Building Your Readerware Database

Readerware is the easiest way there is to catalog your library. It harnesses the power of the internet to search online collections and catalog your library. You get to pick which sites it searches and the order in which it searches them. This document is divided into four sections:

Create Your Database(s)

The first thing to decide is where to put your database and whether you want multiple databases, say one for fiction and one for non-fiction. By default Readerware creates a database called "RWareDB.RWD" in the directory in which you installed the product. If in any doubt. accept the default and skip the rest of this section.

To create a database in a different location:

That is all there is to it. Readerware automatically remembers the name of the last database accessed when it starts, so your new database will be automatically loaded every time you start the product.

To define multiple databases, repeat the above steps as many times as necessary. As mentioned Readerware will automatically load the last accessed database when it starts. To change databases, simply:

If you have decided to use multiple databases and would prefer that Readerware not pre load the last accessed database, use the Database Preferences and change the Remember Loaded Database option.
 

Auto-Catalog

Once you have your database created, you need data to put in it. Auto-Catalog allows you to prepare a list of books to catalog using their ISBN, LCCN or bar code. You pick the site(s) to search and the order in which to search them. Then sit back and watch Readerware do the rest.

So why should you search multiple sites? The short answer is that no one site will have all the books you are looking for. If you have books published in different countries, you should ensure that you select at least one site from each country. Older books will probably not be found at the major online vendor sites like Amazon, but will be found at sites such as The Library of Congress and The British Library. On the other hand the online vendors are more likely to have the latest titles listed, it may take a while for them to be catalogued at some of the non-commercial sites. 

Does the order matter? It can, the data extracted from each site is different. Different sites record different information about each book You may find that one site has better categories than another, that you prefer the way they specify the title etc. As Readerware searches each site in order, and stops at the first match, you should list your preferred sites first.

As Readerware auto-catalog runs it updates the ISBN/LCCN list each time a book is processed. You may have noticed that as you added an item to the list, a  question mark icon was displayed next to it. This indicates that Readerware auto-catalog has not yet searched the internet for the item. As it processes each item, Readerware changes the icon to indicate the results. The icons are:

- This indicates that the item has not yet been processed
- The book has been processed, the book and cover image have been  added to the database.
- The book has been processed and added to the database, no cover image was found
- The book has been processed but could not be found at any of the sites  searched
- The ISBN was already found in the Readerware database, this ISBN  was not processed
In addition to the icons, Readerware adds the title to any item it finds. This is a very handy way to identify the items that were not found by Readerware, it effectively gives you their location on your shelves.

Once the auto-catalog operation completes Readerware will display counts of the books processed, the number found and catalogued, the number not found etc. If user logging is enabled, Readerware also creates a log file called rwuser.log. If the books input and books added counts do not match you can examine this log file, it will identify each book skipped and the reason. You can view this log file in any text editor.

If some books were not found, select additional sites and run again. Readerware will only look for books it hasn't already found, so you can run auto-catalog any number of times.

 

Drag & Drop

Catalog books while you surf the web, Readerware also lets you to catalog items using your browser.

Auto-Catalog is the ideal tool for cataloging your existing library. You can also use it as you add new books to your collection.

Drag & Drop is useful when you need to catalog an older title that may not have an ISBN or you just want to catalog a couple of new books. Search for books by ISBN, author, title etc. You can then drag and drop from your browser to Readerware and the item is added to your database. 

From the Web menu, select one of the search and import menu items. Your browser will open at the Readerware search pages. When you have located the item, drag and drop to catalog.

As you add items using drag & drop, they are also added to the Readerware Shopping Cart. You can use the shopping cart to run a price check on a book, to order books, maintain a want list etc. You can easily print the contents of your shopping cart and remove titles from you shopping cart as you add them to your collection.

 

Data Entry

The Readerware detail view is also used to display selections from the local database, allowing you to edit the data. You can also use it to add new books to the database manually if necessary. Select the Edit->Data Entry menu item or click on the data entry button,, in the toolbar.

 

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