Hi, I'm a new Kindle owner, and a new Calibre user. As an Aspie, I love having my ebook collection cataloged and sorted by title, author, genre, etc. I am looking forward to playing with the Calibre plugin that will allow me to create Kindle Collections from my tags. But before I get that far into using Calibre, I have a lot of work to do in sorting out the metadata for all the ebooks in my library. I have been using the additional Metadata Source Plugins to connect to Goodreads, Barnes & Noble, FantasticFiction, and Webscription to assist in my desire for crowd-sourced metadata.
The problem I have found is that crowd-sourced metadata is not always accurate. A misspelling, or even a regional spelling difference, can create additional unwanted tags. For instance, some books in my collection are now tagged with either "Humor" or "Humour", or sometimes both. And please tell me, what does the tag "General" mean? What exactly is a "general" book?
To resolve this problem for my own ebook collection I want to use a standard for tag names. There are many standards available already that professional librarians use. I'm not a professional librarian myself, but as an Aspie I am likely to use something that the professionals use anyway. :-)
I have settled on the Guidelines on Subject Access to Individual Works of Fiction, Drama, Etc (American Library Association cataloging standard), commonly known as GSAFD. There is a list of authoritative genre terms available for this standard, the appropriate usage of each term is fully explained, and an example is given for each.
What I was wondering is whether there is any simple way to implement GSAFD in Calibre? My idea for implementation at present is as follows...
1. Edit the metadata for an ebook
2. Download the metadata from a reliable source, eg. Barnes & Noble
3. Compare each of the downloaded tags to the GSAFD list
4. Keep, edit, or delete tags, to have them match the GSAFD list
5. Wash, rinse, and recycle.
I currently have over 1,000 ebooks in my library. This is going to take ages! There must be an easier or automated way to do it. Any suggestions?
The problem I have found is that crowd-sourced metadata is not always accurate. A misspelling, or even a regional spelling difference, can create additional unwanted tags. For instance, some books in my collection are now tagged with either "Humor" or "Humour", or sometimes both. And please tell me, what does the tag "General" mean? What exactly is a "general" book?
To resolve this problem for my own ebook collection I want to use a standard for tag names. There are many standards available already that professional librarians use. I'm not a professional librarian myself, but as an Aspie I am likely to use something that the professionals use anyway. :-)
I have settled on the Guidelines on Subject Access to Individual Works of Fiction, Drama, Etc (American Library Association cataloging standard), commonly known as GSAFD. There is a list of authoritative genre terms available for this standard, the appropriate usage of each term is fully explained, and an example is given for each.
What I was wondering is whether there is any simple way to implement GSAFD in Calibre? My idea for implementation at present is as follows...
1. Edit the metadata for an ebook
2. Download the metadata from a reliable source, eg. Barnes & Noble
3. Compare each of the downloaded tags to the GSAFD list
4. Keep, edit, or delete tags, to have them match the GSAFD list
5. Wash, rinse, and recycle.
I currently have over 1,000 ebooks in my library. This is going to take ages! There must be an easier or automated way to do it. Any suggestions?