I’m constantly adding to my library, picking up books in odd places.  Sometimes, things get a bit unwieldy, so I’ve been testing out Delicious Library 2, a piece of software for Mac (sorry PC users!)  that promsises to help you keep your collections organized.

Delicious Library’s biggest selling point is it’s ability to use your Mac’s built-in camera as a barcode reader.  Simply click the camera button and hold your book-or your DVD, or your video game-up to the camera.  It will beep, a picture of the book will appear on the virtual “shelf”, and the software will automatically identify the book and download all the pertinent information from the internet.  And I mean all of the pertinent information. Genre, publication date, intended age level, length, reviews, and lists of similar books-it’s all at your fingertips, instantly.   Once they’re inputted into the library, you can use any set of criteria to sort the books.  It took me less than a minute to set the software to automatically sort “Children’s Books” to one shelf and “Teens” and “Young Adult” books to another.  You can keep track of books you lend out with automatic reminders for due dates.  Everything is visual and highly intuitive.

Of course, the software isn’t perfect.  The barcode scanning can be fussy, particularly if you’re using a laptop with the screen tilted back (if you’re having trouble, adjust it so both the book and the camera are completely vertical), and I’ve had to input a few books manually.  Luckily, the software can use the book’s title and author to find the book’s listing, and from there things should proceed as normal.

Of course, if you don’t keep your real-life shelves organized, Delicious Library will do nothing more than tell you that you have the perfect book in there somewhere. But if you want to create a record of your collection quickly or search your collection for science fiction books aimed at an age 10-12 audience, of less than 200 pages or instantly bring up a list of suggestions for a student who enjoyed The Mysterious Benedict Society, this is a surprisingly powerful piece of software.

Delicious Library 2 costs $40 US for a single license.  A free trial allows you to try the software out before buying.  PC users might want to try LibraryThing (an online tool for keeping track of your books, free until your library exceeds 200 books) combined with Barcode Monster (another software tool that allows webcams to work as barcode scanners, $9.99US).