BookBuddy Pro: Book Tracker

This is a sensational app. It is in fact mega-sensational if you take into account the absurdly low price of $4.99—comparing that just to the vast stores of bibliographic information that are at your fingertips once you start using it. Up to a few weeks ago I was drowning in my own books, and had lost all control over the piles of newly-acquired items that made navigation in my workplace at home a hazardous affair. It gave me a feeling of quiet despair, of powerlessness, and actually it started to inhibit my research. Now, several weeks later, I already have 2,070 books scanned in, with something like two thousand still to go. On my iPhone I can sort the books, and arrange them in the order that works best for me, instead of having to constantly move books from one shelf to another. It feels empowering. Now for the batch edit function. (1) Tap “Select” in the top right corner. (2) Check the items you want to select for batch-editing. (3) Tap ••• at bottom left. (4) Tap “Replace Field.” (5) Choose the field you want to batch-edit. (6) Edit that field just like you would edit it for a single item. (7) Confirm the edit and hey presto, all the selected items have the relevant field updated. This is a really clever app, well thought-out, with no glitches that I can see. Chances are that your every need is anticipated, even if you have yet to find out how to locate the particular function you need. At $4.99 BookBuddy is a gift to humankind that will make the world a better place

I am using this to document and organize my book collection. Entering and duplicating records is straightforward and reasonably quick. I have also tested the export capability, which allows you to send a spreadsheet via email, which is very convenient. I don’t find the auto-fill (scan barcode, internet search) option to be particularly useful. I don’t know where they’re searching, but I don’t think it ever found the right edition I was looking for. One improve my I’d like to see is in how the app handles syncing. I have an iPad and an iPhone. I like to use the iPad for initial data entry (typing in a bunch of titles and authors, for example) but then I use my iPhone for taking pictures and filling in the details. There is no indicator that tells you the sync status, which can be annoying. If I add new titles on my iPad, and the tap the “Sync Now” option, the app will show a progress bar that counts to 100%, and the sync time stamp will update. If I then take out my iPad and sync, it will do the same thing, but the data on the iPad doesn’t change. The new records appear on the iPad eventually, but there does t seem to be any rhyme or reason. Sometimes it happens 5 minutes later. Once, after hours of waiting, I had to disable syncing on the iPad, and then set it up again, and the data finally synced. It would just be nice if there was some indicator that says something like “We found the synced file from your iPhone. It’ll take 10 minutes for the database to update completely, but it is safe to proceed.”

I did not want to pay for an app to organize my books, so I tried about 10 different free methods and apps. Hated every single one of them. Someone on a Facebook group suggested Book Buddy, even sent me a video of them using it, I was cautious but within a day I was in love. Easy to scan in new and old books, create separate libraries for your kids, keep track of loaned books, and best of all, you can personalize the categorization of your library! Need a 1,000 word novella, no problem. Need a grade 12 standard, no problem. I am loving it. Only downside is textbooks. But to be honest only a few of us are likely to keep to many of them anyway, and you can always manually search by title, author, or isbn. And you can link up with other app users, so yeah. I kinda recommend if you have more than 100 books, after that I couldn’t memorize them well enough, but hey. You do you. But seriously, why try a free app that limits the books you can catalogue when Book Buddy is cheap enough and worth so much more. Bask in the glory of a well catalogued book collection!