Good ways to Organize Fiction Libraries?

[MarjaE]

I'm trying to organize fiction on Calibre.

So far, I've imported stories from one folder, and imported additional stories after reading them, if I've enjoyed them. I've had trouble organizing them, so haven't imported from other folders.

I'm used to organizing my files by folder, on the Mac and in Classic Ubuntu. I've had trouble with tags in the Mac Finder. I've tried using tags in Calibre, but I'm not sure how to separate a column for genre tags from columns for specific issue, theme, etc. tags. or to only look through one or two genres at a time. So I'm undecided between setting up separate libraries for each genre, or ... what??? I'm trying a custom column for genre, before tags, and one for comments, after tag, but, unfortunately, it takes genre1, genre2 as one entry rather than two like tags.

This suggests using tags to divide genres and sub-genres: http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/sub_groups.html

However, I would like to be able to include one file in multiple genres, at least in my fiction library, although I may choose otherwise when I set up a history library.

I've noticed that I can export my library catalogue as a csv. Seems useful.

I've used a Firefox extension to convert some web pages to epubs to copy to my e-reader and read offline. It tends to result in bad metadata. I've also dowloaded from the Internet Archive, which has inconsistent metadata and often awful ocr'd text. Calibre can correct bad metadata, so I added the embed metadata option to my toolbar.

Ideas? Experiences? Other Issues?

[theducks]

Saved Searches (vs custom column)


Build a search term. Once it is ready, save it

To build a Search, you can use the Tag browser

Select the first criteria: Click (a Green + appears)
Hold down the Control Key: Click additional items
If you want to Exclude an item, click it again (red - )

If the item is Hierarchical Clicking (the top level) again for a double + or - to include / exclude the entire set

[fidvo]

Here are a few ideas and tricks I've learned.

1. Set up Genre as a tag-like column.

When you classify a book in two different genres, both genres will appear in the field in the list of books. However, the two different entries will appear separately in the tag browser on the left. For example, I classify most of Edgar Rice Burroughs as both Adventure and Science Fiction. There's an "Adventure" option and a "Science Fiction" option under "Genre" in the tag browser, and these books pass the filter for both.

2. Create a series-like Subseries column.

Even if you don't expect to use it immediately, one day you'll come across a set of books that are part of a series-within-a-series, and if you already have the column set up, you won't have to pull your hair out trying to figure out how to deal with it.

3. If you're used to organizing your books by folder, create a text column to store a hierarchy.

I have a custom "Path" column for this. (Although in hindsight, that's not the best name because it can too easily be confused with the file path)

After creating the column, add it to your list of hierarchical fields by going to Preferences -> Look and Feel -> Tag Browser and choose it in the drop-down list for Categories with hierarchical items.

This will allow you to organize your books within the library in a structure that mirrors the way you originally had them on your hard drive. For instance, if you had a book in Fiction/Classics/Mark Twain on your hard drive, you would put Fiction.Classics.Mark Twain in your hierarchical field. You can set up a Save-to-Disk template that replaces the periods with slashes if you ever want to export your library back out to your hard drive and keep the hierarchical structure.

4. Use virtual libraries instead of separate physical libraries whenever possible.

There are plenty of good reasons for maintaining separate physical libraries, but unless you know exactly why you're separating your books like that, chances are you can use Virtual libraries to accomplish the same thing, plus you have the added benefit of being able to group all your books together if you need to.

I recommend creating a field specifically to identify which virtual library each book goes into. Make it a tag-like field just in case you decide a book needs to go into more than one library.

6. Install the View Manager plugin.

Why? Because it's the answer to half a dozen questions you haven't even thought to ask yet. View Manager is to sorting and column arranging what Virtual Libraries are to filtering. Once you have a decent-sized library, you'll find yourself jumping back and forth between two or three sorts, and View Manager can make the process instantaneous.

[DavidTC]

Originally Posted by MarjaE

I'm trying to organize fiction on Calibre.

This suggests using tags to divide genres and sub-genres: http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/sub_groups.html

However, I would like to be able to include one file in multiple genres, at least in my fiction library, although I may choose otherwise when I set up a history library.

Those instructions on that page let you put a book into multiple genres. You type it in like 'Comics.Superheroes, Blah.Blah, Whatever'. (And once you have the genre existing, note you can drag and drop books to them on the side.)

Originally Posted by fidvo

2. Create a series-like Subseries column.

Even if you don't expect to use it immediately, one day you'll come across a set of books that are part of a series-within-a-series, and if you already have the column set up, you won't have to pull your hair out trying to figure out how to deal with it.

A better solution is to just tell Calibre that the Series field is a hierarchy, which lets it expand outward in the views. If you look at where that page shows 'Categories with hierarchical items', you'll see that whoever made that example image already has 'series' in there. So just make sure that's there, and you can put the series as 'Star Trek.The Next Generation [80]' or whatever.

(Pre-defined columns are referenced like 'series' and 'tags', custom columns have a pound in front of them like '#genre'.)

Originally Posted by fidvo

3. If you're used to organizing your books by folder, create a text column to store a hierarchy.

I have a custom "Path" column for this. (Although in hindsight, that's not the best name because it can too easily be confused with the file path)

After creating the column, add it to your list of hierarchical fields by going to Preferences -> Look and Feel -> Tag Browser and choose it in the drop-down list for Categories with hierarchical items.

This will allow you to organize your books within the library in a structure that mirrors the way you originally had them on your hard drive. For instance, if you had a book in Fiction/Classics/Mark Twain on your hard drive, you would put Fiction.Classics.Mark Twain in your hierarchical field. You can set up a Save-to-Disk template that replaces the periods with slashes if you ever want to export your library back out to your hard drive and keep the hierarchical structure.

This...is not a good idea. If you could actually import books with their paths ending up in a column like that, it'd be a useful stopgap measure to help deal with things...but you can't import like that, so you'd end up just typing that column in. Don't do that. It accomplished nothing. All you've done is now put stuff in two different places, and have to keep them both up to date, which is exactly what you don't want to do in a database.

If you want to export books, to an ereader or something, as {#genre}/{author}, you can trivially tell Calibre to do it like that. If you really wish to *view* the books in the list like that (?!), you can make a custom column that contains that value automatically, although that's something that doesn't really make sense vs. just filtering on genre and sorting by author.

Not that you've actually said you want to do that anyway. I'm just saying, in case you wish to do that, do not follow the advice of spending your time putting a hand-made *path* inside the database for no reason, when Calibre can actually generate it for you using values already in there.

[fidvo]

Originally Posted by DavidTC

A better solution is to just tell Calibre that the Series field is a hierarchy, which lets it expand outward in the views. If you look at where that page shows 'Categories with hierarchical items', you'll see that whoever made that example image already has 'series' in there. So just make sure that's there, and you can put the series as 'Star Trek.The Next Generation [80]' or whatever.

(Pre-defined columns are referenced like 'series' and 'tags', custom columns have a pound in front of them like '#genre'.)

Clever. I use a lot of hierarchical columns, but I never thought of doing the series that way.

I do see one problem with this method, however. Using your Star Trek example, let's pretend that you've named your "subseries" as "Star Trek" and "Next Generation".

You'll end up with the following in your series column if you sort by series:

Star Trek.Next Generation[1]
Star Trek.Next Generation[2]
...
Star Trek.Star Trek[1]
Star Trek.Star Trek[2]
...

This is because the "N" in "Next Generation" preceeds the "S" in "Star Trek". With this system, you don't have all the information you need, specifically, the fact that the Next Generation books take place after the original series books.

It gets even more complicated when you have concurrent subseries and sometimes you need to read them in a particular order. Take the Pern books, for instance. The "official" reading order is the order of publication, which means you have to jump back and forth between different subseries. With a hierarchical series column, the series order is not the correct reading order.

Originally Posted by DavidTC

This...is not a good idea. If you could actually import books with their paths ending up in a column like that, it'd be a useful stopgap measure to help deal with things...but you can't import like that, so you'd end up just typing that column in. Don't do that. It accomplished nothing. All you've done is now put stuff in two different places, and have to keep them both up to date, which is exactly what you don't want to do in a database.

If you want to export books, to an ereader or something, as {#genre}/{author}, you can trivially tell Calibre to do it like that. If you really wish to *view* the books in the list like that (?!), you can make a custom column that contains that value automatically, although that's something that doesn't really make sense vs. just filtering on genre and sorting by author.

Not that you've actually said you want to do that anyway. I'm just saying, in case you wish to do that, do not follow the advice of spending your time putting a hand-made *path* inside the database for no reason, when Calibre can actually generate it for you using values already in there.

These are some good points. However, I will defend my use of a path field by saying that the convenience of using it outweighs the inconvenience of maintaining it twice. Some points to consider:

1. It turns the tag browser (conveniently located on the left) into something akin to the left-hand pane of Windows Explorer or other file managers. Having the books organized by folders and subfolders feels comfortable for someone used to a hierarchical file system. So you get both the versatility of Calibre's library management, AND the familiarity of a hierarchy. It's a possible answer to those complaints of "Why can't I store my books in my own folder structure?"

2. It makes the Save-To-Disk template easy if you ever want to export your books back out to your hard drive and keep the original folder structure.

3. Speaking of Save-To-Disk templates, I use this field in all my physical libraries, where the hierarchy is vastly different. This makes it so I can use the same Save-To-Disk template for all my libraries instead of having to use a switch in the template based upon the library name (and having to update the template if I ever add a new library).

4. You could, theoretically, set up the path field as a column created from other columns. That would make it easier to maintain. However, that only works if your hierarchy structure is consistent across multiple genres. For instance, I might want my Fiction books sorted by genre and author. But if I liked to read biographies, it might be more appropriate to sort it by the person who the biography is about. History books might be more appropriately sorted by event. Even the number of levels in the hierarchy might change across genres.

5. Setting it up initially on a large library is, admittedly, a lot of work. But once you have it the way you want, it's just one more column you have to populate when you add new books to your library. Assuming you're only going to be adding a few books at a time, in most cases you can just drag and drop them into the correct path in the tag browser. Or use Bulk Edit Metadata (which I find myself using frequently when adding new books anyway). It's really not that much work to maintain it.

The way I see it, the Path column is really no different than organizing your books by folder and subfolder on your hard drive. Yes, it's redundant in some cases. But so is putting books by Charles Dickens into a "Dickens, Charles" folder on your hard drive. After all, the author's name is already in the ebook's metadata. Putting the book into a folder is an extra step that adds no information.