06-30-2013, 08:18 PM | #1 |
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Metadata
Just wondering why if a book is part of a series. For example New Moon is book 2 of the Twilight Series. Why can't the series name and number within the series not be downloaded as part of the metadata and plugged into the series field?
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06-30-2013, 10:00 PM | #2 |
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Series and index number were (are) not important enough for the powers that be to include in the official list of metadata...at least in the ePub realm. I've heard that will be changed with the next iteration, whenever that happens to come out. In the meantime, Calibre has it's own set of metadata tags that include "calibre:series" and "calibre:series_index" you can add them in the .opf like this:
<meta content="Your Book #" name="calibre:series_index" /> <meta content="Your Series Name" name="calibre:series" /> Whether or not any reader/app actually notices them - or allows you to do anything with them is another matter. Marvin, and of course Calibre itself, allow full use of those tags. Cheers! |
07-01-2013, 12:12 AM | #3 |
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There is a good reason not to put the series number in the metadata. Because it's possible it can change. It can also be different depending if you read in chronological order or published order. For some series those two orders will be different. Also, how do you handle numbering a book of short stories that have stories that fit in different places in the series? Too many variables and the publishers have enough trouble sending their eBooks off to India to get them made by the lowest bidder.
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07-01-2013, 02:46 AM | #4 |
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Considering the elaborate standards behind it all (you get the impression the people behind it were being paid by the hour), and the many articles you can find about how important the metadata of a book is, the sad truth is that book metadata is inconsistently used and supported across the industry. Even the basic fields like description can be problematic.
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07-01-2013, 08:43 AM | #5 |
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It'd be good to at least have original published order in the metadata. For chronological or suggested reading order though, it'd be better if publishers maintained a wikipedia page or similar listing on their own sites as that order can change as new books are written. That'd be asking too much though
Until then, using calibre is really the best answer. With calibre, it's dead easy to set the series and number just type "Name of series [x]" in the series field, replacing x by the number you want. Also, you can setup a plugboard for save to disk and send to device that will rename the file so that it appears on your device with "series name - 01 - book title" or whatever variation of that you want. If you want to set calibre up to do that, have a read about plugboards then setup a template with the following replacement for title: Code:
{series}{series_index:0>2s| - | - }{title} Last edited by JoeD; 07-01-2013 at 08:47 AM. |
07-01-2013, 08:50 AM | #6 |
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To update the the metadata in the epub, don't you need to do some additional steps (do a conversion, or run tweaks)?
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07-01-2013, 08:59 AM | #7 | |
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If you save to disk or send to device though, Calibre will update the metadata during that process for the newly created file. The idea is, that you don't ever copy books directly into/out of the Calibre book/library directory. So the fact that metadata is only updated in a separate DB until you export/send to device/email/etc. shouldn't cause a problem. Last edited by JoeD; 07-01-2013 at 09:08 AM. |
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07-01-2013, 11:10 AM | #8 | |
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You can get at this quickly: select Book: Tap 'O' Remember: Change Nothing you see (makeing a copy is OK), you are looking beneath the skirts. |
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07-01-2013, 11:31 AM | #9 | |
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Considering that we're talking ebooks here there's no good reason to have a 'book' of short stories rather than the stories being individually 'published'. Again, it's convenience for the publisher who generally doesn't care about the needs of the readers-after all, his 'customers' are the booksellers, not the readers. |
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07-01-2013, 11:49 AM | #10 |
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07-01-2013, 11:56 AM | #11 |
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This appears to be a thread about Calibre - I'll move it to the Calibre forum.
To the original poster - please use the forums correctly. Calibre questions belong in the Calibre forum. |
07-01-2013, 11:20 PM | #12 | |
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However if you must embed the metadata in the books within your library then elcreative's advice to use the polish feature (for supported formats) is the way to go. |
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07-01-2013, 11:35 PM | #13 |
null operator (he/him)
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This thread started life somewhere other then the Calibre Forums
HarryT moved it here and chastised the OP for not posting the question in the Calibre forum But the OP doesn't mention Calibre in the original post, the OP hasn't posted since, so maybe the OP doesn't use Calibre It was all the people who posted after the OP that introduced Calibre into the thread. just saying - BR |
07-01-2013, 11:46 PM | #14 | |
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I took my cue from HarryT and helped clarify a question asked in post 6. But it is entirely possible that the OP's question had nothing to do with calibre. Certainly (s)he should not have been chastised for asking a calibre question when we have no clue that this was the case. Last edited by DoctorOhh; 07-02-2013 at 12:01 AM. |
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07-02-2013, 01:21 AM | #15 |
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The question "why can't the series number be downloaded and plugged into the series field" suggests Calibre to me. What has a "series field" other than Calibre?
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