Question re: Calibre and Kobo Libra 2

[keltoid15]

Hi, I've had a Sony Daily Edition ereader for like 12 years or so. Still works, but it runs out of battery power randomly. So I have purchased a Kobo Libra 2 (don't have it yet).

My question is: Organizing your books. Are there ways to organize rather than just having all of your books in one bin -- and would that be something you would do with Calibre? Would I download Calibre first onto the Kobo?
Sorry if this is a dumb question.

So for organizing for example: moving a book that is finished into a folder called Finished Books...

[Sirtel]

Calibre is a desktop program for Windows, Linux and MacOS. It can't be installed on an ereader.

Automatic collection management on a Kobo is via Calibre, yes. First, you must add all your ebook files to Calibre, then organize them in the Calibre GUI (with tags, custom categories like genres, in whatever way you want). That's not the same as moving a book physically to a folder: a book can be physically in only one folder, but can have as many tags, genres, custom categories as you want, there's no limit, and accordingly it can be in several collections at the same time.

After you've organized your books in Calibre, set the metadata management to automatic in Preferences, specify which column (i.e. category) you want to use for collection creating in the Kobo driver settings and connect your Libra to your computer with an USB cable. After your Libra has connected to Calibre, transfer the books from Calibre to the Libra (using the Send to Device icon). Collections and other metadata should automatically come over with them. After the books have been transferred, eject your Libra, but don't disconnect the cable; your Kobo must process the books. You should see the "Importing new books" screen. Disconnect the cable after the importing has finished. Your books should now all be in their collections.

If all this feels like too much work, you can create collections manually on a Kobo without Calibre. But if you don't make a backup of your Kobo database, your collections will be lost if you ever reset your Kobo for whatever reason. With Calibre, they'll be automatically recreated when you connect your Kobo.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by keltoid15

...would that be something you would do with Calibre? Would I download Calibre first onto the Kobo?
Sorry if this is a dumb question.

If you ever had an iPod, think of Calibre as iTunes and the reader as the iPod. You organize everything in Calibre and then Calibre will send that organizing to your Kobo. Mark book A as Science Fiction and book B as Mystery and on your Kobo you will have a collection called Science Fiction featuring book A and a collection called Mystery featuring book B.

Then, if you have book C that you classify as Science Fiction and Mystery, it'll show up in both collections.

So for organizing for example: moving a book that is finished into a folder called Finished Books...

I wouldn't worry how they are stored on the reader. The software can handle all that with filters. You can filter your library to show all, unread, finished, books you are currently reading, etc.

[Quoth]

Folders is 1970s for organising documents. Sony, then Kindle, then Kobo use metadata. The files exist once and are not moved or renamed after copying to the ereader such as Kobo. You don't want to know about files. All serious document management systems only import (add) or export files as a way to get documents in or out.

The meta data has reading position, reading status, collection(s), series, title, author, blurb/comments and publisher info.
A Kobo can list only
Currently reading, OR Unread, OR Finished
Listed by Title, Author, collection or series.

If you type edith into search of your books it would list titles, Collections, authors or series that have that. It will only search the text in a book when you are in the book, and possibly the last few you read. But Calibre can index all the books and let you do complex searches on contents of entire library.

Only copy a book to the ereader from Calibre using Send to Device and only remove a book (if you are short of space on ereader etc) by deleting it via calibre.

It's much less work to manage collections in calibre than on any ereader.

[DNSB]

Minor nit with Quoth's post.

A Kobo under Books in My Books can filter by All, Unread, Reading, Finished, Purchased, Kobo Plus, Imported & Downloaded. There are also eBooks and audio books options for Kobo ereaders that support BlueTooth for audio. You can sort by Recent, Date Added, Title, Author, Series, File size and File type within those lists.

The Filter dropdown also lists the number of books in the filters. Currently, I see All as showing 1125, ditto for eBooks, Unread is 4, Reading is 3, Finished is 840, Purchased 61, Kobo Plus 77 and Imported 987 (adds up to 1125). The last item is Downloaded which basically means the 61 Kobo purchases and 77 Kobo Plus have all been downloaded along with the 987 sideloaded books.

There are also Authors, Series and Collections tabs in My Books which have more limited sort options. Collections, for instance, can only sort by Collection name, Number of books and Date created.

I do have a Finished collection which is automatically managed. Any book that is 100% read when I connect to calibre gets added to that collection. Given the search/sort capabilities of the basic interface, I no longer use any other collections.

[Gone]

Originally Posted by keltoid15

Hi, I've had a Sony Daily Edition ereader for like 12 years or so. Still works, but it runs out of battery power randomly. So I have purchased a Kobo Libra 2 (don't have it yet).

My question is: Organizing your books. Are there ways to organize rather than just having all of your books in one bin -- and would that be something you would do with Calibre? Would I download Calibre first onto the Kobo?
Sorry if this is a dumb question.

So for organizing for example: moving a book that is finished into a folder called Finished Books...

A good place to learn about Calibre. https://calibre-ebook.com/help

After that, you can search in the part of the MobileRead forum dedicated to Calibre, about plugins, conversions, etc.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Minor nit with Quoth's post.

A Kobo under Books in My Books can filter by All, Unread, Reading, Finished, Purchased, Kobo Plus, Imported & Downloaded. There are also eBooks and audio books options for Kobo ereaders that support BlueTooth for audio. You can sort by Recent, Date Added, Title, Author, Series, File size and File type within those lists.

I don't see Kobo Plus, Imported and Downloaded. Only one Kobo has "Purchased".

My original list (with All option and of course numbers of titles) might only apply if "SideloadedMode = true" option is set? That's all I have on my Sage.

Anyway, the point is that the "My Books" tab is a fantastic "Library" interface based on meta data. There is no file browser because it's pointless.

I also omitted to mention that "sort" has many options including file type, though actual ebooks ought all to be epub. PDFs can work and some image files (inc svg) can be displayed.

[DNSB]

Very likely. My Sage is registered and connected. Much like the ebook/audio book entries, some options only appear if there is a ebook of that type on the device (i.e. Kobo Plus will only show if you have a Kobo Plus subscription and have borrowed at least one Kobo Plus eboo/audio book.)

As for the file type, besides PDF, I also have a few CBZ/CBR graphic books, most left over from playing with trying to make manga look good for one of the offspring.

And yes, compared to searching title and other metadata, a file browser is rather pointless.