Why it does not automatically fetch metadata?

[clemens14]

Hello,

first of all let me say that Calibre seems a really awesome piece of software. It has so many features!
I am writing because there is a thing that leaves me perplexed and probably is due to my not knowing how to use the software well, since I have just started.
I have various folders with various ebooks, that I would like to rename (the fact that Calibre creates its own library with newly renamed files is perfect for me). Anyhow, although the files are imported without problems, the metadata is not fetched automatically, so I have to click on each one individually, then click again on fetch metadata and voilà, I get the information I need. 95% of the time I don't even have to select among various sets of data since the title and author field give enough information not to have ambiguity. Is there a way to do this automatically?
Thank you,

Clemens

[kovidgoyal]

click the arrow next to the edit meta information button

[theducks]

I think you answered part of your own question: That 5%

To address the other 95%
Public meta-data is cr*p.
Way too many tags (especially for readers that use the tags to create categories)
Manual, gives you a chance to Normalize the data before the final save.

Publisher Example:
Baen
Baen Books
Baen Books Pub.
Baen Pub.
Simon and Schuster (their distribution channel)

Junk, Trash, Cr*p
Same for Authors (with twists: for who is listed first, LN-FN vs Fn Ln issue)

To steal a line from Burger King (tm):
"Do it your way"

[troymc]

Originally Posted by theducks

I think you answered part of your own question: That 5%

To address the other 95%
Public meta-data is cr*p.
Way too many tags (especially for readers that use the tags to create categories)
Manual, gives you a chance to Normalize the data before the final save.

Publisher Example:
Baen
Baen Books
Baen Books Pub.
Baen Pub.
Simon and Schuster (their distribution channel)

Junk, Trash, Cr*p
Same for Authors (with twists: for who is listed first, LN-FN vs Fn Ln issue)

To steal a line from Burger King (tm):
"Do it your way"

I couldn't agree more! The state of available metadata is horrendous.

Most publishers either aren't aware of the issue, aren't motivated to address the issue, don't have resources to address it, etc. (Google has been terrible with metadata for its scanned works.)

I predict it will take several more years for the field to mature before we see metadata done right. Until then I'll always recommend reviewing metadata manually.

Remember: Garbage In = Garbage Out!


Troy

[clemens14]

Thanks for the replies.
What I mean exactly is, why doesn't it fetch metatada automatically when importing? It would be nice to have rough metadata right away and then, little by little, I can manually improve the information.

Another thing would that would be nice would be the possibility to add to the public database/s.

[clemens14]

One last thing, are there plugins to fetch data from East Asian library databases or worldcat?

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by clemens14

Thanks for the replies.
What I mean exactly is, why doesn't it fetch metatada automatically when importing?

Because some people don't want that behavior. Just highlight your books and do a bulk metadata download. Calibre will retrieve metadata for all the highlighted books and give you your "rough metadata" for all the books. Before you do this, decide if you want the author/title overwritten by default, and if not, turn off that default option in Preferences.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by theducks

Way too many tags (especially for readers that use the tags to create categories)

I agree. I use my tags to create categories so I turn off the automated download of tags with the metadata.

For those who are not aware, you can customize the metadata download plugins to prevent tags from downloading when you download metadata.

Go to Preferences - Plugins - Metadata download plugins - customize each plugin and uncheck download tags.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

I agree. I use my tags to create categories so I turn off the automated download of tags with the metadata.

My alternative view:

If you turn off the automated download of tags, you lose all the useful tags prepared by others for your books. Sometimes those tags were prepared by professionals and sometimes they link together books from the same publisher with secondary tags that I would never have thought to add. Without them, you have to do all the tag work yourself.

The online tags do provide valuable and useful additional information about my books - especially since we don't have any way to content search the books. The reason they are often turned off is simply because tags are also used for other purposes, especially for e-readers that build collections from tags, or where tag genres are used in the filename or directory name. The tags pulled from online aren't consistent enough for that use.

Personally, I don't need tags for most of the "other purposes." For those I need, I simply add my own tags. By the time I need them for anything else, I hope that the user-defined tags will have become available for those other purposes (usable in folder names during Save or Send operations, etc.). If not, I will move the text string "tags" into a user defined tags field or into the "comments" field so I still can browse, search and use them.

Eventually, I will definitely separate my personal tags from the online tags I like. We already have some ways to do that, I just haven't decided which way I like best, and my decision may change depending on when/if we can use custom tags for the same functions that default tags are used for.

[theducks]

"User Tags" was the second custom field I created. Like Starson, I use it for Personal notes that I do not want included in the "Jacket" (Comments and Tags), including notes about formatting issues.