Same book in different formats, how do you deal with different isbns?

[userwack]

I have a book that I have in both pdf and epub formats, and wish to keep and use both version.

It makes sense to me to use just one calibre entry for both formats, but the issue I have run into is that they both have different isbns (they may also be different editions I am not sure).

I just wondered how other people dealt with this? Do you have two separate calibre entries or just one and accept that the isbn information won't be completely accurate?

More generally do you care about having the correct isbn for the specific version of the book that you have or do you just scrape the metadata that seems the best match and not worry about it?


I'm curious to hear peoples thoughts.

[Divingduck]

It depends to your needs. If you want to be accurate you need to use different entries because there are different ISBN's. This is also the case if a book is a modified version e.g. error corrections, actualized version/edition. For metadata queries and bibliophile view you like also to archive different ISBN's to different records. In the end different ISBN's are different books in the real world.

On the other side, it is "only" a format issue and you are doing this for your personal hobby. You can use e.g. Book details to add all different format ISBN's to the same record. As long as you don't update the metadata of the book format in the library they will stick with the original information. This is why I don't like the idea of some users to update format files automatically in general with changed metadata from calibre records (what is fortunately not the case).

So, in the end it's a personal decision how you want to use your library

[BetterRed]

@userwack - if it's just a format issue, and I saw any value in knowing the different ISBN values for the different formats, then I would record it in my Notes custom column, like so:

PDF  ISBN - 1234567890123
EPUB ISBN - 2345678901234

But if I have two versions with different ISBN's chances they'll be in the same format. In that case I have a different problem, what to do with multiple format files of the same type for the same book. There are a number threads on that in this sub-forum.

BR

[userwack]

Thanks for the responses. So what is the intended purpose of being able to have multiple files types for each entry? Is it just for when you have converted a book to a different format yourself, so it would in that case have the same isbn?

[itimpi]

One reason for multiple formats would be because you want to be able to read the books on different devices which do not all support the same format, so you need formats for each device.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by userwack

Thanks for the responses. So what is the intended purpose of being able to have multiple files types for each entry? Is it just for when you have converted a book to a different format yourself, so it would in that case have the same isbn?

Yes, personal alternate formats.

ISBN is an ordering tool used by Librarians and booksellers to get a specific version-format without the confusion of longhand Author, Title,Hard/MM/Large Paper, version


For Casual use, one ISBN is really what metadata we are using (looking at).
For REFERENCE USE, you probably NEED ISBN (and separation) so copies match up