Barcode reader
Re my post yesterday concerning LibraryThing and DVDs; I forgot to say that I got one of these barcode readers for cataloguing my books (or at least the ones with bar codes on the covers), it works well and almost instantly, and seems to be very robust, especially considering the price:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360721492990
So far it has gone to the right book about 90% of the time - the other 10% isn't a problem with the scan, it invariably turns out that the publisher has used a generic bar code that covers lots of books, rather than the ISBN of the specific book. A lot of the Buffy tie-in novels have this problem for some reason. Anyway, if you're going to be scanning a LOT of bar codes it's a lot more convenient than the iPad programs I've tried, and about ten or fifteen times faster. Highly recommended.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360721492990
So far it has gone to the right book about 90% of the time - the other 10% isn't a problem with the scan, it invariably turns out that the publisher has used a generic bar code that covers lots of books, rather than the ISBN of the specific book. A lot of the Buffy tie-in novels have this problem for some reason. Anyway, if you're going to be scanning a LOT of bar codes it's a lot more convenient than the iPad programs I've tried, and about ten or fifteen times faster. Highly recommended.