Backup and import from Vox / Import synching

Backup/import from Vox. SixApart's LiveJournal is a favorite of LibraryThingers, who even formed their own LibraryThing community (338 members!).

SixApart's new "personal blogging" platform, Vox, is also drawing some interest. Vox has a nice, but very rudimentary book tracking feature. We don't think of Vox as a competitor. They're more of a "gateway drug." :)

To seed the addiction, I have created a Vox backup / import feature. LibraryThing/Vox users can keep their accounts better in synch. And non-LibraryThing users get a simple way to backup their Vox books. And, when you've done that, why not throw them into LibraryThing and see what happens? (LibraryThing will help you create an account in the process.)

The Vox import isn't instant. Vox uses a proprietary number for each book, so LibraryThing needs to "go into" each book page, searching for the links to Amazon (which have ISBNs in them). To avoid annoying Vox's servers, we fetch one page per second. So a Vox library of 60 books will take a minute to load. We have prepared suitable entertainment to hold you over.

From what we gather of Mena and her team, SixApart believes in openness and making their users happy. We hope they feel as we do: You own your data. Vox users should be able to make backups and cross-list their books. But if Vox shuts us off, we're counting on the Vox/LibraryThing and LiveJournal/LibraryThing community to rise up and take to the barricades! Aux armes citoyens!

Synch your books. I've improved the import feature. You can now choose only to import NEW books. Thus, LibraryThing now "synchs" with offline cataloging applications. I only realized how useful this would be when I started scanning in books with Booxter.* I thought "Wow, I need a synch feature!" Hit me; this feature should have come months ago!

*Booxter is a nice ap. Not quite as beautiful as Delicious Library, but, like LibraryThing, Booxter cares about good data, for example mining some libraries for data. Raise your hand if you think LibraryThing and Booxter should be friends!