Quite true. Before the LibraryThing app was released for iOS and recently for Android, the CueCat was a convenient way to scan ISBN-13 barcodes to enter books in one’s catalog on LT.
For those snarking about the PS/2 connection, CueCats are also readily available with USB. You can also buy both types on eBay both with the original encoding circuitry intact and “modified” or “declawed” ones which let them act as a keyboard device for data entry.
Now there are sub-$20 barcode readers on Amazon and apps that use the camera, but 10 years ago all that was available was prohibitively expensive so a modified CurCat was a good barcode solution.
