I finally purchased a program I've been eyeing for some time: BookBag Plus by WakefieldSoft (http://www.wakefieldsoft.com/bookbag/). As a professor, I read lots of books, but until now, I've not really made any attempt to keep track of them. At a recent professional meeting, I wavered about purchasing a book because I wasn't sure whether or not I already had it. This is where BookBag Plus would've helped me. In essence it's a database for your books, but it's much more sophisticated than any shopping or outlining software. Not only does it contain numerous categories and options, but the desktop software will look up titles for you and automatically insert the relevant information into the form, including a picture of the book. All you have to do next is hotsync to your Palm and you have your entire library with you--no more wondering if you've already bought the book. I'm going on sabbatical in the fall, and part of my plan is to read numerous books for my research. BookBag Plus will help me keep track of which books I own, which ones I need to purchase or check out from a library, and which books are most beneficial. Each record contains space for notes as well, so I can summarize the book's content for easy reference.
At $24.99 the software is not inexpensive, but you can purchase BookBag Lite ($14.99) for your Palm alone (though you lose the ease of entering information using your desktop and you don't get the automatic look up function). The program lacks any cosmetic bells and whistles (i.e. user preferences are limited, so you can't assign pretty colors or icons). Plus, I'd like to see more versatility in the "look up" function so you could search by author, subject, etc. rather than just by title. Hopefully, the developer will also add card support so the databases won't take up so much memory. But these are fairly minor criticisms. All the software I've purchased from WakefieldSoft has been high quality, and their customer service is terrific.
While you could probably set up a book database using any list program or outliner, the beauty of BookBag Plus is that it's all set up for you with every category imaginable, and with the desktop software, you get the additional bonus of the program looking up book information for you. I've been happily adding books today, and I plan to engage the services of my secretary (lucky her!) to add my academic library to the database. Soon, my Treo 680 will be a 5.5 oz. repository of all my books which I can carry with me wherever I go. Now, if only my book budget were larger!
