Top 10: Home library software

2025. Managing your home book library with Excel: a practical approach



If you love reading, then over time you accumulate a large number of books and organizing these books can become quite a difficult (but interesting) task. And over time, you will understand that you need a special program for this. But to start, you can use regular Microsoft Excel. The main advantage is that if you already have it, then for you, firstly, it will be free and secondly, you already know how to use this program. ***


2025. Alfa Ebooks Manager 9 gets updated engine and built-in reader



Ukrainian developers from Alfa.NetSoft have released the new version of their popular home library program Alfa Ebooks Manager 9. It's built on the enhanced engine that allows it to work faster and more reliable. They have also implemented the new internal reader with search, notes and progress bar. It also enables basic knowledge management - when reading a book you can highlight and save text blocks or quotes and then access them in a book card, click on them and open the appropriate page in a book. You can also add your comments to these knowledge blocks. Besides the program interface has become more polished and suitable. You can customize the design according to your taste and select between multiple bookshelf templates. The web-reader and the whole web interface also received a beautiful facelift. Among other new features - better audio-book import and management.

2022. Online home library software Libib allows to edit individual fields fast



Libib has introduced a new additional way to edit individual fields on an item. Each item now displays a pencil icon which will bring up a quick edit menu. This menu is completely accessible through the keyboard; no need to use the mouse to click on anything once it’s up. Begin searching for the field name that you want to edit and the list of options automatically reduce down to your choice. Using quick edit feature to change the title of an itemALT. Click enter on the keyboard to select the first option, or press the down-arrow key to select what you want. Your cursor is automatically placed in the input box and you can start typing. Hit enter to save, or tab to the save button and hit enter. Once it is saved, you are brought right back to the searchable fields, where you can immediately begin editing another field. When you’re done, simply hit escape on your keyboard to close out.


2019. Alfa 8: New UI and Faster performance



The latest edition of the popular home library software, Alfa Ebooks Manager 8, is built on an upgraded engine, enabling faster performance even with large collections. The developers have also introduced a new user interface that is cleaner, more refined and more comfortable, with options for color scheme customization. Some of the new features include customizable color schemes, faster and more reliable scanning, updated Book and Author cards, batch MP3 audiobook metadata editing, complete drag-and-drop functionality, a new Table View with text zoom, enhanced CSV import/export tools and improved Calibre import capabilities.


2016. LibraryThing allows to export your home library to excel



Online library management tool LibraryThing has added book export to Excel (that complements traditional CSV and TSV export options). It's a minimalist and simple operation that allows you to quickly get a list of books for editing, publishing or sending to friends. The developers have made the headings bold, changed the width of some columns and defined some column formats as text and some as numbers, but otherwise left the data as is. They say they've tested this new feature well, but there are so many versions of Excel that there may be formatting issues.


2013. Delicious Library 3 gets smart recommendations



The latest iteration of home library software for Mac, Delicious Library 3, has been launched. The most intriguing new feature is Smart recommendations. This new tool examines your collections, ratings and wishlist to create suggestions based on your collector profile. If any of your friends possess any of the recommended items, Delicious Library highlights them for you. Now you can share your library with friends, borrow items you need and lend items out—Delicious Library 3 simplifies tracking your possessions. The new Charts feature lets you view the current value of your collection, total page count and other engaging data presented in stylish charts. The iPhone app Delicious Scanner is now more portable, literally. Have an iPhone? Download our app and you, too, can carry a handheld scanner in your pocket.


2011. Alfa Ebooks Manager 2.5 improves library management, adds Google Books integration



Alfa Ebooks Manager hits the new version 2.5. The most important new feature is completely rebuilt Library Explorer - the control panel for managing e-Library. Now it works like the MS Outlook sidebar: you can show or hide buttons, transform buttons into icons or vice versa. In the Authors pane you can now display authors without grouping - it looks very cool. Besides, right in the Library Explorer you can view the number of books (in each genre, series, etc), edit and delete items. The bonus is that the new Library Explorer works much faster. The second important update is import from Google Library. You can select any book list in your Google Library and import all book data and covers to your AEM database. Other new features include multiple book selection, File Manager now allows to automatically create folders and move/copy ebooks to them basing on any parameter. For example, you can create a folder for each author or genre and put the appropriate books to them, MD5-check for detecting duplicates (in the Scan and inside the database), optimized (faster) Wall View, Web Search.


2011. Video: Calibre Tutorial about its features and interface


Kovid Goyal, the creator of the popular home library management software Calibre created this video tutorial called "How to use Calibre - a look at its features and user interface". It shows some tips of how to optimize your usage of the program user interface. The main window interface consists of four areas: the book list (shows the books in your library), library browser sidebar (allows to browse your collection by various categories like series, publishers, rating...), book detail view (shows the book cover, formats available, comments..) and the upper search bar (allows to find books in your calibre collections). The user interface areas can be risized and hidden. You can also rearrange/hide columns in the book list. Watch the video about this robust library management software.


2010. Alfa Ebooks Manager 1.9 - the most stylish eBook library manager



Alfa.NetSoft announced the release of the new ebook software version Alfa Ebooks Manager 1.9. It's not so revolutionary as the previous one but includes a lot of small improvements, requested by our customers. Besides, with this update we start adding new design themes, so that the software could better fit your style. The first is DARK THEME. The list of new features also includes multiple books selection using Shift (like in GMail), automated book site plug-in update, duplicates control (the new item in the sidebar tree), improved List View, improved Thumbnail View, improved Book card design, Web Update Options, book double-click options (now you can select to open Book Properties, Book File, 3D Book), improved File Manager (now it prevents duplicates and file overwriting), export books to CSV.