Calibre for hardback cataloging?

[fradetj]

Has anyone used Calibre for this purpose? I use Calibre for my e-books. Seems like isbn entries does the cataloging of hardbacks as well.

[AndrewH]

I do. "Add empty book" is perfect for this (also great for keeping track of a wish list of books). For my paper books I use a tag called, creatively, "Paper".

[pidgeon92]

I use Delicious Library on my Mac for cataloging both my ebooks and my paper books.

[Ravensknight]

For those who do use Calibre this way, I have to ask, why?
The collector part of me thinks, "cool, one more thing to catalog", but another part of me wonders "why, when I can just look at them on my bookshelves".

I am not denigrating the practice or anything, but really would like to know why. Because if there is a good reason that I am missing, I would like to know so I can do it too...

[fradetj]

Why: An answer. Oregon State University Newman Library, a very small library, would like their religious books cataloged so that their members can do a quick search for items they may be interested in. If I can get the data for a book very easily using Calibre, I can save myself some time. I can create a Library, then export the files of my choosing to excel. Using excel we can create an excel file with searchable fields and protected fields for student use. This is my thinking anyway. Its also possible just to use Calibre as the search tool, as far as I know. So, not having seen this discussed, I thought I would ask if anyone had experience with this. If someone has, I may learn that this idea is feasible or unfeasible or get some advice.

[HarryT]

Please ask Calibre questions in the Calibre forum; that's why it's there. I'm moving this thread there.

[Sabardeyn]

I use calibre to catalog everything I can put in there: ebooks, paper books, magazines, manga, tabletop RPGs, etc. Between tags and comments in the description, an unlimited number of cross-references can be created to assist with searches.

As to why add physical books to the database: You either don't have enough books yet, or your bookshelves are way more organized than I mine.

[Perkin]

I also use a file called 'dummy.paper', which is just a 0 length file,

I then add that to the books' formats (either drag onto Book Details pane, from the Add Books - add files to selected records, or in the Edit Metadata window.

Now it also shows in formats column.

You could also use a 'dummy.hard' file and use it to distinguish between hard or paperback versions.
Also use dummy.comic or dummy.magazine

[Divingduck]

I use it for all kind of publications equal if it is a paper, electronic or audio-books. This works pretty well for me. I add the fields of informations I need to calibre and get rid of all the different databases where I use only a small part of functionality and always had made compromises.
The only other database I use is MediaMonky for all kind of audio (with a overlap in audio-books) and video.

[theducks]

I use 'add from ISBN' with the tag set to <in paper library>

I also have set custom colors:
1) Green for the Title if that book has that tag
2) Purple for the Author if there is no formats
(you can pick your own colors )
Both 1 and 2 can exist at the same time, which is why the different columns are used. I do NOT show formats or Tags in my default bookshelf view.

[AndrewH]

Originally Posted by Ravensknight

For those who do use Calibre this way, I have to ask, why?

For me, it's a good way to keep track of a series that I have split between paper and ebook. Also, it's really nice seeing my paper books in Calibre as I'm trying to replace my paper copies with their digital versions.

[Ravensknight]

Originally Posted by Sabardeyn

As to why add physical books to the database: You either don't have enough books yet, or your bookshelves are way more organized than I mine.

yeah, I only have around 500 books and several months ago my wife and I organized them into fiction, non-fiction and manga.
Then we did the fiction by Author