folder and file organization on computer

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ChipAHoy

What happens if I start tinkering with the folders? I did tweak them a bit, like, putting all my clippings and instructional publications into one folder.

The Calibre library is a "black box". DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING IN IT DIRECTLY. Only do things through the Calibre UI.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by ChipAHoy

What happens if I start tinkering with the folders? I did tweak them a bit, like, putting all my clippings and instructional publications into one folder.

As long as you don't change anything Calibre created (names and path INSIDE the library. The top folder is the Library name). Calibrewill permit you to add via the UI, other things (Audio books).

Why not go down to The Calibre Forum and read the topics (list, and the thread that you find intriguing) in 'Library Management' section (1st), The main Calibre section (2nd).

Calibre has over 4 MILLION users. It must satisfy a lot of people

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by ChipAHoy

What happens if I start tinkering with the folders? I did tweak them a bit, like, putting all my clippings and instructional publications into one folder.

You can put stuff in those folders, but it's not guaranteed to stay there, as calibre moves and removes files as it sees fit. Tinkering with calibre's library folder will break your library, at some point.

While you can still manually copy the books out of broken library, it's best to just keep out of that folder to avoid problems.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ChipAHoy

What happens if I start tinkering with the folders? I did tweak them a bit, like, putting all my clippings and instructional publications into one folder.

If you're talking about the calibre library, don't do that.

Really.

The way to organise things is to add metadata to them in calibre. You can tag all your clippings and instructional publications, and access them all that way through the calibre user interface.

Items in the calibre database can have multiple tags, and custom meta data added. It's a much better way to go.

But you must forget about the organisation of the files inside the calibre library. That should now be of no concern to you.

If you need to get your books out in a particular folder structure, you can export copies from calibre. But don't mess with the calibre library itself.

[Tarana]

WELCOME to the world of ereading! Yes, I've way surpassed 1000 books (now about 800 audiobooks alone, not including ebooks, magazines, random pdfs). With Calibre, you can use tags to easily sort out stuff to include or exclude and it handles pdfs as well (It does NOT convert pdfs well at all, so don't bother).

I prefer Calibre for ebooks, but if you choose to have something secondary or family members who don't want to use Calibre (yes, I have them), my suggestion is to use the folder system. Genre > author > series. You can have a separate subgenre if you have a lot of them or just want to separate them out (my Mom loves mysteries, dislikes cozies while I love both). Don't waste your life with endless subcategorizing. You want to be reading, not sorting.

My main categories are Scifi, Fantasy, Paranormal, Horror, Crime/Thriller/Mystery, Mystery Cozy, Romance, Anthologies, Historical fiction, Fiction, Craft, and Non-fiction. Your categories of course will be different. I have a family member who only reads Scifi and a small smattering of books in other genres, so her collection is put into folders: Scifi, Anthology, Other, Reference and NotRead. Within the Scifi Folder, she sorts by author. In the other sections, the file is named with title and author or editor, but not otherwise sorted.

Most importantly, have off-site backups of all your books/audiobooks. My cousin lost everything that wasn't on a flashdrive when they had a fire (heat damages electronics even if flame or smoke never gets to it). So, burn to disk, flashdrive, HD and store elsewhere. You will thank yourself for it when your HD goes belly up without warning, as they often do.

[JustinThought]

Originally Posted by PeterT

What happened to treating members with respect? Sure it's a small collection, but so what... You all started some where.

I agree with the sentiment as well as the statement. But I also want to add, that now, while his e-book library is at a manageable level, is the best time to pose the question. I kinda wish I had started such a program when I only had fifty or so books. Now I have to rely on my (really old version) of 2xExplorer to search within my e-book folder, hoping that I correctly remember a word of the title. I'll let my heirs manage the library when i check out.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by JustinThought

Now I have to rely on my (really old version) of 2xExplorer to search within my e-book folder, hoping that I correctly remember a word of the title. I'll let my heirs manage the library when i check out.

You speak as if your current situation is irreversible. It isn't.

Just install calibre. Create a "Work" folder on your desktop. Every day, copy 10 books into that folder, import them into calibre, organize them there, and clear the "Work" folder. After one year, you'll have 3650 books organized.

I ripped over 800 CD's like that, by doing only 5 a day.

[JustinThought]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

You speak as if your current situation is irreversible. It isn't.

Just install calibre. Create a "Work" folder on your desktop. Every day, copy 10 books into that folder, import them into calibre, organize them there, and clear the "Work" folder. After one year, you'll have 3650 books organized.

I ripped over 800 CD's like that, by doing only 5 a day.

I have Calibre on both my desktop and the laptop, and use it to maintain my most important books. I like your idea for cleaning up the uncategorized stuff, though. Most of my collection hasn't made it into Calibre yet; using your "how to eat an elephant" method should get me where I need to go. (One thing it's sure to help is to give impetus to delete the stuff I'm never going to read--or at least put it in a folder called "Never Going to Read".) Thank you!

[Katsunami]

The hardest thing with this is to start doing it.

After you did your ten books of the day, and you feel that it went very fast, do another ten. Before you know it, you'll have 20 or 30 books done that day. Don't skip a day; do at least the minimum you set (except of course if something happens or needs doing which makes it unrealistic or unwanted to go and organize some books).

Also, this thing will go faster and faster. First day, you might spend an hour to organize 10 books; later, you'll be able to do it in 15 or 20 minutes. One thing to speed up organization is to do a lot of books by one author, in the same genre, at once. It give you the option of setting the names and tags all at the same time.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

The hardest thing with this is to start doing it.

If you did your ten books of the day, and you feel that it went very fast, do another ten. Before you know it, you'll have 20 or 30 books done that day. Don't skip a day; do at least the minimum you set (except of course if something happens or needs doing which makes it unrealistic or unwanted to go and organize some books).

I take the same approach with my enormous photograph collection. I'll typically spend a week in Egypt and take 6000 photographs, import them into Adobe Lightroom, and then spend the next 6 months processing and cataloguing them; a few dozen every day.

[Katsunami]

It's the only way. I ripped over 800 cd's that way, and organized over 800 ebooks using this method. It's much easier to say "I'm going to organize 10 books" than to say "I'm going to organize 873 books."

The best way is to dump everything out into a folder and stuff it where you don't see it. Then take bits and pieces out of that, and organize them (and fix them where needed, in the calibre Editor as well; at least I do). Then put them into the library. The library will then be close to perfect, and won't contain any junk.

It's my way of controlling the madness of files on my computer. Everthing that's not (yet) organized, is in its own dump folder, on an external hard disk, out of sight.

[LadyKate]

Originally Posted by ChipAHoy

I am on a Macbook. I went crazy with ebooks and now have about 50. Using apps like Calibre, Kindle for Mac, Kobo reader, etc. I have ebook files all over the place. Does anyone have their ebook organization on their computer set-up in a consistent and well-structured manner? I would like to try to organize all of mine and get ride of the many duplicate and unnecessary files.

Calibre is great for organizing, categorizing and maintaining a good copy of your ebooks. 50 books can easily grow overnight to several hundred if you hit a few "freebie offers" and sales.

DO NO EVER change the directory structure or contents of the Calibre file folders without doing so through the Calibre interface.

I tend to treat the file structure of my Calibre library as the "Library room" which I do not ever go into. I put my request for changes and books into Calibre and either save the books to a separate directory (I use "android library") where I can do anything to those books I like (they are copies and I can move them around and group them. The tags, series info and other metadata is all consistent so they display well on my tablet in ereader programs) or you can save them to your ereader device.

We all need a backup or six. I tend to be obsessive in my library backups. As your ebook collection grows you will want to have multiple backups.

1- your Calibre library
2- a backup of your Calibre library on a separate drive or other backup device. You should update this backup after you do maintenance to the library.

If you like to put your ebooks in other orders such as by topic or by series you will like being able to save your ebooks to disk from Calibre. Make a directory such as "saved books for tablet" and then save away.

The cost of storage medium is very low compared to the cost of replacing your library. After a few years of collecting, you will find the cost of backup storage medium extremely low compared to the cost of replacement AND the time you have invested in ensuring that all series are named and numbered properly and consistently and that tags are as you like.

Good luck with your new library!

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by LadyKate

We all need a backup or six.
...
The cost of storage medium is very low compared to the cost of replacing your library. After a few years of collecting, you will find the cost of backup storage medium extremely low compared to the cost of replacement AND the time you have invested in ensuring that all series are named and numbered properly and consistently and that tags are as you like.

Oh, hell yes. Seconded. Thirded. Print this and put it above your computer monitor. Also make it your wallpaper on screen.

[william z]

I have no idea why organizing ebooks should be a problem. It is simple to put files in a folder and then in sub-folders. I have thousands of books in a file called "EBOOKS", in it are sub folders with books arranged by author or genre. It takes up 4.35 GB, which may sound like a lot but since my computer has 1TB of storage and two external hard drives with another 1.5 TB it is not much. Even so, if you don't have room on your hard drive you can buy a memory card for a few dollars and put your books on there.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by william z

I have no idea why organizing ebooks should be a problem. It is simple to put files in a folder and then in sub-folders. I have thousands of books in a file called "EBOOKS", in it are sub folders with books arranged by author or genre. It takes up 4.35 GB, which may sound like a lot but since my computer has 1TB of storage and two external hard drives with another 1.5 TB it is not much. Even so, if you don't have room on your hard drive you can buy a memory card for a few dollars and put your books on there.

I can pour anything into a big pile (just look into my Garage ).
A single folder leaves 1 way to find: Filename

Calibre lets you logically find A SINGLE BOOK by many attributes (if the metadata is correctly set)