Trying to figure out "best practice" for getting metadata

seannymurrs · 06-21-2023, 10:30 AM

One of the projects I've set for myself this summer is to go through my ebook library (a little over 1,000 books) to try and ensure I have the best metadata/covers for everything. Since most of my books are available on the Kindle, I've found that using the asin for the Kindle edition seems to get the best results both for metadata and covers (using the Kindle hi-res covers plugin).

The only issue is that, so far, that has involved me manually looking up the matching asin on Amazon's site, and then manually adding that to the book's metadata before having it download the rest of the metadata and cover. Needless to say, this would be very tedious to do for my entire library.

Is there any way to configure the metadata download settings to have it automatically find the asin for the book (based on title/author) and prioritize that over any other ids (I also use the Goodreads plugin for metadata)? Or, if not, is there a more efficient way of finding and adding the asin to the books before having Calibre download the rest of the metadata (as opposed to doing it all manually like I've been doing)?

theducks · 06-21-2023, 12:06 PM

Define 'Best'....

My 'Best' is not your 'Best'.
See where I am going? The only way to get the 'Best' is to cherry pick the results for every single book, and edit THAT as you go.

And just to throw a spanner in the works, Amazon is one of the Worse sources because what is posted is a Free-for-all in the content (I suspect, much Author/Publisher supplied).

Your biggest enemy is INCONSISTENCY. Yep! It is rampant, even on a single site. For the same Author. For the Same Series. Even the same Book (revised by ???) .

Next is PUFF & FLUFFERY in the description, Ads about upcoming, About the Author... "Joe Friday, where are you when we need JUST THE FACTS ABOUT THE BOOK." I want a just a Synopsis . No Raves. Trim out 'Best selling Author'... (I've never see 'Worst ever Author' here

)

Next is Cover

Ha! We have possibilities of any cover ever used by that title... from many regions... from many editions.
How do I know. My first use of Calibre was to document my 980 Paperbacks purchased any time from the 1960's on

In addition to Not Found, No ISBN (were on those).. Books that are still 'In Print', had switched Covers, Switched Publishers, Been Revised (to be PC).

OK, that is my Rant.
Advice is still 'Cherry Pick', but from a selected pool of sites adjusted for YOUR Libraries content . IT WILL DIFFER from Joe's, mine.

Start With Preferences: Metadata Download (also reachable from the MDE at the bottom).
This is where you start, by choosing sources (User Plugins will add more, so plan on revisiting here)
The Cover Priority is where you set the weight given for returned found covers.
On the Left is the Global stuff (applies to any source)
Back to the Left. See the button 'Configure...'? That allows us to fine tune each source as to what we don't want (out of the global allowed on the right)
This varies PER SOURCE (plugin). The options for each Vary. You need to 'check out what each offers. I have my Favs for Series, for Tags. There is only one Rating source: ME (I discard others. Unfortunatly that does not block those IN the book at add to library time)
BTW The Amazon one allows Country (server), Edition. Good stuff

FWIW, those 980 paperbacks never got 100% on complete metadata (my way). It took me almost 2 YEARS of frequent work on the pile. I also had a Flatbed Scanner to capture covers that were not available (or those were poor quality), or those were not my editions cover.

Happy Cherry Picking

johnelle · 06-22-2023, 05:50 AM

Sorry got posted in the wrong thread

Karellen · 06-22-2023, 06:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seannymurrs

One of the projects I've set for myself this summer is to go through my ebook library

Yes, I did the same. I started 2.5 years ago, and I am still at it. But then I also read the book once I have added it to Calibre and fixed the metadata.

If I own the pbook, I tend to use all the metadata from the pbook.

I am very picky with covers. Many of the covers I have recreated. You can download some of mine if you like... https://github.com/KarellenX/book-covers
I have also found this site quite good... https://www.ereader-palace.com/get-h...kindle-ebooks/ You find the book on Amazon and then type in the ASIN and get the full sized image.

Comfy.n · 06-22-2023, 09:50 AM

Recently I started minding less about metadata, but I remember I used to prefer, as a first step, to use the Extract ISBN plugin, and then download the meta with Goodreads.

I think it seemed logical to get the book ISBN first, since the plugin is pretty fast, then get the Asin from GR.

By the way, I didn't need to have to do a search for identifiers:isbn:false, as it's possible to set an ISBN emblem/icon rule for the cover grid, so this information is always visible.

Cherry Picking is nice too, as it allows a more exploratory research on the titles, I do that sometimes.

Nice covers you have there, Karellen

Comfy.n · 06-28-2023, 12:15 AM

I did a quick experiment today, as I wanted to get some insight on the relevance of ISBN identifier.

Selected a azw3 file in my library, copied it out of library folder, then dragged it into Calibre as a duplicate. Stripped all metadata from it, including author and title, replacing those by "X". Then ran the ISBN extract plugin on it. The only metadata value this book had, this time, was the ISBN.

Then I ran the meta download from GR, and it worked, getting all the details correctly (title, author, amazon id, comments, grrating and grrvotes). So I guess it's indeed worth running the Extract ISBN first...

ownedbycats · 06-28-2023, 06:56 AM

Entering ISBN first I found also helps get the right edition of a book, if there's multiple of them.

Comfy.n · 06-28-2023, 07:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Entering ISBN first I found also helps get the right edition of a book, if there's multiple of them.

true, I think I'll keep this routine

06-21-2023, 10:30 AM	#1
seannymurrs Member Posts: 21 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2018 Device: 13" iPad Pro, iPhone 16 Pro	Trying to figure out "best practice" for getting metadata One of the projects I've set for myself this summer is to go through my ebook library (a little over 1,000 books) to try and ensure I have the best metadata/covers for everything. Since most of my books are available on the Kindle, I've found that using the asin for the Kindle edition seems to get the best results both for metadata and covers (using the Kindle hi-res covers plugin). The only issue is that, so far, that has involved me manually looking up the matching asin on Amazon's site, and then manually adding that to the book's metadata before having it download the rest of the metadata and cover. Needless to say, this would be very tedious to do for my entire library. Is there any way to configure the metadata download settings to have it automatically find the asin for the book (based on title/author) and prioritize that over any other ids (I also use the Goodreads plugin for metadata)? Or, if not, is there a more efficient way of finding and adding the asin to the books before having Calibre download the rest of the metadata (as opposed to doing it all manually like I've been doing)?

06-22-2023, 05:50 AM	#3
johnelle Zealot Posts: 119 Karma: 2137668 Join Date: Mar 2015 Location: Groton, MA Device: Kindle app on Samsung Tab	Search for Book on Amazon Weirdness Sorry got posted in the wrong thread Last edited by johnelle; 06-22-2023 at 06:20 AM.

06-28-2023, 12:15 AM	#6
Comfy.n want to learn what I want Posts: 1,611 Karma: 7891011 Join Date: Sep 2020 Device: none	I did a quick experiment today, as I wanted to get some insight on the relevance of ISBN identifier. Selected a azw3 file in my library, copied it out of library folder, then dragged it into Calibre as a duplicate. Stripped all metadata from it, including author and title, replacing those by "X". Then ran the ISBN extract plugin on it. The only metadata value this book had, this time, was the ISBN. Then I ran the meta download from GR, and it worked, getting all the details correctly (title, author, amazon id, comments, grrating and grrvotes). So I guess it's indeed worth running the Extract ISBN first... Last edited by Comfy.n; 06-28-2023 at 12:19 AM.

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06-21-2023, 12:06 PM	#2
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 31,064 Karma: 60358908 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	Define 'Best'.... My 'Best' is not your 'Best'. See where I am going? The only way to get the 'Best' is to cherry pick the results for every single book, and edit THAT as you go. And just to throw a spanner in the works, Amazon is one of the Worse sources because what is posted is a Free-for-all in the content (I suspect, much Author/Publisher supplied). Your biggest enemy is INCONSISTENCY. Yep! It is rampant, even on a single site. For the same Author. For the Same Series. Even the same Book (revised by ???) . Next is PUFF & FLUFFERY in the description, Ads about upcoming, About the Author... "Joe Friday, where are you when we need JUST THE FACTS ABOUT THE BOOK." I want a just a Synopsis . No Raves. Trim out 'Best selling Author'... (I've never see 'Worst ever Author' here ) Next is Cover Ha! We have possibilities of any cover ever used by that title... from many regions... from many editions. How do I know. My first use of Calibre was to document my 980 Paperbacks purchased any time from the 1960's on In addition to Not Found, No ISBN (were on those).. Books that are still 'In Print', had switched Covers, Switched Publishers, Been Revised (to be PC). OK, that is my Rant. Advice is still 'Cherry Pick', but from a selected pool of sites adjusted for YOUR Libraries content . IT WILL DIFFER from Joe's, mine. Start With Preferences: Metadata Download (also reachable from the MDE at the bottom). This is where you start, by choosing sources (User Plugins will add more, so plan on revisiting here) The Cover Priority is where you set the weight given for returned found covers. On the Left is the Global stuff (applies to any source) Back to the Left. See the button 'Configure...'? That allows us to fine tune each source as to what we don't want (out of the global allowed on the right) This varies PER SOURCE (plugin). The options for each Vary. You need to 'check out what each offers. I have my Favs for Series, for Tags. There is only one Rating source: ME (I discard others. Unfortunatly that does not block those IN the book at add to library time) BTW The Amazon one allows Country (server), Edition. Good stuff FWIW, those 980 paperbacks never got 100% on complete metadata (my way). It took me almost 2 YEARS of frequent work on the pile. I also had a Flatbed Scanner to capture covers that were not available (or those were poor quality), or those were not my editions cover. Happy Cherry Picking

06-22-2023, 09:50 AM	#5
Comfy.n want to learn what I want Posts: 1,611 Karma: 7891011 Join Date: Sep 2020 Device: none	Recently I started minding less about metadata, but I remember I used to prefer, as a first step, to use the Extract ISBN plugin, and then download the meta with Goodreads. I think it seemed logical to get the book ISBN first, since the plugin is pretty fast, then get the Asin from GR. By the way, I didn't need to have to do a search for identifiers:isbn:false, as it's possible to set an ISBN emblem/icon rule for the cover grid, so this information is always visible. Cherry Picking is nice too, as it allows a more exploratory research on the titles, I do that sometimes. Nice covers you have there, Karellen

06-28-2023, 06:56 AM	#7
ownedbycats Custom User Title Posts: 10,982 Karma: 75337983 Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Libra H2O, formerly Aura HD	Entering ISBN first I found also helps get the right edition of a book, if there's multiple of them.

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