Shelfie Is Shazam for Your Bookshelf | Hacker News Reader

Shelfie Is Shazam for Your Bookshelf

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A number of people on the play store are dinging Selfie for requiring users to write their name on the copyright page of their books for free/discount ebooks. I am also not a fan of writing in (most) books, but I assume (and will try tonight) that a slip of paper with my name on it (or a transparency) placed on the copyright page for the photo will suffice.

It would also remove the ownership proof the Selfie wants for free/discounts. People could easily use a signature slip at a friends house or the library.

I'm the app's developer, so I'll chime in here. The deals we have with publishers require that the book can't be returned to a bookstore. Having to write in your book isn't the only option though -- we do allow users to make their books with a bookplate sticker or stamp it with an ex-libris stamp:

http://blog.shelfie.com/2015/01/01/take-shelfie-use-ex-libri...

The slip of paper trick (or acetate sheet) is an option for people who want to try to game the system... but we do have mTurks who check the claims and will block the accounts of repeat offenders. That said, there are easier ways to get free ebooks e.g. thepriatebay.se

I'd like to see them provide options for doing other interesting things with the books they identify besides finding e-book versions of them.

For instance, I'd love something that would let me photograph my bookshelves and then it mails me a list of my books with LOC or Dewey numbers attached. I started making labels with LOC numbers for me books to make it easier to file them, but it was a pain in the ass to look up the numbers.

Cool, idea... what if we made a reverse lookup, so you could search in the app for the book and we could show you the picture of your shelf with the book highlighted. Thoughts?

That would be a pretty cool app, at least for people who have a lot of books.

A couple of times I've resorted to taking photos of my books when I just could not find one, so that I could look in the photos on my computer (where I can enlarge them and do not have to bend over uncomfortably to see the lower shelves) to find where the book was shelved.

Cool! That's be a super easy feature for us to add. We're on it.

Good idea.

Can it only identify American or English language books ? Even if 45 millions is impressing I can't find a FAQ with the answer anywhere. I guess I'll have to try.

Currently only English books are available, sorry for any inconvenience.

My wife is working in a school library. For some reasons, the previous book database has been lost.

The fact that you could snap a picture of a shelf, do some check, and get a raw text file with title, author, ISBN number would be a tremendous help for a quick and dirty digitization.

I know this is not your primary use case, but I am sure there are many people with that kind of issue. Looking forward to try your app !

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