Delicious Library

Introduction

"MacLibrary X is a cataloguing application that stores information about your collection of books, movies, music and games. It also tracks borrowers and suggests other, similar products that you may like. Product images, descriptions, and other metadata may be pulled from Amazon.com or entered manually."

That sounds like a pretty boring product, doesn't it? In fact, it sounds like a good first project for a programmer just starting to learn how to create Mac applications. Not surprisingly, there are many Mac OS X applications that do more or less what's described above. Why does something like this even warrant a review, let alone a review at Ars?

Let's start with the actual product name. It's not "MacLibrary X" or anything similarly predictable. The application is called Delicious Library. That sounds...odd. On the other hand, it's also slightly intriguing, maybe even fun.

But come on, it's a glorified list of books, movies, music, and games. Surely anyone who's even interested in such a thing already has a text file or Excel spreadsheet or (for the truly industrious) FileMaker database that works just fine, thank you, for tracking media libraries. Heck, I recall videophiles in the heyday of the VCR proudly displaying tightly-printed sheets of paper containing alphabetized lists of their vast VHS collections. Putting this stuff on the computer seems like using a sledgehammer to kill an ant.

And yet, if you travel in Mac enthusiast circles on the net, you've probably already heard of Delicious Library. Even if you're not a Mac user, perhaps a Mac-using friend insisted on showing you some screenshots. Delicious Library is an application with some buzz.

This phenomenon is quintessentially "Macintosh", as is Delicious Library itself, from its purpose, concept, and design, to the people that make it and every last pixel and line of code it contains. If you're reading this on a PC that you built yourself from carefully selected parts for about the price of a low-end iMac, I hope this review will help you to begin to understand what's so special about the Mac, Mac software, and the Mac community. If you're already one of the faithful, sit back and relax as we examine the latest software offering from some old friends.