Ask HN: How can I automatically scan and catalog a mountain of books?

		Ask HN: How can I automatically scan and catalog a mountain of books?
		174 points by cconcepts 11 hours ago \| hide \| past \| web \| favorite \| 98 comments
		This really kind, eccentric guy in my neighbourhood is stockpiling books and has been doing so for years. He has an enourmous barn that he is obsessively filling with whatever reasonable quality books he can get his hands on but he is completely overwhelmed in terms of cataloging/indexing them so customers have to go through his barn sifting through cartons full of books. He charges $1 or $2 for whatever book you dig out. He buys bulk lots from deceased estates and bookstores that are closing down. Entire shipping containers are being gifted to him and showing up at his barn. The barn is full and he is now storing in shipping containers outside. There is great quality books among this quagmire but it takes hours of searching to find them. I figured HN might be able to point me to a solution where I could quickly photograph the front cover and have a script/google images compare the image to online info to index the title and author and then perhaps list them online… I dunno, it just seems like such a treasure trove of books that he will sell for practically nothing because he loves books and hopes that they will find their way to people who want them – the barrier is allowing customers to find what they are looking for. Thoughts?