Tame the Media Cataloging Monster with Delicious Monster's Delicious Library!

Do your bookshelves look like the aftermath of a collision between two bookmobiles?

Have you ever brought home a new video only to discover later that you already own it?

Laughed or lamented over the duplicate CDs you have?

Wondered to whom you loaned your latest copy of DDR?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, or even if you haven't, then Delicious Monster's "Delicious LIbrary" is for you!

Delicious Monster are a cool team of people up in Seattle who make awesome software working by all accounts, as often as not, out of their favourite coffee house, University Zoka ("Zoka is Seattle's best internet coffee shop. It has free wireless internet access, giant desks with power outlets next to each seat, and amazing coffee served up by award-winning barristas", says the Delicious Monster website, what's not to like about an office like that?)

As one might expect from such an avant-garde group of people, Delicious Library, on which I had the great honour to be a beta tester, is nothing short of amazing. However rather than try to describe it to you, it will be easier just to tell you what you can do with it, and how it works. And how it will help you to tame the media management monster!

When you install Delicious Library it creates a database in which it will store your media information. It also has a graphical interface to that database, and the interface looks just like a set of bookshelves. Each book, video, CD or game you have in the database is represented by a picture of, respectively, a book, video, CD, or game and it will actually have the correct title and graphics on it in almost all cases!

All without you typing in any titles, or providing any graphics!

How on earth does Delicious Library accomplish this feat of magic? It's so ingenious, and so easy (for you, the user, that is).

Here is how it works: when Delicious Library is running, it turns your iSight into a barcode scanner. How ingenious is that? You simply take your book, CD or video, hold the bar code up to your iSight, and it scans in the barcode (honest to goodness, they have even included the thin red scanner "laser" lines in the window where you see what the iSight is doing!)

Once you scan in the barcode, Delicious Library goes to either Amazon, IMDB, or CDDB to look up the information on your item, and then populates the database with the information it finds (I told you that it was ingenious!)

Image Courtesy of Delicious Monster

For example, I just scanned in my Bela Fleck "Live Art" CD, and the program nearly instantly returned this information, including cover graphic, which it got from Amazon:

Live Art Bela Fleck & The Flecktones

Release date: Tuesday, September 10, 1996 Genres: Jazz Fusion, Bluegrass Jam Bands, Contemporary Format: Audio CD, Live

Tracks: [A complete list of the tracks, which I'm leaving out for the sake of space, as this is a double-CD set!]

Retail price: $19.98 Current Value: $7.99

Amazon users: five stars

UPC: 09362424721 Amazon #: B000002N7R

Something of a retrospective, Live Art is a treat for both newcomers and aficionados of the eye-popping artistry that is Bela Fleck, not to mention his more-than-capable partners in crime, bassist Victor Wooten and percussionist (well, it's not exactly a drum set he plays) Future Man. This two-disc set features live performances spanning a four-year period, with several guest appearances: Branford Marsalis sits in on "Flying Saucer Dudes," Chick Corea is featured on "The Message," and Bruce Hornsby appears on "More Luv." Several never-before-recorded songs appear here as well--the Scottish-inflected "Lochs of Dread," among others. Favorites like "Flight of the Cosmic Hippo,""UFO Tofu," and "Sinister Minister" are here as well, making this a well-rounded, enjoyable collection for any Fleck fan. Jazz? Folk? Bluegrass? Who knows, but whatever it is, it's well worth hearing. --Genevieve Williams

That information, by the way, is exportable to a plain-text database file, and with the "DeliciWeb" plugin by iMax you can also export your library info in an html-friendly version to put on your website!

And what would a library be without a lending program? Delicious Library lets you keep track of to whom you have loaned those books, CDs, videos and games, and when you expect them back, by allowing you to set up "borrowers" and assigning items to them, and even due dates! And not only can you import a borrower's information from your Address Book if you like, but when you assign a due date to something they have borrowed, it adds a note to that date in your iCal calendars, on its own calendar called "Library Loans"! Too cool!

Delicious Library is an absolutely amazing program, worth far more than the mere $40.00 that it costs to own it (shhhh..don't tell them!) And in the true spirit of Macs and Mac applications, it just works.

Check it out. Delicious Library at Delicious-Monster.com