FEATURES

Project Documentation

• 📚 Library Book Tracker Project Log - Detailed project overview, milestones, and inspiration

Session Collaboration

IndieWebCamp San Diego 2025 - Session with Tantek Çelik, Chris Aldrich, James Gallagher and Thomas Vander Wal

• Review etherpad notes for session ideas and context
• Coordinate with Tantek and Chris on co-facilitation
• Connect with other participants (Thomas, James, etc.)

Possible Work Items for Before/During Hackathon

• Design plain text format/layout for physical card catalog cards
• Add QR codes to physical cards that link to virtual cards on personal site
• Research prior art (e.g., HyperCard stacks, card catalog generators)
• Prototype physical card creation (if typewriter and card stock available at session)

Current Work

• Built Notion-based system to track library due dates
• Email scraper working - pulls data from library notification emails into Google Sheet
• Public website showing books (reading, finished, haven’t started) powered by Notion data
• Created PDFs in Figma for tracking notes (could be OCR’ed into Reader app or Obsidian)
• Sync real-life reading and paper notes with digital tracking tools
• Implement “return” button to mark books as returned
• Add “checked out” field to track book status
• Display checked-out books view
• Highlight overdue books

Roadmap

Phase I: Finish Library Tracking App

• Set up scraper to add data from Google Sheet about:
  • Books currently checked out
  • Books on hold
• Sync Google Sheet data into Notion database (adding/updating records)
• Complete end-to-end automation flow:
  • Library checkout/hold action → email/webpage scraped → Google Sheet → Notion database → public website
• Implement “return” button to mark books as returned
• Add “checked out” field to track book status
• Display checked-out books view
• Display books on hold view
• Highlight overdue books
• Sync real-life reading and paper notes with digital tracking tools

Phase II: PDFs and Card Catalog

• Finish creating PDFs for tracking notes (could be OCR’ed into Reader app or Obsidian)
• Design plain text format/layout for physical card catalog cards
• Add QR codes to physical cards that link to virtual cards on personal site

Phase III: Digital Shelf

• Acquire hardware:
  • Raspberry Pi (at least one)
  • E-ink displays (series of displays for different sections)
  • Bookshelf (decide on layout)
• Build “digital shelf” with e-ink displays next to specific sections
• Display due dates for books currently reading (next to those books)
• Display e-books section with return dates
• Display books on hold that need to be picked up (top of shelf)
• Display books requested but not ready yet or in transit (top of shelf)
• Display books that are overdue

Phase IV: Personal Collection Scanner

• Build webcam-based scanning system for owned books
• Implement book recognition that can determine:
  • Whether it’s a library book
  • Whether it’s a new book (not in system)
  • Whether it’s already in the system
• Reference capjamesg’s Photo Bookshelf project for inspiration
• Reference James’s webcam music library project (vinyl record recognition)
• Catalog personal book collection
• Allow status changes via button clicks (e.g., “currently reading” → “finished”, “checked out” → “returned”)

LATER/MAYBE

• Consider integration with Obsidian or Reader app for note tracking
• Explore OCR capabilities for paper notes (PDFs could be OCR’ed into Reader app or Obsidian, this is Thomas’ forte)
• Research e-ink display hardware options
• Investigate computer vision for book spine recognition (like capjamesg’s Open Shelves project)
• Build system inspired by Doc Brown’s automated dog feeder (Rube Goldberg-style but smarter, event-based not just time-based)

Research & References

Prior Examples

• Review Card Catalog Generator by John Blyberg
• Study HyperCard implementations
• Research Soundex algorithm (early card index encoding, later used by Library Bureau/Melvil Dewey)

Classification Systems

• Explore Dewey Decimal System variations
  • Library Thing MDS
  • Dewmojis

Resources

• Review Chris Aldrich’s collection on boxes, card catalogs, etc.
• Study example library card catalog card in book acquisition post
• Read “Paper Machines: About Cards & Catalogs, 1548-1929” by Markus Krajewski (MIT Press, 2011)
  • Book link
  • Academic research on paper databases for computer infrastructure