Searching for similar series

Terisa de morgan · 10-08-2015, 02:05 PM

Hi,

I have a small problem with my library and I would like to know if I can have some help to manage it.

When you download metadata for a book, there's a chance that the downloaded series is not exactly the same than the previous game (same A XXXX Mystery or XXXX Mysteries instead of XXXX Mystery). Is there any way to search for similar series like this? When you have more than 1000 series, it is complicated to detect this manually.

Thanks in advance

theducks · 10-08-2015, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Hi,

I have a small problem with my library and I would like to know if I can have some help to manage it.

When you download metadata for a book, there's a chance that the downloaded series is not exactly the same than the previous game (same A XXXX Mystery or XXXX Mysteries instead of XXXX Mystery). Is there any way to search for similar series like this? When you have more than 1000 series, it is complicated to detect this manually.

Thanks in advance

Advanced search REGEX mode (from pulldown) is Series

Crude:
series:"~.*XXXX.+"

more Elegant
series:[A]*XXXX\sMyster(y|ies) << not tested

Or simply look in the Tag Browser if you us Library order, the 2 should be next to each other

Terisa de morgan · 10-08-2015, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

Advanced search REGEX mode (from pulldown) is Series

Crude:
series:"~.*XXXX.+"

more Elegant
series:[A]*XXXX\sMyster(y|ies) << not tested

Or simply look in the Tag Browser if you us Library order, the 2 should be next to each other

Thank you but... it was an example, I don't know the exact name. And, as I said, I have more than 1000 series...

theducks · 10-08-2015, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Thank you but... it was an example, I don't know the exact name. And, as I said, I have more than 1000 series...

But your example was one of the most common

(y vs ies) that bugs me
along with 'A YYYY' or ending in 'Novel'

Just replace the XXXX with a wildcard .+?

fidvo · 10-09-2015, 12:41 PM

There's not enough information to answer your question.

I don't mean your question wasn't clear and precise. I mean that in order to clean up the series, you have to add information to the system, namely the corrected series names.

This information has to come from somewhere, because at the moment, it's not in your library. Maybe there's a better source to download your metadata, and you just have to tweak your settings. Or you can make certain assumptions and write some regular expressions to fix common errors (like the one TheDucks suggested). Or you go through the books one at a time and use your own judgment to determine the correct series.

Unfortunately, nothing can substitute for checking them all by hand. You're going to have to accept that at some point, you'll need to do that. Some good regular expressions can do a lot of the work for you, but after running them you'll need to go through the books and make sure the series are correct.

Once you get to that point, I recommend sorting or filtering by author. This should at least group all the books that should be in the same series near each other. Then you can make any corrections and move on to the next author. This will also allow you to work on this in batches, because you just have to remember the last author you cleaned up and start from there the next time.

You might also create a custom Yes/No column for whether you've corrected the metadata on that book. Feel free to delete the column after you've finished cleaning your library.

Once you do have your series cleaned up, get into the habit of checking your metadata by hand every time you add new books or downloading metadata. I've always treated downloaded metadata as a suggestion, not an an authority on the correct values. Someone, somewhere, decided that was what they wanted to put in the fields in their library, but it might not be what you want in yours. Checking the data for a few books at a time will prevent you having to go through your entire library later.

Terisa de morgan · 10-09-2015, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

But your example was one of the most common

(y vs ies) that bugs me
along with 'A YYYY' or ending in 'Novel'

Just replace the XXXX with a wildcard .+?

You're right it's one of the most common, I've chosen because of it (you can't imagine the cozy series

).

Terisa de morgan · 10-09-2015, 02:34 PM

@fidvo, thank you. I know all of that, I try to keep series clean, I check when I add the books (CALM is going to help me, as I have books in different libraries), but I wanted to know if there's an automatic way. I was afraid of the answer, but no was already an answer before, so no loss by asking.

Terisa de morgan · 10-09-2015, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

But your example was one of the most common

(y vs ies) that bugs me
along with 'A YYYY' or ending in 'Novel'

Just replace the XXXX with a wildcard .+?

Thank you, this has reduced my check to a list of around 1000 books, but it is manageable (only a couple

theducks · 10-09-2015, 04:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

You're right it's one of the most common, I've chosen because of it (you can't imagine the cozy series

).

Cozy is a TAG (is there anything else that is Cozy besides Mystery ?

Terisa de morgan · 10-09-2015, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

Cozy is a TAG (is there anything else that is Cozy besides Mystery ?

Mystery / Cozy is a tag for me, yes, when I talk about cozy series I'm talking about series belonging to this genre (a lot of series have cozy mystery in them too).

Sami · 10-12-2015, 11:16 AM

I use the quality check plugin under check metadata and check for series gaps, if any found copy to clipboard (then a notepad file) then check my library.
i.e. Cozy Mystery has books 1-8 (won't show on gap search) but A cozy Mystery with only book 9 will show.
I do wish they could be more consistent with series names but then I also get twitchy with the multiple series worlds, multiple series in anthologies etc.

theducks · 10-12-2015, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sami

I use the quality check plugin under check metadata and check for series gaps, if any found copy to clipboard (then a notepad file) then check my library.
i.e. Cozy Mystery has books 1-8 (won't show on gap search) but A cozy Mystery with only book 9 will show.
I do wish they could be more consistent with series names but then I also get twitchy with the multiple series worlds, multiple series in anthologies etc.

How about 4 different series with the SAME name, 1 is a Universe with different Authors writing in it

, so Author name is not a guarantee

I resorted to adding Authors initials to the series: name (AN) with a single author (and hope that there is never 2+ Universe_series

with that name )

Terisa de morgan · 10-12-2015, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sami

I use the quality check plugin under check metadata and check for series gaps, if any found copy to clipboard (then a notepad file) then check my library.
i.e. Cozy Mystery has books 1-8 (won't show on gap search) but A cozy Mystery with only book 9 will show.

I tried it but it's not useful with my current library.

10-08-2015, 02:05 PM	#1
Terisa de morgan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,596 Karma: 12595249 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Madrid, Spain Device: Kobo Clara/Aura One/Forma,XiaoMI 5, iPad, Huawei MediaPad, YotaPhone 2	Searching for similar series Hi, I have a small problem with my library and I would like to know if I can have some help to manage it. When you download metadata for a book, there's a chance that the downloaded series is not exactly the same than the previous game (same A XXXX Mystery or XXXX Mysteries instead of XXXX Mystery). Is there any way to search for similar series like this? When you have more than 1000 series, it is complicated to detect this manually. Thanks in advance Last edited by BetterRed; 10-09-2015 at 02:58 PM. Reason: correct title

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10-09-2015, 12:41 PM	#5
fidvo Addict Posts: 309 Karma: 1645952 Join Date: Jun 2012 Device: none	There's not enough information to answer your question. I don't mean your question wasn't clear and precise. I mean that in order to clean up the series, you have to add information to the system, namely the corrected series names. This information has to come from somewhere, because at the moment, it's not in your library. Maybe there's a better source to download your metadata, and you just have to tweak your settings. Or you can make certain assumptions and write some regular expressions to fix common errors (like the one TheDucks suggested). Or you go through the books one at a time and use your own judgment to determine the correct series. Unfortunately, nothing can substitute for checking them all by hand. You're going to have to accept that at some point, you'll need to do that. Some good regular expressions can do a lot of the work for you, but after running them you'll need to go through the books and make sure the series are correct. Once you get to that point, I recommend sorting or filtering by author. This should at least group all the books that should be in the same series near each other. Then you can make any corrections and move on to the next author. This will also allow you to work on this in batches, because you just have to remember the last author you cleaned up and start from there the next time. You might also create a custom Yes/No column for whether you've corrected the metadata on that book. Feel free to delete the column after you've finished cleaning your library. Once you do have your series cleaned up, get into the habit of checking your metadata by hand every time you add new books or downloading metadata. I've always treated downloaded metadata as a suggestion, not an an authority on the correct values. Someone, somewhere, decided that was what they wanted to put in the fields in their library, but it might not be what you want in yours. Checking the data for a few books at a time will prevent you having to go through your entire library later.

10-09-2015, 02:34 PM	#7
Terisa de morgan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,596 Karma: 12595249 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Madrid, Spain Device: Kobo Clara/Aura One/Forma,XiaoMI 5, iPad, Huawei MediaPad, YotaPhone 2	@fidvo, thank you. I know all of that, I try to keep series clean, I check when I add the books (CALM is going to help me, as I have books in different libraries), but I wanted to know if there's an automatic way. I was afraid of the answer, but no was already an answer before, so no loss by asking.

10-12-2015, 11:16 AM	#11
Sami Member Posts: 18 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2011 Device: Ipod Touch, Sony 350	I use the quality check plugin under check metadata and check for series gaps, if any found copy to clipboard (then a notepad file) then check my library. i.e. Cozy Mystery has books 1-8 (won't show on gap search) but A cozy Mystery with only book 9 will show. I do wish they could be more consistent with series names but then I also get twitchy with the multiple series worlds, multiple series in anthologies etc.

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