How do you tag?

Rellwood · 11-24-2022, 07:48 PM

Has anyone created a set of tags and just stuck with them? I can't seem to make up my mind and keep changing them. I use heirarchal tags and I have so many redundant ones it's like I just want to delete them all and start over, but I have too many books to do it.

I have 5387 books with 3997 tags plus a columns for characters and genres.

Has anyone just started over?

Suggestions on how to fix this would be appreciated.

theducks · 11-24-2022, 08:15 PM

Tags are like the Dark Arts. Constant vigilance is needed.

Fix, avoid recreating. That is an insane amount of work.

I just browse Manage Tags and adjust there (sometimes I do need to search for members).

I clean the Nonsense (to me).
Fiction (that is assumed. I do tag non-Fiction)
Series name (as a tag)
'Identifiers' listed in Tags
'A novel'

I merge name variants. expand abbreviations like SF (I leave things like FBI)
I break apart: Action & Adventure or Mystery and Detective (2 tags)
I also standardize on and or &

I use hierarchical with the base the primary. I remove the reverse. It is not needed because Calibre search will find all And I fix those that had periods and got misapplied

Science Fiction.Military
Military.Science Fiction
non-Fiction.Military

ownedbycats · 11-24-2022, 08:17 PM

This may be of interest: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=348443

ownedbycats · 11-24-2022, 08:19 PM

After finding this slight mess I've been considering doing my own re-organization. I figure I'll just copy everything to an #oldtags column and then gradually sort through it.

Sirtel · 11-25-2022, 03:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rellwood

Has anyone created a set of tags and just stuck with them?

Yes. I use 20-30 tags with more than 25,000 books and generally stick with them. They're not hierarchical. I've found that creating subgenres and subcategories is a quick way to madness and hell, so I don't use them. I delete all tags that come with books and enter my own, and that's it. Sometimes I use temporary tags for fixing something, but they're strictly temporary.

I don't read much nonfiction, so I manage to keep it simple. Tagging nonfiction would be more complicated than tagging fiction and would possibly require subcategories. For fiction main genre tags are enough IMO. To try to tag everything down to the smallest details would quickly lead to chaos if you had a large library.

Terisa de morgan · 11-25-2022, 06:34 AM

I usually only define tags for genres, that's all, and I usually stuck to them, that's all. Custom columns, however, is another beast.

ownedbycats · 11-25-2022, 07:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

I usually only define tags for genres, that's all, and I usually stuck to them, that's all. Custom columns, however, is another beast.

Personally, I have different columns for different booktypes.

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Fiction, nonfiction, magazines and comics use Subjects (which is derived from Tags).

Documentation uses Documentation.

Fanfiction uses Fandom.

I have a grouped search, category, which combines these three categories for easier searching and also use in the Similar Books.

Sirtel · 11-25-2022, 07:16 AM

I also have several custom columns, but they have nothing to do with genres or book types, because I read novels almost exclusively anyway. I have no fanfic, short stories, magazines or comics in my library. Nor documents, those I keep in a folder outside Calibre.

One custom column indicates which books are on which devices, one indicates which books I want to read more than others and so on.

Rellwood · 12-17-2022, 01:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

I usually only define tags for genres, that's all, and I usually stuck to them, that's all. Custom columns, however, is another beast.

Lol....those columns...I am looking at my main library holding...120 columns. Many are just single dates, or single items, or y/n, placeholder columns to store tags before cleaning, etc. Still my tag browser is pretty long.

Terisa de morgan · 12-17-2022, 02:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rellwood

Lol....those columns...I am looking at my main library holding...120 columns. Many are just single dates, or single items, or y/n, placeholder columns to store tags before cleaning, etc. Still my tag browser is pretty long.

I have less columns but a lot of them are calculated.... And for placeholders before cleaning... that happens in another library

uli · 12-17-2022, 11:33 AM

I've been using the Goodreads metadata downloader for years over 10 years. Happy I spent time tweaking the tag mapping of +900 down to 50 more general tags. Very satisfied with the results.

Only peeve is "Fantasy" seems to be added to every second Science Fiction novel... noting is perfect.

Fynjisx · 12-26-2022, 09:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

I merge name variants.

Can you show some examples of what you mean?

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

I break apart: Action & Adventure or Mystery and Detective (2 tags)

Action & Adventure in the list of tags are two different tags or like one?

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

I also standardize on and or &

like this?

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

I use hierarchical with the base the primary. I remove the reverse.
non-Fiction.Military

do you remove the reverse with a plugin??

theducks · 12-27-2022, 07:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fynjisx

Can you show some examples of what you mean?

Action & Adventure in the list of tags are two different tags or like one?

like this?

do you remove the reverse with a plugin??

Name variants (even the publisher mess this up between books in a series)
Sometimes I INSERT a tie-breaker into a series that multiple authors chose but are not related. series (Author initials) < paren do not mess up Author Sort

Always Mystery not Mysteries (I singularize most things )

Most of my work uses the human Eyeball Mk1. and the brain (does this make sense in this context. What did I do last time

). I decide which version of a tag to keep. For hierarchical, what is the primary tag Science Fiction.Military or Military.Science Fiction
Remember. there are differences between what an Author tags (trying to SELL) vs what a Librarian does (file). Authors, that customers as stupid that need every possible keyword for a topic, to be able to find their book on a site

(do I really need every mythical creature listed for a sword&sorcery book?)

Calibre does have tools that can filter some during import. Preferences:Adding books: Adding Actions: Filters... (buttons near bottom)

Remember Rule #1
It is YOUR LIBRARY. Do it your way. What we offer is advice on what did or did not work for us.

Tarana · 12-27-2022, 02:18 PM

I did a major reorganization of tags in 2019 and stick to only about 10 categories with a couple of those having subcategories to aid when making recommendations to family members. I have over 5,000 ebooks and magazines, so yeah, it's a lot of work, particularly as I was starting off with the categories given by publishers (nightmare!). Mobilereads member suggested just working on the tag manager on the left and that eliminated a LOT of work. I just used my 8 categories and deleted a lot of stuff (I added 2 later). Only about 15% of stuff was left without a category but easy to find later on.

That said, if you want several tags for each book, go for it. Make it useful to you. Some folks like to group books by published year in addition to the genre, for instance.

Montana Harper · 01-04-2023, 10:24 PM

I use the BISAC subject headings, made into hierarchical tags. It took some setting up and a little bit of annual upkeep since they update the entries annually, but it works for me. I use dummy "books" with all the tags (one for each major subject heading) and don't allow any extraneous tags in the default "Tags" field.

I also have a secondary tag column that I use to build other columns out of. That's where I track the epub version number (if there is one), edition number (if there is one), regional version, if I have the audiobook, etc. It's also where I track temporary to-do tags for my processing workflow.

12-27-2022, 02:18 PM	#14
Tarana Wizard Posts: 3,978 Karma: 38840460 Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: Minneapolis Device: PWSE, Voyage, K3, HDX, KBasic 7 & 8, Nook Glo3, Echos, Nanos	I did a major reorganization of tags in 2019 and stick to only about 10 categories with a couple of those having subcategories to aid when making recommendations to family members. I have over 5,000 ebooks and magazines, so yeah, it's a lot of work, particularly as I was starting off with the categories given by publishers (nightmare!). Mobilereads member suggested just working on the tag manager on the left and that eliminated a LOT of work. I just used my 8 categories and deleted a lot of stuff (I added 2 later). Only about 15% of stuff was left without a category but easy to find later on. That said, if you want several tags for each book, go for it. Make it useful to you. Some folks like to group books by published year in addition to the genre, for instance. Last edited by Tarana; 12-27-2022 at 07:58 PM.

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11-24-2022, 07:48 PM	#1
Rellwood Library Breeder (She/Her) Posts: 1,156 Karma: 1900479 Join Date: Apr 2015 Location: Fullerton, California Device: Kobo Aura HD (1) PW3 (4) PW3 2019 new edition (1)	How do you tag? Has anyone created a set of tags and just stuck with them? I can't seem to make up my mind and keep changing them. I use heirarchal tags and I have so many redundant ones it's like I just want to delete them all and start over, but I have too many books to do it. I have 5387 books with 3997 tags plus a columns for characters and genres. Has anyone just started over? Suggestions on how to fix this would be appreciated.

11-24-2022, 08:15 PM	#2
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,795 Karma: 54830978 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	Tags are like the Dark Arts. Constant vigilance is needed. Fix, avoid recreating. That is an insane amount of work. I just browse Manage Tags and adjust there (sometimes I do need to search for members). I clean the Nonsense (to me). Fiction (that is assumed. I do tag non-Fiction) Series name (as a tag) 'Identifiers' listed in Tags 'A novel' I merge name variants. expand abbreviations like SF (I leave things like FBI) I break apart: Action & Adventure or Mystery and Detective (2 tags) I also standardize on and or & I use hierarchical with the base the primary. I remove the reverse. It is not needed because Calibre search will find all And I fix those that had periods and got misapplied Science Fiction.Military Military.Science Fiction non-Fiction.Military

11-24-2022, 08:17 PM	#3
ownedbycats Custom User Title Posts: 8,608 Karma: 61176603 Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Libra H2O, formerly Aura HD	This may be of interest: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=348443

11-24-2022, 08:19 PM	#4
ownedbycats Custom User Title Posts: 8,608 Karma: 61176603 Join Date: Oct 2018 Location: Canada Device: Kobo Libra H2O, formerly Aura HD	After finding this slight mess I've been considering doing my own re-organization. I figure I'll just copy everything to an #oldtags column and then gradually sort through it.

11-25-2022, 06:34 AM	#6
Terisa de morgan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,233 Karma: 11768331 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Madrid, Spain Device: Kobo Clara/Aura One/Forma,XiaoMI 5, iPad, Huawei MediaPad, YotaPhone 2	I usually only define tags for genres, that's all, and I usually stuck to them, that's all. Custom columns, however, is another beast.

11-25-2022, 07:16 AM	#8
Sirtel Grand Sorcerer Posts: 10,122 Karma: 224756896 Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Estonia Device: Kobo Sage & Libra 2	I also have several custom columns, but they have nothing to do with genres or book types, because I read novels almost exclusively anyway. I have no fanfic, short stories, magazines or comics in my library. Nor documents, those I keep in a folder outside Calibre. One custom column indicates which books are on which devices, one indicates which books I want to read more than others and so on.

12-17-2022, 11:33 AM	#11
uli Zealot Posts: 106 Karma: 194274 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Montreal Device: Kobo, Calibre	I've been using the Goodreads metadata downloader for years over 10 years. Happy I spent time tweaking the tag mapping of +900 down to 50 more general tags. Very satisfied with the results. Only peeve is "Fantasy" seems to be added to every second Science Fiction novel... noting is perfect.

01-04-2023, 10:24 PM	#15
Montana Harper Zealot Posts: 105 Karma: 2029154 Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Pacific Northwest Device: iPad Mini, iPhone 12, Kindle Paperwhite 3	I use the BISAC subject headings, made into hierarchical tags. It took some setting up and a little bit of annual upkeep since they update the entries annually, but it works for me. I use dummy "books" with all the tags (one for each major subject heading) and don't allow any extraneous tags in the default "Tags" field. I also have a secondary tag column that I use to build other columns out of. That's where I track the epub version number (if there is one), edition number (if there is one), regional version, if I have the audiobook, etc. It's also where I track temporary to-do tags for my processing workflow.