MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Tips for creating/maintening a robust and OS-independent book library

theducks · 01-05-2020, 11:37 AM

Thanks for the laugh

(Last long!

OS independent

COMPATIBLE

)

As the owner of an Amazing collection of unsupported (or nearly) media formats that are either gone or going away to the point that collectors or estate sales are the only source for reproducers.
(the list is for only stuff I had mainline media for, not that I had, at one time, equipment to play that you can not easily buy needed equipment)

78 records (mono), 45 records (mono), 33 records (Mono, Stereo, SQ, QS, CD4, DBX), 8-track tape (stereo), compact Cassette tape (mono, stereo), Open reel tape (1/4in): 1-7/8 (mono), 3-3/4 (Stereo), 7-/2, 15 (Mono, Stereo, Quad), CD (home audio style players) and HA about (native format) decoder/processor boxes or amplifiers (with quad switching)

2-1/4 (120/620 film) slides, 8mm movie film, VHS tapes, Laserdisc , (you can still find Bluray players which also play DVD, but the selection is getting thin in big box stores) and the home theater receivers have lost input types for older video leads

5-1/4 floppy disc (singe and double sided. forget about the file system format part

: TI, CPM: MSDOS), 3" floppies, Zip disks (100,250M), a number of cartridge tape systems that I don't even remember their names, (computer CD and DVD are still available)

Paper books: Oh wait, that problem is just because the thinner shelf material being sold these days, can't hold up my dead tree collections

Seriously. Metadata by file system (path/file name) is limited.

Calibre includes a metadata.opf which is a XML encoded (tagged text) copy of what the DB entry had (primary reason was to allow recovery). those files can be VIEWED (parsing needs a few more tricks) with any text viewer/editor.
You can make a CSV catalog (I have had spreadsheets that could import that since 1980), so that is probably going to be around another year or so

) of the metadata.
I would be more worried about physical media failure (recorded media fades or refuses to spin freely) or becoming unsupported by computers. I could not get XP to read any of my W95era 5-1/4 floppies (I installed the drive, it would boot from a DOS disk)
To recap. Don't count on longevity unless you want 33-1/3 LP's (I hear they are coming back into vogue. Almost 70 years of life, not bad

)

01-05-2020, 11:37 AM	#2
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 31,123 Karma: 60406498 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	Thanks for the laugh (Last long! OS independent COMPATIBLE ) As the owner of an Amazing collection of unsupported (or nearly) media formats that are either gone or going away to the point that collectors or estate sales are the only source for reproducers. (the list is for only stuff I had mainline media for, not that I had, at one time, equipment to play that you can not easily buy needed equipment) 78 records (mono), 45 records (mono), 33 records (Mono, Stereo, SQ, QS, CD4, DBX), 8-track tape (stereo), compact Cassette tape (mono, stereo), Open reel tape (1/4in): 1-7/8 (mono), 3-3/4 (Stereo), 7-/2, 15 (Mono, Stereo, Quad), CD (home audio style players) and HA about (native format) decoder/processor boxes or amplifiers (with quad switching) 2-1/4 (120/620 film) slides, 8mm movie film, VHS tapes, Laserdisc , (you can still find Bluray players which also play DVD, but the selection is getting thin in big box stores) and the home theater receivers have lost input types for older video leads 5-1/4 floppy disc (singe and double sided. forget about the file system format part : TI, CPM: MSDOS), 3" floppies, Zip disks (100,250M), a number of cartridge tape systems that I don't even remember their names, (computer CD and DVD are still available) Paper books: Oh wait, that problem is just because the thinner shelf material being sold these days, can't hold up my dead tree collections Seriously. Metadata by file system (path/file name) is limited. Calibre includes a metadata.opf which is a XML encoded (tagged text) copy of what the DB entry had (primary reason was to allow recovery). those files can be VIEWED (parsing needs a few more tricks) with any text viewer/editor. You can make a CSV catalog (I have had spreadsheets that could import that since 1980), so that is probably going to be around another year or so ) of the metadata. I would be more worried about physical media failure (recorded media fades or refuses to spin freely) or becoming unsupported by computers. I could not get XP to read any of my W95era 5-1/4 floppies (I installed the drive, it would boot from a DOS disk) To recap. Don't count on longevity unless you want 33-1/3 LP's (I hear they are coming back into vogue. Almost 70 years of life, not bad )