Organizational doubt: Single library with virtual libraries vs Multiple libaries

[joruib]

Hello everybody!

Sorry if this question seems a little newbie and feel free to ignore it... but it's pretty important for me.

I'm in the process of moving my entire book collection to a couple of external HDs (main and backup) and wanted to store in the HD the books as a Calibre library, so I can plug the disk, launch Calibre and point to the library to get the books I need.

My books comprise all of fiction, non-fiction, technical books and text-books, some exclusively in PDF and lots in several formats.

So, question is... which is the best solution? A single library with virtual libraries for fiction, non-fiction, etc... or separate libraries?

I really don't know if a single library vs several would be more manageable, performance-wise... so, if you could share your experience, it would be very valuable to me.

Thanks!

[Sirtel]

I would go for a single physical library. Otherwise it's a pain to search for something you may not remember every detail about, or to perform any library-wide operations.

OTOH, if you're sure you don't ever want to do the same things with, say, fiction books and technical PDFs, you could keep them separately. It all comes down to personal preferences.

There is a somewhat worse performance with a huge library vs a smaller one, but for me personally the convenience of using a single library is worth it. YMMV.

[theducks]

2 main reasons FOR separate:

1) Security (includes PG supervision needed)
2) The Metadata (Columns) vary significantly (and can't be optimized. I see extra columns where a Tag and a VL or 3 would get the job done. AKA Brute force)
2b) A column with Fixed values needs to be different

Ask yourself:How much added disk space would those 'Extra' (not used for the other Library take)

[DNSB]

My personal choice is two physical libraries. One is called Intake is where books are imported, metadata, covers, etc. cleaned up and any editing is done. After that the books are moved to Main where I use VLs when I want to look at sublibraries.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DNSB

My personal choice is two physical libraries. One is called Intake is where books are imported, metadata, covers, etc. cleaned up and any editing is done. After that the books are moved to Main where I use VLs when I want to look at sublibraries.

I do all that in my main library. Never saw the need to have a separate library for this.

Besides, when editing metadata I often don't recall exactly what the series number might be for a new book in a long-running series, and I need to see the rest of the series to ascertain this. How could I do that if the rest of the series was in a separate physical library?

Edit: I also modify series names, so I need to see the rest of the series for that too.

[ownedbycats]

I tried using a separate intake library for a bit but kept forgetting to switch over. I have a Cleanup VL instead.