Import and update author, title, and other metadata

[KnotHolme]

I have a library that has grown over time to a few thousand books. My standards for the library have also evolved over time and now I find that I would like to go back and clean up a lot of the data. This will include changes to authors, titles and other metadata (genre, tags, ratings, comments, etc).

I have used the "Create a catalog of books" function to export a CSV file containing all the data I would like to update.

My question is, is there a way to edit the data in the CSV file - including all of the columns mentioned above - and then re-import it into Calibre and have it make the appropriate updates? Making all the changes manually using the Metadata editor screen will be, given the number of books needing updating, very painful. Given the presence of an ID and UUID field in the export CSV, I believe that the CSV does contain the information needed to accurately determine which book in the library each line in the CSV refers to even if author and title are altered.

Is this do-able?

Thanks!

[BetterRed]

@KnotHolme see the Import List plugin, here's the Index of plugins ==>> Index of plugins, there are other plugins that may help - such as the Quality Check plugin's Fix options for Author names etc

BR

[PeterT]

You could also edit the csv file to create a script that would use the calibredb command vhttps://manual.calibre-ebook.com/generated/en/calibredb.html

I'm not sure though it can change author or title

[KnotHolme]

@BetterRed - Thanks for the suggestion but it did not seem to do what I am looking for - but perhaps I just do not understand its purpose/capabilities. It seemed that it wanted to match on author/title - not UUID - meaning that each line in the incoming CSV would need to be manually matched to the exiting book in Calibre - again a labor intensive effort I am trying to avoid (yes, I am lazy). Also, Once I did match the few test books I tried, it seemed that it would display the data, and perhaps re-export it for use in other applications, but I did not find a way to actually rename books and update metadata in the Calibre database. Did I miss something?

Thanks,

[KnotHolme]

@PeterT - thanks for the tip, I was not aware of that functionality. I'll explore it further.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by KnotHolme

@BetterRed - Thanks for the suggestion but it did not seem to do what I am looking for - but perhaps I just do not understand its purpose/capabilities. It seemed that it wanted to match on author/title - not UUID - meaning that each line in the incoming CSV would need to be manually matched to the exiting book in Calibre - again a labor intensive effort I am trying to avoid (yes, I am lazy). Also, Once I did match the few test books I tried, it seemed that it would display the data, and perhaps re-export it for use in other applications, but I did not find a way to actually rename books and update metadata in the Calibre database. Did I miss something?

Thanks,

The IL plugin can update the database, this from the first post

Main Features of v1.1.5
<snip>

Option to update metadata of existing books

<snip>

Did you browse the Import List thread. I seem to remember the matter of matching on ID (i.e. the integer calibre assigns, not the UUID) came up a while back, can't recall the outcome. Other possibilities are ISBN and or ASIN. I suggest you post something specific in the IL thread - that will get the attention of davidfor, who has taken over its maintenance.

But it's unlikely you'll find a one-slick-click-and-it's-done solution. Fixing messy libraries mostly gets done progressively, rather than in one fell swoop.

BR

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Did you browse the Import List thread. I seem to remember the matter of matching on ID (i.e. the integer calibre assigns, not the UUID) came up a while back, can't recall the outcome. Other possibilities are ISBN and or ASIN. I suggest you post something specific in the IL thread - that will get the attention of davidfor, who has taken over its maintenance.

But it's unlikely you'll find a one-slick-click-and-it's-done solution. Fixing messy libraries mostly gets done progressively, rather than in one fell swoop.

The Import List plugin does the matching on the author and title. Someone recently asked about matching on identifiers recently, but they meant the metadata source type identifiers. It is something I'll consider, but the plugin isn't something I use much. I have mainly been doing maintenance to make sure it keeps working. If someone does want to do something, I'll be happy to give advice.

@KnotHolme: Depending on the changes you are making, you might also want to look at the Quality Check plugin. It can find problems with metadata and fix them. As an example, it can find all books with authors in style "LN, FN" and change this to "FN LN". That plus the search and replace part of the Bulk metadata editor can clean up a lot of problems.

[KnotHolme]

Thank you all very much for the helpful responses.

@davidfor - While Python is not my strongest language, I am always looking for new challenges and opportunities and I would love to be able to contribute in some way to the Calibre community. I am reading the IL thread now and will take any further questions there.

Thanks again!