BookDB

With the Internet sucking up all the attention for itself, one might think if other forms of entertainment are doing just as well. Actually, they are, and somehow thanks to the Internet. For instance, books are still a solid part of today’s pop culture and you can organize entire collections in a neat database with applications like BookDB.

Setting up the application only takes a little of your time, disk space, and effort. Running it brings up the main window, but prepare a bit of patience because it can take a while to get to know all areas, and how to fill them in.

This doesn’t mean the application is difficult by nature, but the visual design is rather simplistic, with no icons whatsoever, classic menus, and you have to go through tiny buttons, requirement fields, and a lot of text, with a high chance to miss a field or two when adding info.

However, taking a closer look reveals it’s not so bad. A side panel lets you quickly filter through areas or view types like books, copies, authors, publishers, categories, or borrowers, which makes it suitable even for a local library to use for managing books.

Choosing to add a new book can take a while if you want to add all the details. Implemented fields let you write down everything from title and author to publication details and copies. In case you don’t know all the details, you can initiate a quick search on Amazon by writing down the title and having the program search by it.

All things considered, we come to the conclusion that BookDB might not be packed with too many visual elements, but the depth of details you can add, filter options, and quick online search make it suitable both for your home collection, as well as for libraries, thanks to the built-in borrower tracker.