[polly]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

My Calibre file is getting kind of big, and I would like to create some smaller files, like Debra's Mystery. I know I can do this with Tags, but I would like to be able to create a separate library. That way, it will be easy to create a library with those books. Am I overthinking this? I'm kind of scared the file will get so big I will start having problems. I know people who have much bigger files - mine is 1184 books.

Thanks,
Debra

I have a separate library for my Star Trek collection, because I don't want it cluttering up my main library and because it's tidier to have them all grouped together out of my way.

Make a folder for the new library and write down its full directory tree. Then create a shortcut that points to Calibre. Right click on this shortcut and click on Properties. In the target field, add the following at the end of the text that's already there.

--with-library d:\stlibrary

You would, obviously, substitute the path to your new library folder for mine. My final shortcut for my Star Trek library reads like this.

"C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibre.exe" --with-library d:\stlibrary

When you have this working, rename the shortcut.

The shortcut to my main Calibre library looks like this.

"C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibre.exe" --with-library d:\library

To open my Star Trek library, I click on the Star Trek shortcut. To go to my main library, I launch Calibre with my library shortcut. Note that this only works if Calibre is completely closed. If it's just minimized to your taskbar, this won't work.

Having said all of this, I agree that most of the time it's better to use tags and series to manage a library.

@ frank - I understand the wrench of going from nested directories to Calibre's flat directory system of organization. I freely admit that I maintain my old directory system as I gradually add my collection to Calibre. For me, it's a chance to clean up what I have. Storage space is cheap and ebooks are small, so it's really not a strain on my resources to maintain both systems plus a back up copy of my Calibre libraries. The more I use Calibre, the more I appreciate metadata tagging and searching.