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I'm finally going to scan ALL my books into BookPedia. My plan is to use CLZ Barry to scan UPC codes into my iphone, then email them to my desktop Mac to batch enter into BookPedia.

But I need a swift, efficient approach for older books lacking UPC codes. I don't want to laboriously look them up as I go.

I can think of these options:

1. Switch iPhone over to Camera app and shoot the book cover, then, later, enter titles manually into bookpedia

2. Per #1, but shoot, instead, the title page with ISBN info (an extra step, but will ensure accurate data)

3. shoot the book cover using the Amazon app's search function, and let them figure out what book it is (problem is I can't do this in batches; it's one at a time).

Does anyone have a better solution? My main concern is not bogging down during the scanning. I have lots of books, and hope to get through the scan process as quickly as possible.

Personally I'd go with option 2 (scan book title page to catch ISBN if necessary). That way you can add those books all in one sitting at a later point just flipping through your iPhone images and you won't have to get up to check on an ISBN or title. Also a good idea because some sites work better with ISBNs (OpenLibrary) and others better with title searches (Wikipedia, Freebase) so depending on which site has more info for you, having the option for your searches will make things easier.

Thanks very much for the reply, Nora.

A lot of your support materials still mention using tools like CueCat for this sort of undertaking. It only just occurred to me to use my iPhone!

And, come to think of it, if you're still considering relaunching an iphone app, you might consider incorporating UPC scanning PLUS a way within the app to shoot photos. This is a tedious process (and every new Pedia customer must undergo it), so not having to keep switching between UPC and photo shooting apps would help. And, obviously, if the UPC scanning fed directly into my Pedia database, that'd be extra awesome, and also make it easier to add notes (e.g. about condition) as I go.

Good point that solution #2 captures both ISBN and title (though not all books put them on the same page). But cracking open lots of books would be laborious; I'll see if I actually follow through with that.

We do have plans for UPC scanning integration for our iPhone/iPad app but it won't make it into version 1.0 just yet. The photo idea hadn't actually occurred to me before you brought it up but might be an interesting addition as well. Thanks!