ISBN

I've finally gotten around to trying to scan the barcodes on all of my books. I'm using Library Thing, even though it is trying really hard to be some kind of Clown-based gamified "goodreads" fucktangle when all I want is a local catalog.

Anyway, what's the deal with every single paperback book released in the 1990s having a barcode on the back cover that is useless for scanning? Most of the time (not always) there's a second barcode on the inside front cover with the actual ISBN. What brain-genius thought this was a good idea?

Insult to injury: the useless barcode on the back cover usually has the actual ISBN printed above it. This scanner app will not OCR and scan it. FUN FACT, the name of the font it is printed in is called OCR-A. Just apropos of nothing. I feel certain that this is a task to which my pocket supercomputer could rise.

My scanning experience so far: Hardbacks: almost all scan. Paperbacks from the 1990s: 80% have the super-sekrit second barcode, the rest have only the useless barcode. Anything earlier than that: nothing at all, have fun manually transcribing a 14-digit number in a 6pt font, a task clearly beyond the capabilities of any modern computer. (I'm not doing that.)

Stupid thing can't even scan a barcode unless you come at it horizontally. WHAT.

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