[chaley]

Originally Posted by Caleb666

* What do you use tags for?

workflow & random stuff that isn't part of some other category. The latter includes things like friend's recommendations. Also, it is a collection pot for things like downloaded metadata (although I very seldom do that) and tags that come in with import.

* What kind of a hierarchy do you use when you cateogrize genres? Do you first make the Fiction/Nonfiction distinction? such as Fiction.Mystery.foo, or would that make the tree too deep?

Mine is quite flat and not detailed. I don't use hierarchies in my genres (yes, this is strange as I added that feature to calibre, but that was for the challenge of it. ).

* How do you decide where a book goes to? Do you use any websites to help you find that out?

I put it where I want it. That way I am reasonably sure that the categorization is consistent and that I understand the rationale.

* What is the 'date' field used for in Calibre? Is that the date that the book was added to the library?

Usually, yes. I think there are cases where books are being imported and an OPF exists when the date is taken from the OPF, but I could be wrong.

* In the 'published' field, do you put the date that this particular edition was published, or when the book was originall published (this is more relevant to classical books that have many new editions)

I almost always use the original date. I will use a later date if it matters, such as when the edition is sufficiently different where I might want to have both of them. I pay no attention at all to near-identical variants (country, publisher, etc), an attitude adopted because I have dead-tree books purchased in many countries (airport bookstores). I suppose that if I was deeply into translated editions, I might use the date of translation, but I am not sure.

NB: I have set the tweak to see only year.

* Where do you keep track of which edition this book is? Do you add an extra column for that as well?

I put it in the title.

* Do you have a separate column for the translator of the book, or do you keep it together with the author? (as it happens by default)

Ahh, I jumped ahead.

I don't keep track of translators. However, I do keep track of authors of short stories in a collection. I put the editor as the main author, then add the story authors into a custom 'names' column. This is backwards, I know, but it preserves author matching and avoids cutting the collection into separate stories. If I used calibre for my academic library (collection of papers) then I would reverse this.

It is worth noting that I am much more interested in recording the 'state' of a book than in recording information about the contents of the book. That is why my genre indicators are sparse (this is about the content), and why I have columns for rights, priorities, date read, source, etc (these are about my interactions with the book).

There are other people on this forum who are much more organized about how they keep track of information about the content of books in their library. Some have responded to this thread. I remember seeing threads in the past about how people handle genres, editors, translators, and the like. If you haven't already done so, you might profit from searching for them.