Library Consolidation

Shawn McLain
Shawn McLain Member Posts: 3
edited November 21 in English Forum

Is there any library type app that would allow me to consolidate all of my books, both physical and ebooks? This would include Kindle, Logos, and others ebooks downloaded onto my computer. It would be nice to be able to look in just one place.

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  • Armin
    Armin Member Posts: 1,501 ✭✭✭

    This would be amazing. But I doubt it will ever happen.

    At the moment, I use Logos, Books (from Apple) and Kindle. I don't use paper books anymore. A few books that I was only able to get in paper, I took apart, scanned them, created a PDF and loaded them into Apple's Books app.

  • Carmen Gauvin-O'Donnell
    Carmen Gauvin-O'Donnell Member Posts: 697 ✭✭

    Unfortunately there used to be such a program, Library Express, aimed at both home AND professional use, but which no longer exists - a very powerful library program that allows me to catalog all my books and their information, including by using a barcode scanner (YES, I AM A HOME USER AND HAVE ONE! [:D] ) to check books, movies, CDs, whatever in and out if I want.

    It even allowed importing excel files, which they very kindly did for me years ago, by getting me to create an excel of my Logos books at the time (~5000) and then importing them into my database for me.

    Since I already have it, I'm still able to use it, but of course, if something goes wrong, no help is available.

    By all means do a search of the Internet. You may be able to find such a program/excel template etc. which would be similar and useful for you. Who knows, it may even be freely available on some Internet Archive or something?

    Because yeah, there is NOTHING more annoying than buying something in ONE format, only to figure out that you already had it in ANOTHER format. [8o|] 

  • PL
    PL Member Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭

    I think many of us have this same problem. I'm wondering if Logos' Favorites can be used to point to Kindle books, PDF's and other files on our computer?

  • Bernhard
    Bernhard Member Posts: 643 ✭✭

    Do you mean you want to open and/or search the content of the books all in the same place? That would only be possible with a lot of manual work, for example by converting all books that are outside Logos into Logos Personal Books (but for Kindle and other bought books you would need to go through some additional steps to deal with DRM, which might be questionable from a legal standpoint).

    If you just want a list of all your books and to be able to search for titles, topics and other metadata, you could for example utilize Calibre (an ebook manager, that also allows you to add books without an actual ebook file). Another possibility would be Zotero, a bibliography manager. If you search this forum for those two names, you will probably find some pointers how to get the information from Logos to those programs.

  • David Thomas
    David Thomas Member Posts: 3,246 ✭✭✭

    Is there any library type app that would allow me to consolidate all of my books, both physical and ebooks?

    Try searching for "Church Library Software" - My previous church used https://www.resourcemate.com/ to catalog media of various types.

    Making Disciples! Logos Ecosystem = LogosMax on Microsoft Surface Pro 7 (Win11), Android app on tablet, FSB on iPhone & iPad mini, Proclaim (Proclaim Remote on Fire Tablet).

  • PL
    PL Member Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭

    Thank you, Bernhard. I was just hoping to use Logos' Favorites to link to Kindle books and PDFs on my computer, as I use them to link to native Logos books.

  • PL
    PL Member Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭

    So I did a little bit of research on this, and here's what I've found so far:

    1. Logos' Favorites can only link to Logos resources; they don't take URL's.
    2. I tried using my Firefox browser's Bookmarks as a way to bookmark all my ebooks.
    3. Bookmarking a Logos resource using its URL allows it to be opened in the Logos web app on both desktop Firefox and on iOS Safari browser.
    4. Bookmarking a Logos resource using its L4 link only works on desktop Firefox (Windows) and not on iOS Safari. I haven't found a way to link to a Logos resource to have it open directly in the Logos iOS app.
    5. Kindle's Cloud Reader provides a unique URL for each Kindle ebook. However, that URL only opens the Kindle Cloud Reader library view instead of the specific ebook. This is true on both desktop and iOS Firefox.
  • Don Kolafa
    Don Kolafa Member Posts: 32

    1. Logos' Favorites can only link to Logos resources; they don't take URL's.

    Try creating a Windows Desktop shortcut and dragging it to Logos favorites.

  • NB.Mick
    NB.Mick MVP Posts: 15,870

    Logos' Favorites can only link to Logos resources; they don't take URL's.

    I don't think that's true. The favorites can link to many things within Logos, including guides and searches, not only resources, and outside it it can link URLs and any kind of files - for some reason the UI is not very customer friendly, though (or too much so): The most easy way to put a link - maybe the only one - is to drag it (such as from the Logos shortcuts bar or e.g. the Chrome bookmark bar or simply from the Windows file explorer). Then URLs, e.g. https://translate.google.com/ which I just tested, will work flawlessly, as will PDFs ("work" meaning opening he URL in Chrome or opening my associated PDF reader app to display the pdf - which of course does not mean it "works" in terms of Logos features such as search).

    Have joy in the Lord! Smile

  • PL
    PL Member Posts: 2,134 ✭✭✭

    Thanks Don and NB.Mick! That's really powerful (but also not intuitive from the Favorites UI). I was able to link to Kindle books (via the Cloud Reader) and local PDF/Word files in addition to Logos resources. Thanks very much!

  • Sarel Slabbert
    Sarel Slabbert Member Posts: 543 ✭✭

    Is there any library type app that would allow me to consolidate all of my books, both physical and ebooks? This would include Kindle, Logos, and others ebooks downloaded onto my computer. It would be nice to be able to look in just one place.

    Not sure if this is completely relevant, but I use www.librarything.com to make a list of all the books I own. I tag where they are Logos, Kindle, etc. Since I have a lot of books, I can quickly see if I have a book, and whether it is hardcover, electronic (logos, kindle, pdf etc)

    I have been using it for years. Easy to add books via ISBN numbers or other details.

  • Shawn McLain
    Shawn McLain Member Posts: 3

    Did you have to enter each Logos book individually or was there a way to somehow transfer the metadata to Librarything? I think I found a workaround for kindle; and the physical books--no way around it but to enter each one individually--and it is a lot of books. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated. 

  • Sarel Slabbert
    Sarel Slabbert Member Posts: 543 ✭✭

    Sorry for the delay in answering. Unfortunately there is no easy way to import the details of you books into Librarything without the ISBN numbers. Some people claim to have had mild success, but in my experience I added my books mostly by hand at a time when I had a lot of time for that.

    Logos does not save the ISBN files of most of the books, which makes it a bit cumbersome, but not impossible

    This has been an asked for feature for quite some time.... see here for example