Nice home library databases that aren't cloud-based that support notes and history

[Katie]

Hey, Oogie!

What does “transclude” mean? It’s not in the dictionary!

[OogieM]

Including another file or block where the real data still lives in the outside file but it appears inline in the note as if it were one big file.

Transclude or include Files

Transclude or include Blocks

I believe the difference in terminology is that the transcluded items exist outside the file where they are viewed and can be viewed and edited separately wheras included items are fully in the file.

Comes from the computer science term transclusion in code
Transclusion

[cornchip]

@OogieM

If I understand what you want you want to set up possible options and pick from a list? If so yes you can do that in the custom fields. Look under preferences, autofill and set what things you want toallow for each of the various fields and they will show up as options if you click on the updown arrows on the right of the custom fields in the Extras for each book

For custom fields, that would work. The thing that is making this search difficult is wanting a fairly robust history for each item (ideally with its own custom fields, though I don’t think I am going to find that.) Each history item would be its own separate entry and joined to the book, and would be searchable. For Bookpedia I’d either have to jam it in as plaintext all into one field in summary/comments, or a custom field, or perhaps use comments on the ‘last read’ feature. That’s why I was wondering about hacking the sqlite db since I could maybe make a new table and join events with books–but then I wouldn’t have it in the UI.

Something like Notion or Airtable would handle the data model fine but for the local requirement (basically children being involved in curation, plus privacy, plus wanting an actual desktop app.)

Zotero notes on books may be the answer despite that it isn’t really a history, just an arbitrarily sorted collection of appended pieces of data, and Zotero cloud would need to be involved to scan books from the phone (there’s a Siri Shortcut.) BookPedia is probably a top three contender at this point, though, for sure, despite limitations. Everything has limitations here…

[Katie]

I’m properly impressed. :o) Honest.

[Chicago333]

I have used an app called Libib with some success keeping track of about 1,000 books in my library. The standard account has a 5,000 book limit. There is a pro account with a lot more features if needed. Simple to add books by scanning code on books which brings all the Mata Data in. Entry’s are editable and searchable. You can manually add books that are not in their database. I’ve found that to be the case with very old editions and rare selections. Been pretty happy with the app.

[OogieM]

I’m a sheep farmer by day, programmer by night

Well actually retired programmer. Now I code on projects I choose… mostly.

[OogieM]

@cornchip

The thing that is making this search difficult is wanting a fairly robust history for each item (ideally with its own custom fields, though I don’t think I am going to find that.) Each history item would be its own separate entry and joined to the book, and would be searchable. For Bookpedia I’d either have to jam it in as plaintext all into one field in summary/comments, or a custom field, or perhaps use comments on the ‘last read’ feature.

That to me looks like a note program that allows photos as attachments makes a lot more sense. Add in some basic data gathering via templates and I think it might work. Queries might be harder to write but could be done.

If I hadn’t just spent hours entering in all my kindle and paper books into Bookpedia I’d probably do it in Obsidian only because that would consolidate my apps. In the past I’d have done that task in DEVONThink but as I’ve explained in detail elsewhere I am moving out of DT entirely.

Actually I’m currently looking at incorporating references into my Bookpedia database with annotations and highlights I make on my kindle books and with notes I make in GoodNotes for paper books handwriting recog. and all into a series of linked notes in Obsidian. I don’t hav it all worked out yet, some parts are working fine others not so much but my goal is a way to easily search no only for books I own but also my notes on those books and linking them to other reference material like the scientific papers I store in Zotero.

[Glimfeather]

BibDesk for me. But it requires TeX/LaTeX too as I use TeX/LaTex that isn’t a problem for me. The files are in bibtex format. It is possible to add fields for your own purposes. There is a fantastic keyword feature which I use to cagegorise books but also to mark them as read/want-to-buy. I store the files on my Dropbox account.

Grabbing citation information can be done in BibDesk itself with one exception Amazon. To download bibliographic info of books purchased from Amazon I utilise Zotero with the Zot2Bib extension. (I can’t stand Zotero’s interface! Once Zot2Bib adds data to BibDesk it deletes it from Zotero.)

Only downside is there is no iOS/iPadOS app for it. All the bibtex apps in AppStore do not appear to have an update/write entry capability.