BookBinder — ShelfMate

How to photograph
your shelves

A quick guide to getting your photos ready so Claude can catalogue your library accurately — first time, every time.

BookBinder uses Claude AI to read your shelf photos and turn them into a database of your books, CDs, LPs, and films. The better your photos, the better the results — and with a simple naming system, Claude knows exactly where everything lives on your shelves.

This guide walks you through the whole process: taking the photos, naming the files, zipping them up, and pasting the results into your database.

1

Take a wide overview shot first

Before you photograph individual sections, take one wide shot of the whole bookcase or storage unit. This becomes the bookcase card photo in BookBinder — the thumbnail that represents that bookcase in your browse list.

It doesn't need to be perfect. Just step back and capture the whole thing in one frame.

Tip: Good light makes a big difference. A lamp or natural light from the side works well for tall CD stacks where the titles are in shadow.
2

Photograph in sections

Claude reads shelf titles best from closer shots. Rather than one wide photo where the spines are tiny, break each bookcase into 2–3 sections and photograph each one separately.

The section names map directly to shelf numbers in BookBinder (S1, S2, S3) — so the naming is consistent across your whole library.

Upright CD / LP stacks

Tall stacks

Photograph from top to bottom.

top → S1 middle → S2 bottom → S3
Wide horizontal shelves

Long shelves

Photograph left to right.

left → S1 middle → S2 right → S3
Cupboards & mixed storage

Shelved units

One photo per physical shelf.

shelf 1 → S1 shelf 2 → S2 shelf 3 → S3
Photos app showing shelf sections selected, with arrows indicating the overview shot and section shots
The green box shows the section shots for cataloguing; the red arrow points to the wide overview for the bookcase card.
3

Export and name your files

Export your photos to a folder on your desktop, then name them clearly using this pattern:

location_type_section.zip
  • lounge_cds_top.zip
  • lounge_cds_middle.zip
  • lounge_lps_left.zip
  • bedroom_shelf2_left.zip
  • dayroom_door_cds_val.zip

The name doesn't need to be rigid — just descriptive enough that you know exactly which bit of which room it refers to, six months from now.

Finder window showing bookbinder folder with named zip files alongside CD stack photos
A typical bookbinder folder — named zips alongside the extracted folders. The naming makes it easy to keep track across a large cataloguing session.
4

Upload to Claude and get your SQL

Open a new Claude chat and upload your zip file. Claude will read the photos and return an INSERT SQL statement for that bookcase, with titles, artists, categories, and shelf numbers already filled in.

One zip per chat session: Claude can handle a lot of images at once, but if you're cataloguing a large collection, it's easier to do one bookcase or location per chat. You can always start a fresh chat for the next one.
BBEdit showing SQL output from Claude with annotation explaining copy-paste into phpMyAdmin
The SQL Claude returns, opened in a text editor. Copy everything, paste into the SQL box in phpMyAdmin, and click Go.
Tip: If a title looks wrong or unclear, you can ask Claude to re-check a specific shelf before you paste the SQL. It's much easier to correct at this stage than after import.
5

Paste into phpMyAdmin and you're done

Open phpMyAdmin, select your BookBinder database, click the SQL tab, paste in the INSERT statement, and click Go. Your new entries will appear in BookBinder straight away.

Repeat for each bookcase or section. Once you're done, you'll have a searchable catalogue of your whole library.

Shelf numbers in BookBinder: S1, S2, and S3 in the browse list correspond directly to the section names you used when photographing — top/left/shelf 1, middle/shelf 2, and bottom/right/shelf 3.