Best Practices: Libraries Or Folders to best organize books...

mockrun · 01-06-2021, 12:34 PM

Greetings all,
I have been using Calibre for a year and I LOVE IT!

However, I have a few questions about 'Your Best Practices'. I have used Calibre with several different ideas in mind.

1. "One library to rule/hold them all"

* I stored ~1k books/articles in ONE Library. I found this tedious. Bc Calibre would to a huge number to wade through. My solution was to place tags (proper and correct, a challenge) on every item. Pain...

2. Segregate all books/articles into n or (n+1) libraries.

* The problem here was when I had a book that could be in several libraries. I had to remember the correct library to search in to find my book(s). Or When I wanted to add a book to a library I could not search all libraries simultaneously.

Q. How do you approach this?

Q. Is it possible to place Libraries into Libraries?

Q. Will Virtual Libraries help in these situations?

ottischwenk · 01-06-2021, 12:38 PM

I use virtual libraries in conjunction with saved searches

theducks · 01-06-2021, 01:02 PM

One Library if the structure meets all needs without bloat (significant portion that does NOT use the added structure)

Multiple Libraries for different structures
OR
Security (eg. inappropriate for little eyes)

Sirtel · 01-06-2021, 01:21 PM

One library with tags, saved searches and various custom columns. My library is pretty big (almost 20,000 books), but I have never had any problems with finding something there. Of course I spend considerable amount of my free time on organizing the library, but I enjoy it and so it's not a burden for me, more like a hobby.

skb · 01-06-2021, 01:55 PM

Two libraries. One with a bajillion epubs (organised by tags), the other with magazines/hobby stuff (PDFs).

Frankly, I should have them in one library, but PDFs offend me ;-)

Ripplinger · 01-06-2021, 02:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sirtel

One library with tags, saved searches and various custom columns.

This is me as well. Fortunately I've used Calibre since my first ereader, so there's really been minimal maintenance involved for me. Whenever I add a new book, I make sure I enter the correct info, description, series info, nice cover, etc., and add my own minimal sensible tags (instead of the 25 that are usually added when just letting the search add tags).

Doing the full entries as I get each new book makes for minimal work involved, just a few minutes at a time. My library is over 5700 books now, and I have no problems at all finding whatever I want. If I had to do a lot of them all at once, I'd break it up into forcing myself to do maybe 50 or so a day. But I couldn't leave them without any organization, that would drive me nuts (and I end up buying duplicates of books I've already purchased).

maddz · 01-06-2021, 02:56 PM

Me - single library organised into Shelves and all books tagged appropriately. I have some saved searches: Newly added books (they get a specific tag when I enter them), books to send to my e-reader (I split omnibuses and sometimes merge short stories so don't send the original imported books), and library maintenance - books to replace when I can source a better copy, books with no cover.

Beyond that, I use the left hand menu when I want to search specific tags, authors or series, sometimes publishers and formats. As with others, I clean up new imports as I go, but I batch this up as my overarching catalogue is my LibraryThing account.

pwalker8 · 01-06-2021, 03:25 PM

I have a single library with books by category for non fiction and genre and series for fiction. Non fiction has the standard categories - history, biography, science, politics with subcategories since a book can have multiple categories, thus a book on Ancient Rome is categoried as both history and Ancient Rome and books about WW II are both history and WW II

If you remember to download the meta data associated with the book, many times that can help.

DNSB · 01-06-2021, 03:46 PM

I use two libraries. The first one is my intake library. Books get dumped into there where I clean up the metadata and covers, do format conversions, any editing required, etc. Once the books are cleaned up, they get moved into my main library. In the main library, I used to use virtual libraries but now simply search on tags/authors/series/whatever to look for books.

I dropped VLs when there were just too many of them to be useful and they were causing noticeable slowdowns.

Sydney's Mom · 01-06-2021, 05:11 PM

I use one library, with limited tags. I can create a virtual library based on read, unread (I actually use 0read0 and ratings, this automatically colors the book so I know in a glance how many have been read) or tags.

Apache · 01-06-2021, 07:21 PM

One library with a limited number of tags.
Apache

MarjaE · 01-06-2021, 07:36 PM

I use separate libraries, so that I can use other search software on one library without picking up results from the others.

I also have to manually retag everything for each library.

P.S. How do you do format conversions in Calibre? It can do epub to mobi or vice-versa, but it can't do pdf 1.7 to pdf 1.4, or pdf 1.7 to pdf 1.4 w/ complex text and image fixes.

DNSB · 01-07-2021, 02:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarjaE

P.S. How do you do format conversions in Calibre? It can do epub to mobi or vice-versa, but it can't do pdf 1.7 to pdf 1.4, or pdf 1.7 to pdf 1.4 w/ complex text and image fixes.

PDFs? I tend to avoid them like the plague. A non-reflowable page oriented format that needs to be printed or displayed on a display close to the paper size is nothing but a PITA on most eInk readers. As for converting pdf to pdf? If I really need to do that, I would use open the file in Acrobat Pro which comes as part of our CC subscription. Since I tend to have only technical publications in PDF format, I read them on my laptop or iPad Pro using Adobe software which doesn't seem to have issues with pdf versioning. They are only on my Forma as suspenders and belt for those occasions when, as an example, I need to access a Palo Alto CLI reference manual and don't have access to my laptop or iPad Pro.

DNSB · 01-07-2021, 02:34 AM

As for the title of this thread? In this day and age, is anyone still trying to use directories (AKA folders) to manage their library? That way lies an massively complex structure with multiple copies of the same files or a mass of links. I gave up directories back when I realized that I was using a rather fragile link based setup to avoid having thousands of extra copies of ebook files.

piperclassique · 01-07-2021, 03:22 AM

Virtual libraries are my preferred method, created based on a custom search. I don't find using tags all that helpful but I clean up the metadata as I import and liberate the books, add a category or more, find a nice cover, price paid, source, and who bought the book(self or husband) They get marked as read, together with any personal comments and a rating, also a note as to whether I want to read more in the series or by that author. About 12000 books, and it doesn't seem to run slowly.

01-06-2021, 12:34 PM	#1
mockrun Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2021 Device: laptop	Best Practices: Libraries Or Folders to best organize books... Greetings all, I have been using Calibre for a year and I LOVE IT! However, I have a few questions about 'Your Best Practices'. I have used Calibre with several different ideas in mind. 1. "One library to rule/hold them all" * I stored ~1k books/articles in ONE Library. I found this tedious. Bc Calibre would to a huge number to wade through. My solution was to place tags (proper and correct, a challenge) on every item. Pain... 2. Segregate all books/articles into n or (n+1) libraries. * The problem here was when I had a book that could be in several libraries. I had to remember the correct library to search in to find my book(s). Or When I wanted to add a book to a library I could not search all libraries simultaneously. Q. How do you approach this? Q. Is it possible to place Libraries into Libraries? Q. Will Virtual Libraries help in these situations?

01-06-2021, 07:36 PM	#12
MarjaE Guru Posts: 924 Karma: 53902736 Join Date: Jun 2015 Device: multiple	I use separate libraries, so that I can use other search software on one library without picking up results from the others. I also have to manually retag everything for each library. P.S. How do you do format conversions in Calibre? It can do epub to mobi or vice-versa, but it can't do pdf 1.7 to pdf 1.4, or pdf 1.7 to pdf 1.4 w/ complex text and image fixes. Last edited by MarjaE; 01-06-2021 at 07:38 PM.

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01-06-2021, 12:38 PM	#2
ottischwenk Wizard Posts: 2,870 Karma: 3933245 Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: Salzburg AT Device: Boox 4/14, Like-/Meebook 1/8, Tolino 1/10, Kobo 0/5, Kindle 0/3	I use virtual libraries in conjunction with saved searches

01-06-2021, 01:02 PM	#3
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,819 Karma: 54830978 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	One Library if the structure meets all needs without bloat (significant portion that does NOT use the added structure) Multiple Libraries for different structures OR Security (eg. inappropriate for little eyes)

01-06-2021, 01:21 PM	#4
Sirtel Grand Sorcerer Posts: 10,154 Karma: 224760044 Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Estonia Device: Kobo Sage & Libra 2	One library with tags, saved searches and various custom columns. My library is pretty big (almost 20,000 books), but I have never had any problems with finding something there. Of course I spend considerable amount of my free time on organizing the library, but I enjoy it and so it's not a burden for me, more like a hobby.

01-06-2021, 01:55 PM	#5
skb Evangelist Posts: 401 Karma: 1597305 Join Date: Mar 2010 Device: Ipod G4, MacOS 10.12, Calibre, Pocketbook Touch HD 3	Two libraries. One with a bajillion epubs (organised by tags), the other with magazines/hobby stuff (PDFs). Frankly, I should have them in one library, but PDFs offend me ;-)

01-06-2021, 02:56 PM	#7
maddz Wizard Posts: 1,273 Karma: 28630044 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: UK Device: Kobo Forma, Icarus, iPad Mini 2, Kobo Touch, Google Nexus 7	Me - single library organised into Shelves and all books tagged appropriately. I have some saved searches: Newly added books (they get a specific tag when I enter them), books to send to my e-reader (I split omnibuses and sometimes merge short stories so don't send the original imported books), and library maintenance - books to replace when I can source a better copy, books with no cover. Beyond that, I use the left hand menu when I want to search specific tags, authors or series, sometimes publishers and formats. As with others, I clean up new imports as I go, but I batch this up as my overarching catalogue is my LibraryThing account.

01-06-2021, 03:25 PM	#8
pwalker8 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,195 Karma: 70314280 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Atlanta, GA Device: iPad Pro, iPad mini, Kobo Aura, Amazon paperwhite, Sony PRS-T2	I have a single library with books by category for non fiction and genre and series for fiction. Non fiction has the standard categories - history, biography, science, politics with subcategories since a book can have multiple categories, thus a book on Ancient Rome is categoried as both history and Ancient Rome and books about WW II are both history and WW II If you remember to download the meta data associated with the book, many times that can help.

01-06-2021, 03:46 PM	#9
DNSB Bibliophagist Posts: 35,513 Karma: 145557716 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver Device: Kobo Sage, Forma, Clara HD, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos	I use two libraries. The first one is my intake library. Books get dumped into there where I clean up the metadata and covers, do format conversions, any editing required, etc. Once the books are cleaned up, they get moved into my main library. In the main library, I used to use virtual libraries but now simply search on tags/authors/series/whatever to look for books. I dropped VLs when there were just too many of them to be useful and they were causing noticeable slowdowns.

01-06-2021, 05:11 PM	#10
Sydney's Mom Wizard Posts: 2,895 Karma: 6995721 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Idaho, on the side of a mountain Device: Kindle Oasis, Fire 3d Gen and 5th Gen and Samsung Tab S	I use one library, with limited tags. I can create a virtual library based on read, unread (I actually use 0read0 and ratings, this automatically colors the book so I know in a glance how many have been read) or tags.

01-06-2021, 07:21 PM	#11
Apache Readaholic Posts: 5,140 Karma: 90000000 Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: South Georgia Device: Surface Pro 6 / Galaxy Tab A 8"	One library with a limited number of tags. Apache

01-07-2021, 02:34 AM	#14
DNSB Bibliophagist Posts: 35,513 Karma: 145557716 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver Device: Kobo Sage, Forma, Clara HD, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos	As for the title of this thread? In this day and age, is anyone still trying to use directories (AKA folders) to manage their library? That way lies an massively complex structure with multiple copies of the same files or a mass of links. I gave up directories back when I realized that I was using a rather fragile link based setup to avoid having thousands of extra copies of ebook files.

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01-07-2021, 03:22 AM	#15
piperclassique A garbling groftpot Posts: 974 Karma: 9234667 Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: France Device: Oasis, Voyage, Kobo mini, Samsung tablet, phones, whatever.	Virtual libraries are my preferred method, created based on a custom search. I don't find using tags all that helpful but I clean up the metadata as I import and liberate the books, add a category or more, find a nice cover, price paid, source, and who bought the book(self or husband) They get marked as read, together with any personal comments and a rating, also a note as to whether I want to read more in the series or by that author. About 12000 books, and it doesn't seem to run slowly.