cataloguing
Feb. 15th, 2015 11:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silverflight8I've decided that I want to add a custom column in Calibre for genre. Currently, I have a bunch of default columns--title, author, date added, language--as well as a few custom columns--series, and finished (yes or no, manually updated). Adding and maintaining the current columns is easy because there's just one answer for most of them and mostly I just have to manually massage a few things that import wrong--because I prefer to view authors LastName, FirstName as well as sorting them that way I have to fix incoming books--but it's quite easy because I do them as they come in, and it's in easy batches. Same with updating "finished". If it's unfinished, I just leave it blank--there are three options, yes no and blank. I just update to yes if it's finished. Sometimes I use no to indicate in progress, but it doesn't matter. And it's not like I finish several books a day, so volume is very manageable.
But I want to add genre. I'm paralyzed with indecision right now, because I have to think about how to catalogue things. I have googled lists of genres, I know how to do it in calibre, I just can't decide how I want to do it. The manual says I can even nest genres hierarchically (http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/sub_groups.html) so you theoretically can have infinite granularity of genres--sort of like speculative fiction > fantasy > epic fantasy > medievalesque fantasy > political fantasy and sort on any of the above. But this kind of flexibility means I can't make up my mind how to even begin. I mean, I can see so many ways to just rearrange the sequence of the hierarchy. Part of the problem is that I have more than 200 books in Calibre and will add more, and once done it's going to be a huge task if I want to rearrange it later. How do cataloguers do it? How did the creators of Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress do it?
Fortunately for me, there are genres I don't read much. Mostly this is horror (too scared), mystery/thriller (dunno why, just don't reach for them often), Literary Fiction, non-fiction. The problem is the granularity I can feel myself tempted to add for the genres I read a lot in.
But I want to add genre. I'm paralyzed with indecision right now, because I have to think about how to catalogue things. I have googled lists of genres, I know how to do it in calibre, I just can't decide how I want to do it. The manual says I can even nest genres hierarchically (http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/sub_groups.html) so you theoretically can have infinite granularity of genres--sort of like speculative fiction > fantasy > epic fantasy > medievalesque fantasy > political fantasy and sort on any of the above. But this kind of flexibility means I can't make up my mind how to even begin. I mean, I can see so many ways to just rearrange the sequence of the hierarchy. Part of the problem is that I have more than 200 books in Calibre and will add more, and once done it's going to be a huge task if I want to rearrange it later. How do cataloguers do it? How did the creators of Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress do it?
Fortunately for me, there are genres I don't read much. Mostly this is horror (too scared), mystery/thriller (dunno why, just don't reach for them often), Literary Fiction, non-fiction. The problem is the granularity I can feel myself tempted to add for the genres I read a lot in.
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Date: Feb. 16th, 2015 04:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Feb. 17th, 2015 01:39 am (UTC)