Category: Collector’s Corner

Cataloging Your Collection

I’m interested to know if anyone else has cataloged their music collection.  It’s hard for me to believe, but I don’t think I’ve cataloged anything since about 20 years ago.  I kept everything (vinyl, CDs) in a spreadsheet.  Which I’m sure is now long gone.  And I have long wanted to either catch up or start over again with making a list of all of the titles I own.
For kicks, I am trying out the Music Collector desktop software from collectorz.com.   One feature that attracted me was how you could fill in your collection in an automated manner.  It can do this two ways: 1) by loading a CD in your CD-ROM drive so it can scan the contents, or 2) entering a barcode.
Barcode support was what I was interested in.  Just about all of my CDs have barcodes, so that takes a lot of data entry and handling out of the equation.
I do not own a barcode scanner, but I do have three smartphones and a tablet to work with.  There had to be something out there.  I already have the standard barcode scanner app, but there is no way to transfer from that app to another device like a computer or tablet.  I found one for Android called WiFi Barcode Scanner that works well.  It comes with a really small utility that intercepts the incoming stream from the phone, and processes it by adding a carriage return or tab after the string of numbers, for example.
That worked out perfect with the desktop software, since it has a bulk entry option where you can enter barcode numbers and hit “enter” to go to the next line, ready for the next barcode.  I can scan across the room, across the house even, and the barcode numbers get entered.
Once you have a list of numbers, it then searches for the titles.  It finds all of them with standard SKU numbers.  A few promos were hole punched through the entire code, so those I have to enter manually.  One disc (so far) was a Japan release and had no entry, so I submitted that manually.  Also, many record club recordings do not have barcodes, but a few do, and it seems hit or miss if the servers recognize the club number.  (It depends on someone adding it to the database.)  Out of about 50 titles, I had nine not recognized; that’s not bad, since those are ~40 titles I don’t need to enter by hand.
It catalogs just about all the data you would need:  format, track list, release date, catalog number, SKU number (which is the barcode), and even allows for front and rear cover scans.
You can also add want list items.  That would be great for taking when going out on record crawls.
There is a mobile version for both Android and IOS, and it can optionally sync with your desktop software.  They also offer similar packages to catalog your books and videos as well.
I’m only doing a few shelves worth to see if I like how the program works.  And I know LPs will be tedious since very few I own will have barcodes on them.  I am also planning on cataloging downloads.  For insurance purposes, it helps to document these things, and there are times I have wanted to find album data without having to dig an old recording out of storage or find it on the shelf.
Is anyone else using a cataloging program, a database or a spreadsheet to catalog their collections?  Let us know via comments through our Forums!