Barcode Scanner Help

I've just joined Library Thing and purchased a Taotronics barcode scanner to scan the ISBN for my books. I have plugged it into a USB port on my Mac and it's working -- but when I scan a barcode nothing happens in Library Thing. The manual that came with the scanner offers no help.

How does my barcode scanner know to put the ISBN into the Add Books page in Library Thing?

Totally lost -- any help appreciated. (I have a call in to the scanner tech support but haven't heard from them yet.)

Thanks,
WK

Well, first, you have to be on the Add Books page...

Two questions:
1) Is the cursor blinking on that top entry field?
2) Are you sure that what you're scanning is the ISBN and not some other bar code?

My apologies if any of that sounds snarky; it's not meant that way.

Thanks for the reply:

1. Yes, I was on the Add Books page and the cursor is blinking in the top left entry field.
2. I'm scanning the barcode on the back of the dust jacket on the book where the ISBN is printed.

I have a feeling this has something to do with "calibrating" the scanner with my Mac -- some kind of initial set-up -- but the scanner manual doesn't say how to do this on a Mac.

I have a feeling that with the Cuecat I got a message the first time I plugged it into the Mac saying something like "Do you want to use this device as a keyboard?"

Normally, a barcode scanner looks like a USB keyboard to the computer, so the most basic test is to open a document in Textedit and see if any numbers appear when you scan a code. It shouldn't matter whether it's an ISBN or a can of beans. With some scanners, you need to practice a bit before you can get them to read codes reliably. Once you've tested that, then you can see if it works with LibraryThing.

In short: enter books manually. Yeah, I know, I'm a dinosaur. But really, if you have to get tricksy with these devises, you have to wonder if it's worth the bother.

But never mind me. Roughly half of my books doesn't even have an ISBN. So: bar-codes? bah, humbug....

Thanks for the suggestion!

I did get the Mac screen to configure as a keyboard, etc., when I first plugged the scanner in. I just tried opening a word processing doc as if I was going to type in it, then scanned a bar code but the numbers didn't appear in the doc.

So something's still amiss -- hopefully I'll be able to reach the Taotronics tech support people today.

5> Now, when I'm entering books in batches of 5 and 10, I most often just type the ISBN in for those that have one. But when I was first entering my library, and doing 300+ books a day, even switching back and forth between CueCat and keyboard was faster than typing in all those ISBNs (without error). And searching by ISBN is so much simpler (fewer results to search through!) than title, author...

Wow, I think your way to arrange books based on ISBN barcode is really useful. Thanks for sharing.

ISBN

I am using LibraryThing from an app on my ipad and cannot get the scanner to work, can you help please...

>9 Dale_Redpath_Library: Do you mean that on an iPad the camera does not appear to scan ISBN barcodes? I seem to have that issue as well, but the app on an iPhone works perfectly. So I just scan the book in on the iPhone and then edit it (if necessary) in Safari on the iPad. Works for me.

why is a barcode scanner like tinyecat useful? How does it differ from the 'add books'scanne on LT. Thanks

>11 KrisTG: A Cuecat is a specific bar code scanner that can be bought through LT for those who need one.

TinyCat is the simplified online catalogue that uses your LT account, but is easier for non-LT people to use. See https://www.librarycat.org/

Barcodes that are printed on books can be used when entering into LT to insert the ISBN into the search field on the Add Books page. Libraries can add their own barcodes (which can also be bought through LT) to make it easier to check books in and out. These are entered in a special barcode field of the book entry.

I have no idea which part of this you were trying to ask about.

>11 KrisTG: If you mean the scanner in the app - it doesn't, but CueCat has been around a lot longer.

If you have the app, you can scan a book's barcode and it will be added to your library (in the collections you set). You can't set tags on it, though, as far as I can tell.

If you have a CueCat, you can go to the Add Books page on your computer and scan a book's barcode and it will be added to your library, in the collection and with the tags you set (before you do the scan).

If you have a CueCat and "neuter" it, you can scan a book or anything else that has a barcode and the Cat will output a bunch of numbers/letters. It will work to add the book (same as typing the ISBN); you can also use it to, say, keep a pantry inventory. But that does require some extra work, and doesn't relate to LT at all.

The LT app is...a year old? About that. The CueCats were made in the 90s, and Tim wrote code on the Add Books page back when LT started so they could be used for scanning in ISBNs. I signed up to LT in 2006, actually started entering my books in 2007, bought a CueCat a week later and entered some 7000 books in two or three months. It was amazingly useful for a mass entering of books.

But now that the LT app exists, yeah, the Cats are far less important.

And as >12 MarthaJeanne: says, TinyCat is something entirely different - a different face on your LT account, that works like your own tiny library for searching (and if you want, for checking books out to people). It doesn't relate to adding books at all.

I was having some issues with my cuecat and found that I needed to have the Num Lock on for it to function.

I had to go into settings on my tablet and set the device to text. Shut off my keyboard but enters ISBN in Amazon selection mode. Still need to hand enter the older books but with thousands in my collection I can start making an appreciable dent in cataloging, finally. Turned it off after as kept trying to connect to anything...it IS a wand and wands are known to be wanton.

I have a scanner, but the option to scan isn't showing up in the 'add books' page.

>16 equipmoz: As long as your mouse cursor is in the "Add books" search box, you can just start scanning barcodes to search for them on that page.

As I go down a row of books with my scanner, after scanning each book into the Search field, I have to return to the computer across the room to deal with that book - add it or whatever, and clear the search box in preparation for the next ISBN to be scanned. Is there any way to add a string of ISBN barcodes at once and not have to stop after each one? Thank you.

>18 WunderstumpBooks: The trouble is that you need to keep an eye on what LT does when adding books, because you will occasionally get ISBNs that aren’t in any of the sources, or are mapped incorrectly to books because of some error by the publisher or one of the source databases. Scanning a few hundred ISBNs “blind” doesn’t help you much, because you then have to search painstakingly back through the pile to find the one that didn’t import correctly.

If it wasn’t for that, then in theory, you could set your barcode reader to dump the ISBNs into a text file and then use Universal Import to pull that in to LT as a batch.

A better solution might be to use the “Add to Catalog” function in the Android or IOS app, assuming you have a suitable device. Then you get a beep a few seconds after scanning each barcode to tell you whether it worked or not, and it’s relatively simple to put the errant book on one side to be entered/corrected manually later. That’s what I tend to do when I get a pile of new books in.

>18 WunderstumpBooks: I agree with >19 thorold: and I think what @thorold is is mentioning about using the free LibraryThing App on your iOS or Android device might be best in this situation, if your books are piled in one location and not easily moved, and your computer is in another location and not easily moved.

Check out the Help page for the App to get links for both downloads and instructions for using it: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/LibraryThing_App (and pay close attention to the data sources you're using to copy-catalog your data, if you care about that: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/LibraryThing_App#Add_to_Catalog:_Sources...

>19 thorold: Thank you! I will digest (no pun intended) what you suggested, as well as what "kristilabrie" chimed in with. (Ending a sentence with a preposition reminds me of a joke, but I won't burden you with it here.)

>20 kristilabrie: This is a lot to absorb, or so it seems, but I'll give it my best. My husband was the curator of our library - a meticulous curator at that - but he died at the end of March this year, and this is all new to me. So I very much appreciate your input. Thanks!

The other way you could do it is scan into a text file, then copy and paste one by one - first a bunch of scanning then a bunch of entering. If you can, the app is better, but if you only have the Cat for scanning that would prevent the back and forth across the room.

Hi everyone, I recently purchased a CueCat Scanner and was wondering if I could check books out with the scanner scanning the ISBN code on the book through TinyCat. Can you do this? Also, if the answer to the first question is no, can you use the barcodes made by librarything to check out books with the scanner scanning the barcodes on the book through TinyCat? Could someone please help me with the answer to the questions? Thank you.

>24 maxwi: Yes! You can check items in/out using a scanner and the ISBN barcodes, from TinyCat's Check in/out page: https://www.librarycat.org/admin/checkinout. (You can also search the catalog using the same scanning method.) See https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/TinyCat:_Circulation_%C2%BB_Check_in/Out for more information and let me know if you have further questions. :)

>25 kristilabrie: Thank you! I will try that now.