About My Bookshelf

I'm not a developer but I like to play around with ideas and learn stuff.

My Bookshelf is a personal project to catalogue my book collection. I am using a free app from Orcascan, which scans the barcodes (though some older ones don't have them), and generates the core text information into a spreadsheet. The data they return is based on the ISBN, though I have no idea where they get it from. A lot is incomplete. I then upload this into a simple Mysql database. I use the Open Library API to try to find a cover image. It can be a bit hit and miss, and the covers often are not what my own books look like, but when I get one I store the link in the DB. There is a retry mechanism so if a new image gets uploaded I should catch it.

Next phases are to find a good way to fill in the data gaps, especially descriptions, and then try and figure out how best to represent books on my Kindle, which I don't use much any more, but I have at least another hundred books on it.

Feb. 2024