Here’s the question: Have you ever been looking for a resource and couldn’t remember who you lent it to? That is the task set out to be remedied by Delicious Library. This is at its heart a library cataloging program, but with the polish and beauty you expect from mac developers.

I’ll confess, I’m not the most organized person, but this is a tool I was able to get my head around to help me know where I have left my stuff, or at least where it should be.

The most daunting idea of using one of these programs is the initial data input. That is not nearly as tedious with Delicious Library because of its revolutionary webcam scanner interface. All your resources are entered by holding the product’s bar code up to the camera on your computer. Delicious Library then downloads all the information including an image of the Book, DVD or CD Cover or product image of the drill, microwave, or toy from Amazon’s product database and then places them on the shelf in your virtual library. You can then search the items and check them out to friends that you create in the program. As I was entering my own quirky collection, I found the scanner to be about 85-90% on being able to locate the information without me having to enter title, etc manually, but came up with no blank places in Amazon’s database.

The library is not only available on your computer. Once created, the program will allow you to export (and upload) a beautiful album to mobile me, iweb, a ftp server, or a folder on your computer in both a full-web and iphone versions.

The usefulness of this program is paralleled only by its beautiful implementation. For the typical unorganized youth minister who has a problem keeping up with what is still in their office and what is in the hands of their volunteers, it is a priceless tool, a crutch really, that makes up for deficiencies in a way that is both easy and interesting. Maybe I’m projecting a bit there, but for the super-organized person this can be an incredible way to keep detailed information on everything for which you are responsible.

This is of course only as good as the consistency with which you use it, so if you decide to drop the change also decide to let it do its job and actually check your resources out as you give them away.

It is currently Mac only. You can test drive a demo version that allows you to import 25 items for free that even comes with a demo library for you to play with before you take the time to import all your own resources. As far as I’m concerned, Delicious Library is probably one of the best $40 an unorganized (or super organized) youth minister can spend.

This is of course only as good as the consistency with which you use it, so if you decide to drop the change also decide to let it do its job and actually check your resources out as you give them away.