Calibre as Document Management System

[tetristres]

I have recently discovered Calibre and I find that it could also serve quite well as a database of personal documents.

How private is the information in the Calibre library? I mean, if I add personal documents like my own Word files or bank statements, is the content of these documents uploaded somewhere to fill the metadata information?

Also, would it be possible to have two different Libraries within the same installation of Calibre?

[ownedbycats]

Just avoid use of the content server (or ensure that it's unavailable to the internet) and you'll be fine.

You can have as many libraries as you want.

[Sirtel]

You can also have virtual libraries, i.e. one physical library that's separated into virtual ones by different tags, search terms, categories etc.

[tetristres]

Brilliant! Thank you.

At some point I saw an option to download metadata from Amazon. I can't find it now. That is what worries me.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by tetristres

Brilliant! Thank you.

At some point I saw an option to download metadata from Amazon. I can't find it now. That is what worries me.

That would be in Preferences => Sharing => Metadata download. You can select the sources. You could remove the checkmarks from all metadata sources so even if you right clicked on a book and selected Edit Metadata => Edit metadata individually or Edit metadata in bulk or Download metadata and covers, you would trigger a metadata download.

OTOH and this gets into my personal opinion, the metadata download does not send any personally identifiable information. If you are really worried about sending author, title, book identifier, etc., I would suggest moving to buying physical books with gift cards paid for with cash in a different store.

[BetterRed]

I recently started to keep my important personal e-docs in a Windows Portable library on a Portable SSD T7 Touch 500GB silver | Samsung Australia

Local retailer had them at $AU69.

BR

[tetristres]

Thank you!

Originally Posted by DNSB

That would be in Preferences => Sharing => Metadata download. You can select the sources. You could remove the checkmarks from all metadata sources so even if you right clicked on a book and selected Edit Metadata => Edit metadata individually or Edit metadata in bulk or Download metadata and covers, you would trigger a metadata download.

OTOH and this gets into my personal opinion, the metadata download does not send any personally identifiable information. If you are really worried about sending author, title, book identifier, etc., I would suggest moving to buying physical books with gift cards paid for with cash in a different store.

[Sunlite]

Just to give you a different option:

I love and use Calibre for its designed purpose.
I'm also sure it can be used for a lot of things, that it was not meant to handle explicitly.

But...

If you really want a Document Management System, especially one that can handle scans of documents, than you should take a look at Paperless.

It can help with scanns in ways that Calibre can not.

[tetristres]

Paperless seems to be more professional for small or medium enterprises.

I was just looking for a personal solution.

Thanks anyway.

[tetristres]

Anyway it seems that Calibre doesn't index Word files for full text search. This is a small drawback.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by tetristres

Anyway it seems that Calibre doesn't index Word files for full text search. This is a small drawback.

Eh, FTS does index DOCX files, viz:



I don't recall doing anything to make it index them.

BR

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Sunlite

Just to give you a different option:

I love and use Calibre for its designed purpose.
I'm also sure it can be used for a lot of things, that it was not meant to handle explicitly.

But...

If you really want a Document Management System, especially one that can handle scans of documents, than you should take a look at Paperless.

It can help with scanns in ways that Calibre can not.

Calibre is totally brilliant as a library and tool chest for eBooks, but a real document management system is rather different, though like Calibre it has a GUI, a files system you shouldn't access directly (with computer generated and scanned paper documents) and a database. It also likely adds barcodes or QR codes to stuff emailed or printed so if it comes back with writing on it the scanning automatically tracks it.
It will be multi-user with variable privileges (Calibre is single user), it will track changes and have the different versions (electronic or scanned) available with who changed what.
It might have approvals too.

[msel]

I use Calibre as a personal document management system also. I store my
- scanned invoices, letters
- e-mail
- bookmarks
- passwords
- dates (I miss just an alarm - this is done by other programs)
- notes (as a Zettelkasten)
- physical Books
- E-Books
- Videos and
- Audios (Podcasts etc.)
- Photos (as cbz-files)

I use some default fields for other values, e. g. if I store bookmarks I use to set the author field to "Bookmark".

You can use it very well for a personal document management system.

[ownedbycats]

I... would not advise storing passwords as plain-text (even in an SQLite database), if that's what you mean.

If you're keeping a KeePass (or other offline password manager) file in the Calibre library, not so bad.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I... would not advise storing passwords as plain-text (even in an SQLite database), if that's what you mean.

Not as bad as the company that put all passwords in an Excel Spreadsheet and then stored that on their online MS Cloud account thing that all members of staff could access.
I only store non-financial passwords in the Browser (which has no sync) and that has a main/master password.

If I die without warning people know where to find the physical address/phone number book which is never removed from secure area and never taken out with a laptop / phone / tablet!