Welcome to the Readerware Newsletter
Readerware 2.85 is now shipping. New features like LCCN auto-catalog,
barcode/ISBN
capture, new preferences and general improvements.
Plus, FAQ "How to set default values for auto-catalog".
Visit the Readerware
Newsletter archive, all back issues of the newsletter are online.
Readerware 2.85 Now Shipping
Release 2.85 is now available for all products (Readerware,
ReaderwareAW
and ReaderwareVW), and all platforms, (Windows, Mac OS X and Linux). A
full
list of the changes included in 2.85 is available online:
Readerware
2.85
changes
Some of the highlights in this release.
Readerware auto-catalog will now accept Library of Congress Card
Catalog
Numbers (LCCN). You can auto-catalog those older titles that predate
the
ISBN.
New save feature in auto-catalog lets you capture and validate
ISBNs
for use later. Ideal when cataloging items in a remote location without
an
internet connection.
Readerware now supports multiple publisher mappings for improved
paperback
barcode support. Readerware can handle new UPC codes now appearing and
new
publisher ranges in group 1 ISBNs.
New reset function for improved portable barcode reader support.
Upgrade Policy
Most of you
know this by now but Readerware 2.85 is a free upgrade. All
2.x upgrades are free.
You can always download the latest 2.x release for free. If you ever
want
the latest version on CD, you can order it from the web site for $12.
Readerware
CD
LCCN Auto-Catalog
Readerware auto-catalog now accepts Library of Congress Card
Catalog Numbers
or LCCN. You can use them interchangeably with barcodes and ISBNs.
This means that you can now use Readerware auto-catalog with older
titles
that predate the ISBN. The International
Standard
Book Number has its origins in the Standard Book Numbering system
developed
in England for bookseller W. H. Smith. The Standard Book Numbering
system
was introduced in the UK in 1967. The
International
Standards Organization, (ISO), investigated the feasibility of adapting
the British system for international use in 1968. The International
Standard
Book Number (ISBN) was approved as an ISO standard in 1970.
So you won't find any books published before 1970 with an ISBN, but
many
books published prior to this will contain an LCCN. You will find the LCCN inside the book on the
copyright page.
It is normally referred to as The Library of Congress Card Catalog
Number
or LCCN. Sometimes it is there but not identified. The LCCN is normally
formatted
with a 2 digit year, a hyphen and then the book number, so it is easily
recognized.
For example 63-10153. You can enter the
number
with or without the hyphen.
As the LCCN is a Library of Congress number you can only find books by
LCCN
when searching one of the Library of Congress sites.
You can mix ISBNs and LCCNs in the same auto-catalog run, select your
favorite
sites for ISBN searches and one of The LOC sites for LCCN searches.
There
is no need to separate your books into ISBN and LCCN piles, Readerware
will
recognize which number you have entered and display an icon next to the
number
indicating the type. Readerware searches all sites you select for an
ISBN
match, but only The LOC sites for an LCCN match. So using LCCNs will
not
slow down auto-catalog, it is smart enough to know there is no point in
searching
by LCCN at say Amazon.
If a book has both an ISBN and LCCN, it is best to use the ISBN as all
sites
support an ISBN search.
International
Standard Book Numbers (ISBN)
Library of
Congress
Card Catalog Number (LCCN)
Readerware
Auto-Catalog Wizard
Saving Auto-Catalog Lists
Another new feature in auto-catalog is the ability to save lists to a
file
and run auto-catalog later. A number of users have asked for this
feature,
it makes it easier to catalog items in a remote location that does not
have
an internet connection.
You have always been able to save barcode scans or ISBNs to a file and
use
them with auto-catalog. But there were a couple of problems. If you are
entering
the ISBNs manually, they are not validated. You would only find out
that
you had a bad ISBN when you tried to run auto-catalog back at
your
home base. Another problem was that when scanning paperbacks, the
barcode
scans were not converted to ISBNs, so you had no way of knowing that a
new
manufacturer to publisher mapping was required.
Now you can use Readerware auto-catalog and capture your input to a
file.
Barcode scans are converted to ISBNs, and any mapping is done at the
remote
location when you have the book in your hand. ISBNs are validated, so
you
know they are good. Of course you can also capture LCCNs, anything you
can
normally enter during auto-catalog, you can now capture to a file.
Start Readerware auto-catalog as normal, scan or enter your items, then
hit
the Save List button to save the data to a file. You can then cancel
out
of auto-catalog. When you are ready to catalog these items, start
auto-catalog
and when you get to the item input page, hit Load List and select your
file.
FAQ: How can I enter
location
during auto-catalog?
This one has come up a lot lately. You are using auto-catalog and you
want
to specify some additional information on your items as you catalog
them.
Location seems to be the main one.
There are a couple of easy ways to do this in Readerware. If you are
cataloging
books by location, you want to break each location up into a separate
auto-catalog
run. Each shelf or each box should be run through auto-catalog
separately.
So how do you set the location? There are two ways, you can use
preferences
to set the default location before running auto-catalog or you can use
the
replace wizard once the books have been cataloged.
Web Import Preferences
Select the Preferences menu item, Web Import tab. You can enter default
values
for a number of fields including location. You can add a new location,
just
as you would normally using the popup menu or select from the list. Now
all
items you catalog will have the location set. To do the next location,
change
preferences and run auto-catalog.
Replace Wizard
When Readerware auto-catalog completes, all the items just added are
displayed.
Select Edit->Replace from the Readerware menu to launch the replace
wizard.
Check the "Current Search Results" option on the item selection page
and
continue through the wizard selecting the location field and the value.
The
new books will then be updated with the location specified.
You can use both these techniques to set default values for a group of
items.
They are appropriate when you can group items into separate
auto-catalog
runs and want to assign the same value to all the items.
A related question is how do I assign the condition of items during
auto-catalog.
This is a different situation, you can normally auto-catalog items by
location,
but not by condition. You don't want to assign all the items in the
auto-catalog
run the same condition. But there are ways to do it that were covered
in
a recent newsletter article.
Barcodes and Paperbacks
Readerware 2.85 addresses a number
of issues with paperbacks and barcode
scanning. The manufacturer to publisher mapping process has changed to
handle
new UPC codes that are now showing up.
The mapping table is now available in Readerware preferences, you can
update
and delete mappings.
Readerware can now handle multiple publisher mappings.
An ISBN contains four pieces of information, the hyphens split up the
ISBN
into the various pieces. Here are two ISBNs:
0-321-11254-7
0-939001-70-5
The first piece of the ISBN identifies the country, area or language
area,
both of these books are from the English Language group. The second
piece
identifies the publisher. The third piece is the book number. The final
piece
is the check digit. This doesn't contain any information as such, it is
simply
a way to validate the rest of the ISBN.
Notice that the publisher codes on these two books have different
lengths.
Why? Publishers are assigned codes by the national ISBN agencies based
on
their expected output. The smaller the publisher number, the bigger the
publisher.
The third piece of the ISBN is the book number, these are assigned by
the
publishers themselves. The ISBN is always 10 characters long, so the
smaller
the publisher code, the bigger the book number. A publisher with a
three
digit code can issue 100,000 books before running out of numbers. A
publisher
with a six digit code can only issue 100 books.
When a publisher runs out of books numbers, they get a second publisher
code.
This can present problems because they keep the same UPC manufacturer
code.
Readerware can now handle these multiple mappings and will display a
list
of matching publisher codes for you to choose from whenever a
manufacturer
code is mapped to multiple publishers.
Manufacturer
to Publisher Mapping
Readerware
Book
Preferences
Readerware Row Number and
Product
Numbers
When you enter an item in a Readerware database, it is assigned a
unique
row number. This number will never change. Most users won't care about
this,
but some dealers are using the Readerware row number as their product
number.
There is one problem with this, each Readerware database uses the same
row
numbers. So if you have multiple book databases, you can have different
books
with the same row number. If you have cataloged both books and DVDs,
you
can have a book and a DVD with the same number.
Readerware 2.85 now lets you change the row number for each database.
So
by assigning each Readerware database a different starting row number,
you
can be sure your product numbers are all unique regardless of the
number
of databases you have.
Your Feedback
Your feedback is always welcome and does make a difference. Please send
in your comments. E-Mail support@readerware.com.
Thanks for your support.
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