>>>Does anyone know where I could get a database of all books? I'm looking for some way to be able to scan the ISBN and have the info on the book come up.
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>>It depends on exactly what you're looking for. The LoC (Library of Congress) has an on-line service which might work for you.
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>>There are several vendors marketing databases, which can provide a wide range of information. About the best of them is Bowker's
Books In Print Plus, which comes on CD, and has its own search engine. There's a batch processing interface for it, and you can extract data in a wide variety of formats that are used in the library industry like BISAC, as well as export data in a number of word processing formats. Ingram offers much the same database, with extended annotation and reviews of the titles that they carry. Baker and Taylor is another vendor with a similar product, and there are a number of library catalog services that have extensive databases which they use to process books for inclusion in library collections as well.
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>>You might consider contacting the American Booksellers Association, the Special Library Association (
special in this case means other than public libraries - colleges, research libraries and the like) or some of the large library processing house like Midwest Library Service. You could also go to yourlocal library and take a peek at a magazine named
Piblishers' Weekly, which is one of the large trade magazines.
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>I was thinking of writing a VFP program for used book stores where they could scan the books as they go in and out to keep track of them. I'll check out your suggestions.
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Good luck. The vast majority of used books in circulation today are not barcoded, and of those that are, many are only barcoded on their jacket, which may be gone.
>Thanks,
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>-Michelle