Network Computing is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Flic Scanner Media Organizer

I've got a lot of books in my basement -- a lot of books. About enough to stock a small library -- and because they've been accumulating for years, I've got very little idea anymore what's there. So when I got a review unit of the Flic Scanner Media Organizer, which includes a bar code scanner and software to track books, music, and movies, I was very happy. I thought that something like this could finally help me organize those masses of reading material, find the multiple copies and no-longer-needed volumes, and finally get all those shelves in some kind of order.

Almost, but not quite.



Click image to enlarge.

The Flic scanner itself is a nicely compact, no-nonsense handheld unit that works quickly and simply. It comes with a serial connection, a USB adaptor, and a single button -- all you do is press the button, run the scan light down the bar code of your book/CD/DVD, and wait for the beep that indicates that it's got the data. When you're finished scanning, you bring it back to your computer, start up the Collectorz.com software (the scanner comes with three full apps: Music Collector Pro, Movie Collector Pro, and Book Collector Pro), connect the scanner to your PC, and the data will automatically upload to the application.

The included Collectorz software is suitably well-organized and lets you tweak the type of information you collect and how you want to manage it. In its default mode, you have the main list of your various collections (which can be organized into folders) on the left; the contents of the collection you're looking at in the a top window, and information about a specific book/CD/DVD in a bottom window.

  • 1