Fiction or Fact?

garcle · 01-10-2011, 12:24 AM

A new poll

To see what type of books Calibre users have most of.
Fiction or Non fiction?

The poll has some interest for things like classification and cataloging mechanisms.

Lady Fitzgerald · 01-10-2011, 01:35 AM

I voted fiction since that has the clear majority right now. However, once I have scanned all my sheet music and break my songbooks down to sheet music and add them and tech articles to my libraries, non-fiction will be pulling a close second.

I can guess where you are heading from this poll. While having the Dewey Decimal numbers for books could be useful for some folks, especially those whose libraries are mostly textbook style books, I feel it would be of little use for me since, besides not having many books that have an easily determined Dewey Decimal number, the Dewey Decimal System puts books only in a single category whereas tags allow multiple classifications. Granted, the tags gathered from social media are frequently inadequate, inconsistent, and/or nonexsistent but they can be updated. I don't find updating them to be too big a problem since I'm adding books one at a time.

I'm thinkin' a poll that directly asked if users would want a mechanism to find and download a Dewey Decimal number when adding a book to calibre would be more effective for determining if it would be worth the effort for a calibre developer to add such a function.

garcle · 01-10-2011, 03:08 AM

This poll is for interest only. I fully intend to be an active developer for calibre at some point in the future, collecting a typical user profile, as with any software development project, enables one to focus on items which benefit most users. And its better to get a population sample than to go off gut feeling. My initial thought when I saw calibre is that it was being used the way I use it, as a technical reference library, but that is clearly not the case. As these polls demonstrate.

Angst · 01-10-2011, 10:56 AM

About 2/3 fiction, 1/3 non-fiction. All of the non-fiction falls under biography or science.

kovidgoyal · 01-10-2011, 11:23 AM

@garcle: I suspect that currently its because ebooks/readers in general are not much suited to many technical fields. I know that if I were still doing Physics, I wouldn't be using a reader to reader physics papers/textbooks. My wife, who is still a physicist, doesn't use her reader for technical documents.

garcle · 01-10-2011, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

@garcle: I suspect that currently its because ebooks/readers in general are not much suited to many technical fields. I know that if I were still doing Physics, I wouldn't be using a reader to reader physics papers/textbooks. My wife, who is still a physicist, doesn't use her reader for technical documents.

That's probably true for the majority of e-readers, however devices like the iPad and kindle are beginning to change that. I read technical books now exclusively on the iPad (its cheaper to get e-copies and it saves on paper and storage space) the colour display resolution is adequate for technical diagrams and the size of the display is large enough for peripheral-sight scanning context to not feel cramped. If apple were to use the iPhone 4 display technology on an iPad size device, its resolution would exceed most dual monitor desktop setups available today. (plenty of room to display and read technical information with fidelity). Its not here today but its coming, and not just from Apple.

kovidgoyal · 01-10-2011, 12:46 PM

Oh I agree that in the long term technical documents should and will be read on screens, I'm just commenting on the results of the poll

The Terminator · 01-10-2011, 06:01 PM

I used to have calibre and all the all but one but two were magazines

DoctorOhh · 01-10-2011, 10:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by THE TERMINATOR

I used to have calibre and all the all but one but two were magazines

Maybe it's just the fact that I'm recovering from some flu bug, but that statement doesn't make any sense to me.

astrangerhere · 01-13-2011, 07:30 AM

The vast majority of my collection are (free) classics. I have degrees in literature, and am perfectly content reading things with the dust of public domain on them. I am trying to branch out more into non-fiction histories and biographies, but that goes more slowly as I have to pay for those.

View Poll Results: Which type of book to you have most of in your Calibre library?
Fiction	75	91.46%
Non-Fiction	7	8.54%
Voters: 82. You may not vote on this poll

01-10-2011, 12:24 AM	#1
garcle Connoisseur Posts: 54 Karma: 442 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Detroit Device: iPad	Fiction or Fact? A new poll To see what type of books Calibre users have most of. Fiction or Non fiction? The poll has some interest for things like classification and cataloging mechanisms. Last edited by garcle; 01-10-2011 at 12:31 AM.

01-10-2011, 01:35 AM	#2
Lady Fitzgerald Wizard Posts: 2,013 Karma: 251649 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA, Earth Device: JetBook Lite (away from home) + 1 spare, 32" TV (at home)	I voted fiction since that has the clear majority right now. However, once I have scanned all my sheet music and break my songbooks down to sheet music and add them and tech articles to my libraries, non-fiction will be pulling a close second. I can guess where you are heading from this poll. While having the Dewey Decimal numbers for books could be useful for some folks, especially those whose libraries are mostly textbook style books, I feel it would be of little use for me since, besides not having many books that have an easily determined Dewey Decimal number, the Dewey Decimal System puts books only in a single category whereas tags allow multiple classifications. Granted, the tags gathered from social media are frequently inadequate, inconsistent, and/or nonexsistent but they can be updated. I don't find updating them to be too big a problem since I'm adding books one at a time. I'm thinkin' a poll that directly asked if users would want a mechanism to find and download a Dewey Decimal number when adding a book to calibre would be more effective for determining if it would be worth the effort for a calibre developer to add such a function. Last edited by Lady Fitzgerald; 01-13-2011 at 08:13 AM. Reason: Old Timer's Disease

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01-10-2011, 03:08 AM	#3
garcle Connoisseur Posts: 54 Karma: 442 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Detroit Device: iPad	This poll is for interest only. I fully intend to be an active developer for calibre at some point in the future, collecting a typical user profile, as with any software development project, enables one to focus on items which benefit most users. And its better to get a population sample than to go off gut feeling. My initial thought when I saw calibre is that it was being used the way I use it, as a technical reference library, but that is clearly not the case. As these polls demonstrate.

01-10-2011, 10:56 AM	#4
Angst Cannon Fodder Posts: 2,819 Karma: 50921712 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Probably a library Device: PRS-350, Kindle DX, Kindle Paperwhite	About 2/3 fiction, 1/3 non-fiction. All of the non-fiction falls under biography or science.

01-10-2011, 11:23 AM	#5
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,850 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	@garcle: I suspect that currently its because ebooks/readers in general are not much suited to many technical fields. I know that if I were still doing Physics, I wouldn't be using a reader to reader physics papers/textbooks. My wife, who is still a physicist, doesn't use her reader for technical documents.

01-10-2011, 12:46 PM	#7
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,850 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Oh I agree that in the long term technical documents should and will be read on screens, I'm just commenting on the results of the poll

01-10-2011, 06:01 PM	#8
The Terminator Retired Posts: 2,552 Karma: 37638420 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Vancouver Island Canada Device: Kobo Touch, Optimus One (2.3), Nexus 7 (4.2)	I used to have calibre and all the all but one but two were magazines

01-13-2011, 07:30 AM	#10
astrangerhere Professor of Law Posts: 3,639 Karma: 65526796 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Chapel Hill, NC Device: Kobo Elipsa, Kobo Libra H20, Kobo Aura One, KoboMini	The vast majority of my collection are (free) classics. I have degrees in literature, and am perfectly content reading things with the dust of public domain on them. I am trying to branch out more into non-fiction histories and biographies, but that goes more slowly as I have to pay for those.

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