Created Library List

[pzaw]

If someone could help me with this it would be appreciated.

If you have a look at the attached image of the Caliber GUI you will see that there are 5 Libraries listed the first of which is highlighted. I am uncertain what this list is called officially. I just call it a created library list.

I have googled it and only found one post (2017 I think) where a person said that they wanted to arrange their books into a number of separate libraries and this list of course only accommodated 6 in my case. But, I may be mistaken, according to some of you, this number was 14. and I think the Author said that it was limited only by the screen size.

I have gone through the whole preferences for Caliber and can't find any way to increase this number from 5 to 14. Am I using the wrong version?

Some of you also asked why separate Libraries when you have tags in that post? Well I find the tag system only works well in a particular group. It does not lend itself very well to sub tags and sub sub tags. I am a bit old fashioned. In a real library the books are grouped in sections and sub sections. Tags I find are not very suited. Besides in a large book collection you may end up with hundreds of tags each one unique. A book could have 5 or 6 tags and being English there are many ways to tag the same thing. It ends up a mess when I try to use it.

May be someone might suggest a consistent tagging method that I an work with.

All I want is like a file system. Maths books in math Library (folder), and Novels in novel Library (folder) etc. and then use tag to differentiate geometry and statistics etc. It just seem more organized to me.

Anyway if someone could help me expand the Created Library list it would be appreciated.

regards
Pzaw

[kovidgoyal]

That menu shows yout the five most recently opened libraries, the full list is under the Quick switch sub menu

[theducks]

Those are all KNOWN, physical and separate Library Structures on your disk.

I say Known, because there is no limit on how many Libraries you can have ( would be a nightmare to maintain), only how many Calibre can interact with Quickly (those on the list).
FWIW Delete Library only removes the entry from the list, not the structure.
BTW that list also is consulted other places (plugins). eg CopyToLibrary only allows the Target to be Known Libraries (you can open any Library from the command line,without it being on the list)

Tags:
They are there to help you, NOT to sell books (by stupid keyword search with every synonym or typo) or replicate old style Card Catalogs

Normalize your data. You do not need 42 ways to spell Magic. 19 permutations of Werewolf...
I also decide whether to us a Singular or Plural version for a tag (I lean to Singular)

and IMHO the most dumb one of all 'Fiction. Science Fiction'

My Library is mainly Fiction. I do not need to tell anyone that Fantasy (the tag) is a subset of Fiction. Gone
Non-Fiction (preface is used to separate those from the Fiction use of the keyword) Non-Fiction.Biography.Fantasy Writers

and FYI Calibre is a Relational Database. What you see is a Flatten Display of the data
When you make a column entry. it adds or reuses the base table Definition (Use of the Manage context in the Tag Browser allows for renaming, whilst not breaking the Usage) for that column. And if you rename to an existing Tag, it merges the usage, thus making that activity, simple. (I routinely go thru mine to weed out those that slip thru my Intake process)

Fantasy gets an Index#, any book that gets Tagged Fantasy, really links to the Index (long Int, not the text). Very data file efficient

Consider reworking to a tighter set of Libraries that address
1)Security (little eyes, Classified ...)
2)Structural (additional columns, or different fixed data allowed) needs not covered in basic metadata AND only used by a tiny subset of entries. Technical Publications need specific items tracked.

Columns are for fast searching and ordering. There are tools to search Comments (slow) for obscure terms

[pzaw]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

That menu shows yout the five most recently opened libraries, the full list is under the Quick switch sub menu

Thank you! My mistake, I thought that was how you select the libraries.
Is there any way to set the number of the most recently opened libraries to a larger number? But I can work with the Quick Switch.

once again.

[pzaw]

Originally Posted by theducks

Those are all KNOWN, physical and separate Library Structures on your disk.

I say Known, because there is no limit on how many Libraries you can have ( would be a nightmare to maintain), only how many Calibre can interact with Quickly (those on the list).
FWIW Delete Library only removes the entry from the list, not the structure.
BTW that list also is consulted other places (plugins). eg CopyToLibrary only allows the Target to be Known Libraries (you can open any Library from the command line,without it being on the list)

Tags:

Very helpful!
I started using tags first and found very quickly that I have to really think hard to tag them rationally and the tags that come with eBooks mess things up more. Very Good.
Thank!

[theducks]

Originally Posted by pzaw

Very helpful!
I started using tags first and found very quickly that I have to really think hard to tag them rationally and the tags that come with eBooks mess things up more. Very Good.
Thank!

IMHO Grow your own tags that mean something to YOU and ditch the ones that came with the book.

Calaibre has a handy tool built in: Tag Mapper, add it to your Toolbar it can clean/merge some of the smelly ones you know about in advance