Need HUGE help with Library Mangement

[CyborgQueen]

To make long story short, I'm TERRIBLE with organizing my stuff. I kept putting it off to clean up the folders/files, but I keep adding more eBooks and stuff, and Now I'm dealing with the consequences. I'm running out of space on my computer, so I've transferred all my eBooks onto an external HD. It's seriously bad to the point that I have 20 GB (yes you read that right) of eBooks to deal with.

My folder system is really messed up. I have ONE folder for the entire eBook library, then I have 40 different folders with authors' names that may/may not be in the real Calibre Library, and 4-5 of the folders have a library of many many eBooks. So it's as if I have folder inside of a folder inside of a folder kind of thing going on. Basically I want to take out every single book I have, and start fresh.

I'm extremely lost on how can I consolidate my entire collection, get rid of any duplicates, and clean up the folder system.

I understand that Calibre creates a library, and creates a folder per author, then a folder per book. Very simple system.

However, somewhere along the way using Calibre and the plugins, I noticed that the filing system is really messed up where it's very annoying. I would get King, Stephen folder AND King_Stephen. Some are duplicates, and some aren't. I have 5 folders with Tolkien's name...due to the J.R.R. then J. R. R., J.R.R, and other variations. There got to be a way to combine all books by the same author into one simple folder.

So, I need STEP BY STEP in fixing this thing! In a sense, I'm starting over with this thing.

Thanks for any help at all.


EDIT - I found out about Belvedere software...do you think that will work on cleaning up the folders prior to adding books into Calibre? And I think I will do it in small batches at a time.

Lastly, if I have the Calibre software on my laptop, can I have the Calibre to read all the books off an external hard drive? I assume the answer is yes, since you have to "point Calibre" where to read. Just double checking.

[speakingtohe]

Use the find duplicates plugin or the quality check plugin. The both have functions to find things like the J.R,R. and the J. R. R. etc.
Plus the finding of duplicates is pretty helpful.

Another approach is to type Tolkien into the searchbar a do a bulk edit metadata.

Maybe starting over is a good approach but maybe not.

If for example you have multiple copies of the same book with different metadata, and you import a few books at a time, you may find yourself fixing the same metadata over and over.

As you have the books imported already you may want to try the plugins and group edit first and see how it goes.

Calibre will automatically delete the J.R.R directories etc. when you fix the metadata. J. R. R is kind of standard these days I think.

Or you could do a bulk download of metadata on a test batch. Again calibre will automatically fix the directories as you go.

Been there done that

Helen

[theducks]

If you use the Quality Check PI: Fix section tools to normalize the Authors initials (style), it will make Helen's example easier to find.

The Quality Check PI: Fix can also flip name order
be sure to customize the PI for your tastes in Author naming

[marvin_2]

Step-by-Step: The big steps are 1. Getting your books into Calibre and 2. Getting them cleaned up within Calibre.

Getting books into Calibre:
Importing them in small batches might work best, starting with authors that have a lot of books in your collection (e.g. anything resembling Tolkien or King). If you use a temporary library for importing, curating them will be a lot easier.
1. Fire up Calibre, create library (e.g. imports)
2. Experiment with metadata reading: Preferences-Adding books-read metadata from file (or not) - check which works best for your collections)
3. Add books (use the correct option - one book per directory or every file a different book)
4. Review author names and titles. Search for "isbn:false and comments:false" in the search bar, and extract isbns from books with no comments or isbn with isbn add-in)
(Optional: 4a. Remove/merge duplicates with the plugin as described by speakingtohe above)
5. Select all books with incorrect or missing metadata, ctrl+d, download metadata only
6. Review author names + titles again (covers give a clue if the downloaded metadata match the correct author/title
7. Create a new library (My Calibre Library)
8. Check that Preferences - Adding Books - Automerge is checked with the preffered option
8. Select all books, select "copy to library, then delete " from context menu

All books will now be copied from your import-library into your Calibre-Library, with duplicates merged into one record.

2. Cleaning up book data (optional)

What you could do:
- Re-download better covers where needed (Select books, Ctrl+D, download covers)
- Clean up metadata (Try the various "find duplicates" options)
- Clean up tags (right-click on the tags-tree on the left menu)
- Polish epub, azw3 (Polish books-plugin)
- Quality check (epub: manual with Sigil using open with - plugin, automatic with (Quality Check - plugin)

Two more points:
- The above procedure will keep one copy of each format for each of your books. If start with two epub-versions of the same book, it will keep only one, but not always always the one with the best quality. Best to keep your old archive for a while, and manually search for a better version if needed.
- Non-fiction or comic book files can be very large. If a small number of those make up a large part of your 20 GB archive, you might consider keeping them in a separate library, to make it easier keeping back ups etc.

Finally, take your time, and use a lot of back ups - some of the above can do a lot of damage accidentally.