
Software for the Bookseller

May 23, 2006 at 11:12 am 3 comments

A number of people have asked me about software that can be used for cataloguing stock and managing sales and invoicing in the rare book trade. A number of UK booksellers use some software developed in FileMaker Pro called BookSeller and sold by Tom Dupre. This system seems very flexible and Tom has a good reputation among many of the booksellers that I have spoken to. One of the big advantages of a FileMaker based system is the rapidity with which application components and reporting facilities can be developed. This means that Tom can customise your installation pretty quickly, and equally you can perform Filemaker exports of your stock and then develop your own little applications in FileMaker to perform reports that are not covered by the BookSeller application. On the downside, FileMaker requires its own licencing on top of the cost of the BookSeller application and this can be costly. Furthermore, FileMaker is a closed application making it very difficult to integrate with external applications such as external web-databases and other third party software. Nonetheless, for the small-to-medium sized business with relatively small requirements, this software does the trick.

Outside of Filemaker, I have recently discovered an application called RarusLibri, developed by a company called ClaroLogic. This application is written in Java, which means that it runs on absolutely any operating system you choose. Which does mean that it is fairly future proof if you decide to change tack when it comes to your choice of operating system. Also, ClaroLogic develops a range of other software and as a company it gives you the security of knowing that any future development on your application is not in the hands of a single individual. RarusLibri makes use of a SQL database built by Apache. This means that it will allow for better integration with external applications, however the database is closed and encrypted by ClaroLogic which means that any integration components that you require will need to be developed by ClaroLogic directly. On top of this, RarusLibri is currently a single user application, which means that only one person can work in it at a time. Great for single-man shops, but useless to the majority of booksellers out there. That said, ClaroLogic is likely to work on making a server-centric model in the future and allowing multiple clients to work on the application at once. On top of this, RarusLibri also comes with a web-component as an additional module that will provide you with the opportunity to get a live website up in no time. Using the SQL engine behind RarusLibri, updates can be catered for in close to real time.

RarusLibri 

If you're hooked on ABE, an alternative to look at is ABE's own software, known as HomeBase. This software only runs on Windows variants and ties directly into ABE's search engine. This software is hardly as feature rich as the other offerings I have discussed so far, and effectively works out to something very similar to managing your stock in an Excel spreadsheet. On the other hand, it does tie in directly to ABE's system and allows you to do rapid price checks and update your stock on ABE's site quickly and with relative ease. On the whole though, I wouldn't recommend it as your primary stock database.

Unfortunately, I've run out of time to discuss software much further, but hope to come back to it soon. If you have any recommendations or ideas of alternatives out there that work really well (especially for the multi-user market), I would love to know. 

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Entry filed under: Uncategorized.

Another great blog RarusLibri reviewed

3 Comments Add your own

  • 1. Groceries Delivery Service  |  January 20, 2012 at 8:04 pm

    your blog

    Reply
  • 2. Internet Translator  |  July 21, 2013 at 8:36 am

    Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wanted
    to say that I have really enjoyed surfing around your blog posts.
    After all I will be subscribing to your feed and
    I hope you write again very soon!

    Reply
  • 3. stskpa  |  March 4, 2014 at 11:47 am

    PUB+ Software provided by http://www.springtimesoftware.net is one of the Inventory & Invoicing Software for Book Trade, lot of people in India use this software.

    Reply

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