Managing physical books with an electronic format as well? Merge?

[lairdb]

Looking for some group input on cataloging practice -- sortof an edition vs. work taxonomy problem.

Some years ago I merged up my physical catalog (3555 books) into my Calibre catalog. I wanted to ensure the actual paper ISBN remained uncorrupted, so I added a "paperisbn" column.

(Also, though not perfectly maintained, I also have a "PBook" tag, and for many, a shelving location tag. #paperisbn:true is the absolute source of truth, though.)

Today, if I have a digital copy as well (about 1500 of those), I've got it in a separate row -- but then attributes that are more about the work vs. the instance. e.g. read flag, rating, etc., are harder to maintain, sort, etc.

Wondering if any of you have experience with merging or not-merging this sort of catalog entry, or thoughts on what I might gain or lose. Thanks.

[Quoth]

Each different paper edition has a different ISBN. If an equivalent ebook has an ISBN (it might not, they don't need them) it will always be different from all the ISBNs for paper editions.

I makes sense to "merge" different electronic formats that have the exact same content (like conversions). Really Calibre is a Catalogue, not a library, when anything other than ebooks that transfer to an ereader is considered. PDFs versions of a real ebook are a special case and PDF only versions are a special case.

Better to keep paper & electronic entries separate. I'd even have separate entries for different paper formats, never mind different editions.

[ownedbycats]

For me, it depends on the book itself. If the edition is sufficiently different (mostly case for public-domain stuff) I keep them separately.

But if it's the same publisher and I got the eBook to supplement (or replace - I've lost books to mold or my cats getting happy with their claws) my paper copy I keep them together.

[lairdb]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Each different paper edition has a different ISBN. If an equivalent ebook has an ISBN (it might not, they don't need them) it will always be different from all the ISBNs for paper editions.

Yes -- I don't care so much about the ebook ISBN specifics, but that's why I made a specific custom column to make sure the paperisbn didn't get lost or overwritten.

Originally Posted by Quoth

Better to keep paper & electronic entries separate. I'd even have separate entries for different paper formats, never mind different editions.

Agreed on the different paper formats for sure -- although in my case that's rare and usually inadvertent.

That leaves a problem of denormalized and diverging data on the separate editions, though. As a practical example, let's say I have

Author             Title         isbn         paperisbn   Read      Tags
Marcus Aurelius    Meditations   123456789X   123456789X  1/1/2001  PBook
Marcus Aurelius    Meditations   2345678910                       
Daniel Keys Moran  The Long Run  3456789012

...and what I want is the list of works I haven't read. Just filtering on my Read column will still give me the ebook edition of Meditations -- but requiring that I update the Read column for every edition when I read a particular edition seems.... prohibitive.

[lairdb]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

For me, it depends on the book itself. If the edition is sufficiently different (mostly case for public-domain stuff) I keep them separately.

But if it's the same publisher and I got the eBook to supplement (or replace - I've lost books to mold or my cats getting happy with their claws) my paper copy I keep them together.

That's where I'm leaning -- to use LibraryThing terminology, if it's a different work, then it's a different row. If it's a different edition of the same work, then it's all one row. I want to sound it out to the community before I merge 1500 rows, though.

In that theory, using my previous example, I might have

Author             Title         isbn         paperisbn   Read      Tags    formats
Marcus Aurelius    Meditations   2345678910   123456789X  1/1/2001  PBook   epub
Daniel Keys Moran  The Long Run  3456789012                                 mobi

...which tells me that I have a paper book copy of Meditations 123456789X and also an epub, and a mobi copy of The Long Run. Further, I might have:

Author                             Title         isbn         paperisbn   Read      Tags    formats
Marcus Aurelius & Gregory Hays     Meditations   2345678910   123456789X  1/1/2001  PBook   epub
Marcus Aurelius & Martin Hammond   Meditations   4567890123                                 
Marcus Aurelius & C.R. Haines      Meditations   5678901234               1/2/2002          epub
Daniel Keys Moran                  The Long Run  3456789012                                 mobi

...showing that I have cataloged three translations, one in physical and epub (which I have read), another in epub (which I have read), and one I don't have.

[ownedbycats]

Check the Find Duplicates plugin. You can either use it to outright search duplicates, or mark as exempt and view the exemptions. This makes tracking down the books for changing read status a bit less tedious.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by lairdb

I want to sound it out to the community before I merge 1500 rows, though.

Use "Export" and make a backup. Then to be sure to be sure make a copy of the "Calibre Library", and all sub-directories, or whatever it's called. Store those on something else (like USB stick, SD card, USB HDD, another PC, but probably not a Cloud Service unless it's your own hosting and a private subdirectory).

[lairdb]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Use "Export" and make a backup. Then to be sure to be sure make a copy of the "Calibre Library", and all sub-directories, or whatever it's called. Store those on something else (like USB stick, SD card, USB HDD, another PC, but probably not a Cloud Service unless it's your own hosting and a private subdirectory).

Of course -- but IME, practical issues created by schema changes tend to show up many use cycles later, when it's infeasible to unwind anyway.