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Ask HN: How do I easily catalog a couple thousand physical books?

I own a couple thousand books. I'd like to catalog them all. I have a child who is a broke college student, so I was thinking of paying them to do it over break.

What's the most efficient way to do this from an INTAKE standpoint? I need to get all the ISBNs into a database of some kind.

(The only other info I need is whether or not it's a hardcover or software -- that's something only the physical copy can tell me, everything else I should be able to get from the ISBN.)

I don't want my daughter to have to find and key all the ISBNs in. Can they be scanned in some way? Is the ISBN in the UPC code? Could I buy a cheap bar code scanner and just have her scan away?

177 points deanebarker 5 years ago 121 comments

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