eLib

Editors' ReviewDownload.com staffApril 19, 2011If you're big on reading you no doubt have your book collection displayed on a bookcase, maybe even with some semblance of organization. If you enjoy electronic books in addition to--or instead of--their paper counterparts, why not organize them as well? eLib is a basic program you can use to create collections of e-books for easy organization and viewing.The program's interface is plain, with a tree view on the left that displays user-defined collections. Clicking on a collection allows you to view the contents either as a list or as a group of thumbnails. To view an e-book, simply select it and then switch to the internal viewer tab. The program also has a search feature, as well as a top books collection that automatically identifies the biggest, most read, and highest-rated books. eLib can be used to organize not only e-books, but also images, PDFs, and other file types. The program comes with a user guide that adequately explains its features. Overall, we liked eLib, although it's not perfect. Our biggest complaint is about how the collections operate. We assumed that when we created a new collection it would show up in the tree view in the My Collections folder, but that's not how it worked; instead, we had to select Open Collection from the File menu to switch collections. It seems odd to us that the program has a tree view that can't actually be used to organize things meaningfully. The program is able to create collections, but they don't operate in the expected--or most useful--way.eLib installs a desktop icon without asking and leaves a folder behind upon removal.