Mass import of ISBNs

[avantman42]

I've like to set up a new Calibre library to store details of our paper book collection. I've noticed that Calibre can have records that don't have e-books, so I intend to use those.

I'd like to enter the ISBNs in bulk, then use the bulk download metadata feature to get the metadata.

Can anyone tell me how I can bulk import a load of ISBNs, creating a new record for each?

[atjnjk]

Click the arrow next to 'Add Books' button > 'Add from ISBN'

[avantman42]

That's exactly what I was looking for. I wasn't expecting it to be that easy, though

[malfi]

It's not the very same problem, but would it be possible to have a button to let calibre check the first few pages of a newly added ebook for an isbn and download the metadata by isbn for that ebook automagically?

My workflow usually looks like this: open ebook, go to page 3, copy isbn, edit meta-data, paste isbn, click get meta-data... kind of slow and annoying...

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by malfi

My workflow usually looks like this: open ebook, go to page 3, copy isbn, edit meta-data, paste isbn, click get meta-data... kind of slow and annoying...

Just as a heads-up: Calibre uses only the ISBN, if one is present, to lookup metadata. Only if there is no ISBN, it tries to find a match by using author and title.

[eruditionastic]

Originally Posted by malfi

It's not the very same problem, but would it be possible to have a button to let calibre check the first few pages of a newly added ebook for an isbn and download the metadata by isbn for that ebook automagically?

My workflow usually looks like this: open ebook, go to page 3, copy isbn, edit meta-data, paste isbn, click get meta-data... kind of slow and annoying...

You would think that this is one of the most basic features that calibre could have. I was totally shocked that calibre doesn't do this. I spent a few days trying to find some way calibre did, because I really couldn't believe it didn't have such a feature and I knew I was just missing it...I was wrong about how wrong I was.

Alas, you are right. It doesn't, and you must resort to the painfully time consuming manual process you described, or use scripts written by someone else.

What you can do is go here: http://blog.mekk.waw.pl/

and look at the second post. Follow the dirs. also run a search for "mekk" here on these forums. Also, ask the calibre creator to add this basic functionality in, if possi

[malfi]

Push

Please add the calibre_guess_and_add_isbn feature to calibre-mainstream!

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by malfi

Please add the calibre_guess_and_add_isbn feature to calibre-mainstream!

In the past Kovid hasn't wished to add this to the processing overhead already associated with adding books. But who knows things could always change.

[eruditionastic]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

In the past Kovid hasn't wished to add this to the processing overhead already associated with adding books. But who knows things could always change.

So add a preference if you want the behavior or not - set the default to No, and voila, overhead excuse gone. Only people who want to trade a few seconds of overhead processing time for dozens of hours of manual labor will have to endure the extra few seconds of processing time.

Honestly, that doesn't really make sense as a reason given how trivial it is. There must be more to the story. Because, as you can see, it's a pretty silly [non]reason

[kovidgoyal]

Now that post really made me eager to implement this feature, well done.