jackie_w, I can see how plugboards would help, thanks for posting some more uses for them. I do think T1 has nice built options already, but plugboards you can customize it even further.
azxswq - that's the lastest beta binary that you linked that includes only library management and no collections. Kolenka's code is not available in binary format and is still not integrated in calibre -- it is pending review. If you have been following this thread you will see that Kovid is relocating to India so things take more time than usual.
Since you don't need collections yet, just use the current version you linked and enjoy it! Library management works great in that version. All the tutorials and documentation already provided in calbre apply so you might take some reading through them.
http://calibre-ebook.com/help