Categorizing Library? Delicious Library 3?
I'm trying to categorize my library. Logos, print, and kindle/other ebooks. I have a mac and a few apple mobile devices and have looked at a few applications and websites, but the most important feature that I'm interested in is the ability to look at particular shelves of particular custom genres/subjects. Usability is a big deal too though, and most apps have either been really glitchy/slow or not had the features I'm looking for.
Has anyone had any experience with the Delicious Library 3 App? How do you like it? Is it ideal for books? How is the genre/subject labeling ability? Is it able to sort the library by subject/genre?
My goal is to have all my given books on one subject in one place so that I can look at all the books I have on a subject and choose which is the best to read. Right now I have to look at my Logos Library, my print library, and kindle and other ebook libraries. Does anyone have any other app suggestions for this?
I've never heard of the Delicious Library app but I use Calibre as the one-stop for managing all my books, no matter the format. Earlier this year, while on vacation, I also managed to bring in my Logos titles (using the Logos Library Reporter and Calibre's Import List function). In this one place, I track my ebooks, audio books, print books and Logos resources. It also keeps me from making unwanted duplicate purchases [:)]
I love Calibre's virtual libraries, and I have one set up for my Logos resources so I can easily separate them from the rest of my collection when I need to.
Hey Yasmin,
I use Calibre, but my issue with it is that I can't look at the books in it in a shelf format. Is there a way to view them like this, with the covers facing out on a shelf like format? With mine the covers rotate on a wheel, but you can really only view one book at a time.
I also didn't know that you could import Logos books though! I'm hoping there's a way to do this on a mac!
Goodreads | Blog
Ok, time for some images!
You can see book covers by toggling the Cover Grid at the bottom right:
This is what it looks like:
The empty space I highlighted is what a book without a cover looks like.
Unfortunately, Logos resources imported in won't have covers. You can download covers through Edit Metadata but, with a few thousand Logos books, you can understand why I've chosen to forego that route! So, this is what my Faithlife (FL) virtual library looks like for the most part:
(And the columns you see with red X next to them are virtual libraries)
If you can use Calibre on a Mac, I should think it can be done:
For 'empty books' you can add all the usual metadata, cover etc; the only thing missing would be the actual file
You can also create your own columns for custom metadata, if you like:
I love Calibre; I don't know how I'd manage my book collection without it! [:)]
This is from another forum thread that I responded to once.
I don't know how to link directly to a posting within a thread.
I have books in paper, Kindle and Logos format and it is difficult to remember where a given book is. What I have done is maintain a database on the ios platform. This involves extracting the lists of books from Logos and Kindle and manually inputting paper books.
The library app is Book Crawler. http://www.chiisai.com/j25/
They have a Mac app but I am not familiar with it.
I focus on the fields of Author, Title, Series, Publisher. I can also import the tags from Logos as I have tagged each resource.
The process takes a bit of text manipulation to clean up the data and delete fields as you bring in Logos data into the Book Crawler format.
For Logos, I use the Windows app, Logos Lib Reporter. This will take the database and extract it into a format that I can use in Excel.
For Kindle I found a process to copy the screen showing the list of books and using a text editor and regular expression clean up the data.
Paper books can be scanned using the isbn code or manually searching with title information.
The hassle is combining all this data into the format that Book Crawler uses, but it is doable. Once I have it created I can export that database and use that as a base and add new purchases from Logos and Kindle. Paper books can be scanned in as they come in.
Yasmin thanks a ton! I really wish there was a way to import the pictures! I know now I'm just getting picky though!
Goodreads | Blog
steve clark is offering to build a tool that will import our Logos books (no files, of course) into Calibre - with covers!! He says he'll work on it if enough people are interested - read more here: https://community.logos.com/forums/t/120724.aspx
Liam, not sure if you're still monitoring this thread but I posted an update related to managing our Logos library in Calibre over here. Just thought you might be interested.
Yasmin, thanks! I'll check it out!
Goodreads | Blog
Dear Yasmin
Which report did you generate? Which will give the best Calibre import?
Hi John, welcome to the forums, and I apologize for the late reply. For your first import, I would advise the report titled "All books as found in Logos Catalog DB". As for what to include in the report (bottom left of screenshot below), it all depends on what details you want available in your Calibre library:
For ongoing additions, I use the report titled "All books by Tag"; I first tag all new additions with a tag like "newbooks" (or something similar), and then the actual tags. After that, I run the report; from the .csv file generated, I delete all books except the ones with the tag "newbooks", I do other necessary cleanup (once again, this cleanup will depend on how much detail you want to carry over to your Calibre library), and then I import the .csv file into Calibre. (A tip: it's probably best if you create a separate library for the import; that way, if anything goes wrong, it doesn't interfere with your main library. Once you're OK with what is imported and you've done any necessary clean-up, you can then copy the books over to your main library).
For adding new books, I only use the LLR program if I have over 40 books to import; if fewer than that, I simply use the "Add empty book" function in Calibre and fill out the metadata fields one at a time.
Hope this all makes sense, and feel free to ask questions.
P. S. And covers you have to do manually - one painstaking image at a time! [:(][:)]
Delicious sounds like something you eat or a slut from the Flavor Flave show I used to watch during my time away from the church years ago. No way I'd name my library like that.
DAL