Re: books and library inventory
On Sun, Aug 26, 2007 at 03:30:16PM -0400, H.S. wrote:
>
> Somebody was asking me earlier today how to set up an electronic
> database of a community library with a few hundred books. I just
> realized I cannot find much on the web. Perhaps I am not looking for the
> right words.
>
> What I have in mind is an open source application that can be used to
> keep a database of books and CDROMs in a library and keep track to whom
> certain items have been lent out. Any ideas?
>
When I first got married 12 years ago, we lived in a house where we had
everything unpacked, including all our books (about 3,000). The we
moved to another (smaller) house in the country and the books we didn't
use all that much went into cases. I needed a catalog to find them.
So I wrote it from scratch. I used postgresql for the database and
included all the usual library fields (author, title, subject, ISBN,
dewey, library-of-congress call number, etc), included its physical
location. If we lent the book out, we changed its physical location
to the name of the person.
Then I wrote a python front-end that presented a dialog GUI.
My books are all in storage in another town now and I don't have the
library catalog on my system (it will be in my data archive but its not
a simple matter to get it). However, when I get access to my books
again, I'll use the postgresql/python app again.
So for you, I'd suggest taking a few days and setting it up from
scratch. The advantage is that you can start simple and add features as
you go. With python, you could even add a web interface.
Doug.
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