LibraryThing for Android Phones

I came up with a little hack that might be useful for fellow LibraryThingers.

http://www.morelightmorelight.com/2010/02/27/librarydroid-tracks-your-books/

It's a way to use an Android phone to scan a book barcode and add the book to your librarything account. Any suggestions etc would be appreciated on my site - hope this helps some of you out!

that sounds supercool, but I just don't understand the instructions- so sad! regardless, great job- I'm always wanting to use my phone as a barcode scanner to add books to my wishlist...

Well - i do want it to be something you can use...
Here's the idea:
1: buy an android phone.
2: Download the android scripting environment application: http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/
3. Download my little librarydroid script.
4. Make a shortcut on your phone to the library droid script - hold your finger down for 2 seconds, you'll get a menu. Then choose shortcuts, then ASE - then choose the librarydroid script.

Does this help?

Mine doesn't work.

"import: permission denied"

I also get a syntax error on line 3:

Syntax error: "(" unexpected

I've tried several times to no avail.

Thanks for giving the script a shot!

I'm not sure where that "import: permission denied" error is coming from. If it is coming from line 1 then I'm afraid there's a bigger problem than my script.

The android scripting environment comes with a barcode reader sample application. Can you give one of those a shot? It will look up your barcode on google books...

I'm suspecting there is a larger problem. Let me know how it goes!

I tried this on my Droid Eris. When I click on your script in the browser, I get an error message "This content cannot play on this device." Any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong?

Yup - the script doesn't work from a browser - you need to install the android scripting environment and the script works based on that.

I just use the barcode scanner app(free) with the browser.

-open the browser and go to librarything add book page
-click on home button
-go to the barcode scanner app
-when it gives the beep of recognition, click on home button
-go back to the librarything page in the browser
-click on the search box and long hold, a menu pops up
-click on paste from the menu
-then click on search, voila

The scanner only has trouble with about 1 out of 15 books. For that one, just click on the search box and type manually.

Love it. I am able to move around the librarything using the droid browser with little annoyance.

THANKS SO MUCH sashteach!! You just made my life so much easier!!

oooo ... I hadn't worked out how to use the barcode scanner with LT. Nice! Thanks!

"import: permission denied"
I also get a syntax error on line 3:
Syntax error: "(" unexpected
I've tried several times to no avail.

This is the same error I'm getting. I am using the Motorola Devour. What device are you using?

I am using Motorola droid.

I forgot to add a tip on how to quickly switch between the browser and scanner. When you have both open, press and hold on the home button (the house), a menu should pop up with all your open apps. click on the one you want to switch to.

Gave up on trying to make my HTC hero work. So came up with a slightly different approach involving Google Books

1. Download from market "Book Mobile"
2. This allows you to scan books to google books
3. From Google Books click favorites (which is where the scanned books are placed)
4. Choose "options" and export to xml
5. From Librarything go to add books, import, and import the XML file you made.

It takes a few more steps, but added 130 books in one go like this. So could be an option for those that cant get the direct scanner to work.

Is there an app which lets you do this on the Motorola Dext? I'm going to try sashteach's way of adding to LibraryThing (thanks!) but I'd like to be able to scan to google books too.

I've released a (very simple) app for Android that automates the steps described by sashteach.

It's called "LibraryThingScanner", a search in the market for "LibraryThing" in the Android Market should find it.

>15 AWESOME thank you!

cms103: I notice that when I'm not logged in, the book is directly displayed, but when I am logged in I only get the search box and have to tap the (tiny) search button myself. can this be changed?

great! if only i could have used that a while back instead of manually adding all of my books...

Snarkhunt
Here's the idea:
1: buy an android phone.
2: Download the android scripting environment application: http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/
3. Download my little librarydroid script.
4. Make a shortcut on your phone to the library droid script - hold your finger down for 2 seconds, you'll get a menu. Then choose shortcuts, then ASE - then choose the librarydroid script
/Snarkhunt

I'm having trouble with step 1. :-)

Wonderful!! Thank you!

I'm having trouble with step 1. :-)

For those on t-mobile, I have a recommendation: LG Optimus T. They've had them on sale recently, even without a contract. My wife got one for $160 after tax. I got a refurb one for $115 (along with a $30 minute card, making the effective price $85). Those are both no-contract prices. I think it's free or almost so if you have a contract.

I know they ran out of the non-refurb ones (they apparently dropped the no-contract price to $100), but they might still have the refurbs. They claim the refurbs have never been turned on, and that they verify that. Caveat emptor but mine still had all the sticky films and seems right as rain.

It's a GREAT little budget phone. Makes me wish my iPad ran android...

I have a problem with my android scanner. I have used the LibraryThing App and just the barcode scanner (going to a file) -- it seems to be scanning the barcodes, but it doesn't bring up the ISBN. Am I doing something wrong?

Are you scanning the ISBN-13 barcodes which begin with 978- ? Many paperbacks have additional barcodes for supermarket SKU systems. These cannot be used for book lookup. Some paperbacks will hide the ISBN-13 barcode on the inside front cover.

James

Thanks James, that's exactly what I was doing -- d'oh!

Yeah. When you've entered a few hundred books, you'll be able to glance at the back-cover barcode and identify whether it's the ISBN or not instantly...it's pretty much random, there were a lot in the late 70s and early 80s but the exact time depends on the publisher. And there's an outbreak of UPC barcodes every once in while even on new books.

Every code that starts with 978 is an ISBN, but not every ISBN starts with 978 - there are also the 10-digit ones (older), which usually start with a 0 or 1 but don't have any particular pattern beyond that. But somewhere on the back cover, inside front cover, or copyright page (or occasionally on the spine) the ISBN will be identified (it'll show ISBN:(bunch of numbers)). It also often appears directly above an ISBN barcode (as well as at the bottom of the barcode). In my experience, a barcode on the inside front cover is always the ISBN, but it's not always scannable (sometimes it's just little sticks, not the thick-and-thin barcode lines) and not always there.

Have fun!

The "little sticks" is postnet — the same encoding used for zip codes on mail for the previous few decades. The hand scanners that can read them seem to be expensive, though, and postnet-encoded ISBN's seem quite rare.

I've found one book so far in which the ISBN was the "SBN" :)

I previously used xzing in batch mode on both my Captivate and Xoom to scan some books, but I ended up buying a $30 USB handheld laser scanner and it's so much faster.

Ah, right, I knew I'd seen the sticks somewhere! On envelopes. Right.

I get quite a few SBNs, but then I tend to buy old SF book a lot. Sometimes they translate into ISBNs if you add 0 in front of the number...and sometimes they don't.

I bought an LT CueCat when I first joined (then modified it - no more weird scramble, just numbers). I've used Barcode Scanner on my phone, but for batch entry of books the Cat is just what I need.

SBN is the "Standard Book Number" which was introduced in 1966. The ISBN adds "International" to that in 1967 with a digit to represent a language group. 0 or 1 for English. This, along with the way that the checksum is calculated, is why an SBN with a 0 in front works most of the time. I have not noticed SBNs having barcodes so by this point you're probably doing a manual entry of the number anyways.

Agreed on the advice about looking for the 978 ("bookland") barcodes. These correspond with the ISBN-13 numbers which are common on current books. Effectively, these are just ISBN-10s with the 978 prepended to the beginning and altering the last digit (checksum) according to all of the rest of the digits.

For my own entry of these kinds of books, I use a modified USB CueCat (bought that way from eBay years before I discovered LT) and the RedLaser Classic program for the iPhone. I will note that there is some hard feelings about the privacy policy of the newest RedLaser app for the iPhone. From what I gather, it was bought out by eBay and they pretty much tell you that your scanning pattern data will be sold to others. Perhaps they're merely more honest about it than others who do the same?

With RedLaser I scan a stack of similar category books and then use it to send an email to myself. This contains an attachment with a list of just the ISBN numbers, perfect for import to LT. This works pretty well in most cases.

James

I use the LibraryThing Scanner app on my phone. It works great, especially when you're in the bookstore and want to look up more about a book later, or add to your wishlist.

This seems hackish. In my opinion, another reason why LibraryThing needs a real android app like GoodReads has. They've done a great job with their app. Barcode scanning is super simple. I wish LT had a similar app!!!!

Just to reinforce a bit what markusnenadovus said, I've been playing with Goodreads, their librarything import is nothing to write home about, but the Android app is slick. You can buy a stack of books, set it in batch mode, scan in the lot, bing-bing-bing, and it adds them all to your booklist. Really impressive how fast it was. I love it.