Comments on: Small-World Affiliation Networks

By: Charlie Hodge

Charlie Hodge — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 21:28:42 +0000

The easiest way to add books…is to make a file of ISBNs

check out the last minute of the stuffopolis screencast. that’s what i would choose to quickly add stuff:

By: Anthony

Anthony — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 19:42:56 +0000

The easiest way to add books (other than your Delicious Library) is to make a file of ISBNs, and upload them at the import page. I got 200 books in about an hour’s work, while the first 270 took five hours or so.

By: Eszter

Eszter — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 14:24:07 +0000

Listal is another one that also organizes music, movies and games. However, they don't have an import function, unfortunately.

By: Danny Yee

Danny Yee — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 13:13:33 +0000

Hmmm, if it were free I might give it a shot – I have all my books catalogued in a Refer database – but it’s $10 to enter more than 200 books.

(Surely no one here has fewer than 200 books?)

By: Chris Brooke

Chris Brooke — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 10:16:19 +0000

Kieran – you don’t have a viking helmet? More alarmingly, perhaps, you do have my brother Michael’s hair: over here.

Tad (since you’re there) – The Stoic Life is excellent. Well, I haven’t read the section on fate yet, but the first two thirds of the book are really very good indeed. So thanks for writing it.

Chris – sample away…

By: Alex Gregory

Alex Gregory — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 09:39:00 +0000

you can also marvel at the fact that everyone who was born the same year as you and is still alive is now also just as old as you!

Wouldn’t that actually be quite surprising, since it would imply that they were either all born before the current date, or all born after it?

And who says studying philosophy makes you pedantic?

Perhaps I should continue lurking until I have something more constructive to add!

By: Charlie Hodge

Charlie Hodge — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 05:36:07 +0000

LibraryThing is very cool. Stuffopolis is similar (also has the delicious library import) but for all things. They have a focus on sharing stuff.

By: Amardeep

Amardeep — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 22:06:23 +0000

I haven’t tried these bookmarking tools yet, though I will when I have about some time to spare.

But I wanted to mention one way in which I’ve found “Search Inside” very helpful—gathering bibliographic details. I’ve been working with an editor to finalize an essay for publication. The essay has many references to editions of various works, as well as translators and editors, sometimes from books that were in libraries I don’t have access to right now. Search Inside has helped me get quick access to copyright pages and front matter to sort out my bibliographic tangles.

(And really, there’s no good reason why the front matter to every book shouldn’t be readily available.)

I wish more academic publishers could be coerced (I mean, persuaded) into allowing at least parts of their books to be rendered searchable.

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 21:40:27 +0000

Hey, can a man dream?

By: Alan

Alan — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 20:28:26 +0000

I’d settle for a comprehensive fair-use Google Print/Amazon Search-Inside service, combined with unrestricted full-text searching and browsing for those books which I’ve purchased.

It’s the little things that matter, really.

By: Kieran Healy

Kieran Healy — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 19:20:46 +0000

I may not understand this sentence. But are you saying the ‘as yet unavailable feature’ will allow you to seach the text of the book itself? If that is true, the book itself will be on the web, in electronic form? And if that is true, won’t there cease to be a reason to buy the book in the first place?

Well, it’s true that it would be nice to have the full text of every book available for searching and printing: a complete, unrestricted Google print service, say. This is unlikely in the near future. But as antirealist says, many books are already available for full-search on Amazon, and on Google Print too. Browsing is limited to a few pages, though, on fair-use grounds. I was thinking that if I’ve bought the book (from Amazon, say), I should get an unrestricted full text search/print service as part of the bargain. Beyond that, I’d want to be able to restrict searches to books you own anyway, as it’s often the case that I’m looking for something specific that I know I have, I just don’t remember where. So before the arrival of the universal library, I’d settle for a comprehensive fair-use Google Print/Amazon Search-Inside service, combined with unrestricted full-text searching and browsing for those books which I’ve purchased.

By: antirealist

antirealist — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 19:09:02 +0000

But are you saying the ‘as yet unavailable feature’ will allow you to seach the text of the book itself? If that is true, the book itself will be on the web, in electronic form? And if that is true, won’t there cease to be a reason to buy the book in the first place?

Amazon already allows full text search of many books, but not in a way which renders actual possession of the book otiose.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 17:28:06 +0000

“Like Delicious Library, the most obviously useful feature of a catalog is as yet unavailable—namely, the ability to do a full-text search on the books you own.”

Steve

By: brayden

brayden — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 16:56:13 +0000

I entered all of the books in my office (sadly, it took me less than a half hour) and passed Chris as your closest user. That prelim exam you gave me did wonders to my book collection.

By: Jed Harris

Jed Harris — Wed, 26 Oct 2005 16:23:19 +0000

Nice that you jumped to #2 on my “Similar libraries” list and that I made it to about the middle of yours. Right now the population of libraries is rather thin and dominated by science fiction and web development but I hope your addition is a leading indicator.