automatically scan and catalog a mountain of books?

#135

Post by ebcode » Mon, May 06, 2019, 12:47 AM UTC

textfiles wrote: post #111

dredmorbius wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jason Scott is the Internet Archive's Free Range Archivist.

HI

Is it true what vessenes said above about the Internet Archive receiving a dataset of book spines? And would it be possible for the IA to release that dataset publicly?

Re: Ask HN: How can I automatically scan and catalog a mountain of books?

#136

Post by walterbell » Mon, May 06, 2019, 3:43 AM UTC

libguy wrote: post #107

vessenes wrote: post #72

Oh, I am very pleased to see this request, and I may have some actual help for you. A number of years ago a west coast startup spent quite a lot of time on a product that could identify books by their spine image which I think is what you want here; finding isbns and barcode scanning them is totally impractical at this scale. A few months before they closed up shop, I introduced them to Brewster kahle at the internet…

likely the dataset never became publicly available https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/9/15235686/kobo-acquired-she...

After installing the kobo app, there's no sign of the Shelfie technology.

Re: Ask HN: How can I automatically scan and catalog a mountain of books?

#137

Post by FZ_BA » Mon, May 06, 2019, 7:14 AM UTC

You could scan the barcodes and use something like TELLICO to make a catalogue

Re: Ask HN: How can I automatically scan and catalog a mountain of books?

#138

Post by ordinaryperson » Mon, May 06, 2019, 10:50 AM UTC

cconcepts wrote: post #129

Wow, judging by the response this is a problem a lot of people think about. Am overwhelmed by the helpful info. Obviously have to start at the low hanging fruit as I am working with non-technical people and am relatively non-technical myself. I just tested LibraryThing and it seems very fast and accurate so will give it a whirl. Again, thanks HN for the overwhelming response.

I use the paid version of Books from Sort It Apps: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/book-list-library-isbn-scann...

All you have to do is hold the phone over the bar code for a second and it automatically downloads all the relevant information. This is by far (IMHO) the fastest way to catalog a mountain of books.

Not affiliated with the app or company in any way, just a happy user.

Re: Ask HN: How can I automatically scan and catalog a mountain of books?

#139

Post by zoomablemind » Mon, May 06, 2019, 5:44 PM UTC

EnderViaAnsible wrote: post #25

pjc50 wrote: post #15

One of these days I need to write my essay titled "Rubbish has no SKU". I've seen a few of these, and the basic minimum difference between "pulp waiting to happen" and "bookshop" is basic shelving. Different shelves by category: fiction vs non-fiction and their subdivisions. Within the shelves, alphabetise. Now it's possible for browsers to actually find things. When you put them on Amazon this will also help find th…

While I largely agree with your sentiment, I'd like to note that alphabetizing only assists those who know what they are looking for. In a bookstore, this is a virtue. But we appear to be dealing with a book barn. Perhaps the patrons of book barn have not wandered in by accident while searching for a bookstore :) For OP: I think you might be better off photographing the ISBN and then using a service or script to do a…

I wonder if OP has considered the 'next' step: what to do with the referenced data. If it's just to catalog for ease of search or to help identify potential jewels, keepers, junk and then price appropriately.

The answer to this is important in order to properly size the effort. If the goal is to impove the business efficiency of the store, then it should be seen from ROI stand-point. Even the fellow customers/rummaggers could be engaged with a right incentive and tools. Otherwise, the next estate books container shipment will negate the gains of ordering.

Basically, is OP ready to overhaul the operations or is just willing to do something nice just for now?

Ideally, a book cover and info page should be scanned/photo'ed on first touch either by receiver or shopper and sticker coded somehow as processed, then left wherever. In case any jewel-worthy titles uncovered from OCR, the book could be located (stickerwise, date log, crate, whatever) and brought to prominence and priced as appropriate.

Unleashing imagination, as an incentive and QC strategy - some sort of automated OCR and lookup could locate the pointed book on amz or elsewhere and thus reviews and going price vs rummager's deal.

Either way, I'd see this more of a business question, rather than a technical one. Donating a technical solution is fun, but without changing the operations process is not going to be sustainable.

Re: Ask HN: How can I automatically scan and catalog a mountain of books?

#140

Post by zoomablemind » Mon, May 06, 2019, 8:31 PM UTC

ryanmarsh wrote: post #99

I worked for a company that scanned and catalogued many books in the ‘00s. There’s two primary challenges to solve, nondestructive scanning and speed. 1. In order to get a good scan (back then) we had to lay each page flat against a piece of glass (no matter the orientation). This tended to damage or destroy the binding by the time scanning was complete. 2. An average of ten seconds per scan (from page flip to page f…

These days, using a couple of dedicated hi-res cameras may be a much faster way to aquire the page images

A scanner's workbench could be rigged with screens for live preview and QC. Then assemble/OCR in software. The main manual task is page turning, the rest could be fixed (light, exposure, alignment etc)