Ebook Library Manager & Metadata Editor (EPUB, PDF, MOBI & Comics)

About the Ebook Library Manager & Metadata Editor (EPUB, PDF, MOBI & Comics)

Ebook Library Manager turns a folder of books into a private library in your browser. Open the folder — EPUB, PDF, MOBI, AZW3, FB2, CBZ and CBR files, in any subfolders — and every book is listed with its cover, title, authors, series and number, language, publisher, ISBN, tags and length, read from the file’s own metadata: the EPUB package document, the PDF’s document information and XMP, the Kindle EXTH header, the FB2 description and the comic’s ComicInfo.xml. Browse it as a cover grid or a table, search it (author:, series:, tag:, format: and year: narrow the search), filter it, see each series in order with the numbers that are missing, and find duplicates by ISBN or by title and author.

Fix details one book at a time or many at once, choose new covers, mark books as want to read, reading or finished, put them on shelves and rate them, and fill gaps from Open Library’s public catalogue as suggestions you accept field by field, with the source shown. The changes can be written into the files — EPUB metadata and cover, PDF document information and XMP, a comic’s ComicInfo.xml — without touching the text, and books can be renamed and sorted into folders by a pattern such as Author/Series/01 - Title. The catalogue exports as CSV, Excel or a printable list. The library stays in this browser; the books stay where they are. Without a pass the free preview catalogues the whole folder and changes one book in the library; a Pro pass unlocks the rest.

Common uses

• Getting a large folder of e-books into order without installing a desktop program.
• Fixing missing or wrong titles, authors and series so that e-readers, Kobo, Apple Books and reading apps sort them properly.
• Keeping track of what you have read, what you are reading and what is next.
• Cataloguing a family, school or club library as a spreadsheet.
• Tidying comic book collections: series, issue numbers and ComicInfo.xml for comic readers.

Where the details are written

• EPUB: the package document’s metadata (title, authors with their sort form, language, publisher, ISBN, date, subjects, description and series — EPUB 3 collections and the calibre form readers also use), and the cover picture. Only the changed entries are rewritten; every other file in the book is copied byte for byte, and the book’s identifier never changes.
• PDF: an incremental update added at the end of the file — new document information (title, author, subject, keywords) and XMP metadata (Dublin Core, PDF and calibre’s series) — so the original pages and bytes stay exactly as they were. Encrypted and signed PDFs are left alone.
• CBZ: ComicInfo.xml, updated or added (series, number, title, writers, publisher, date, language, genres and tags, summary and ISBN); the pages are not touched.
• MOBI, AZW3, FB2 and CBR: changes are kept in the library and appear in the exports, but the files are not changed.

Folders, browsers and phones

In Chromium browsers on computers the library remembers its folder, so you can open it again on a later visit (the browser asks you first), scan it again to pick up new or changed books, and write changes and new names into it — the browser asks once more before anything is written. In Firefox, Safari and on phones, choose the folder or the books again on each visit; changed books and sorted folders come back as a ZIP of copies. Books with DRM, KFX and Topaz Kindle files are catalogued by their names only, and CBR comics are read as far as their RAR packing allows (names, page count, and pages stored uncompressed).

Open Library suggestions

Find details online asks Open Library, the open catalogue of the Internet Archive, by ISBN when the book has one and otherwise by title and first author. It sends at most one request a second (the limit Open Library’s API guidance sets for apps that don’t identify themselves), asks for up to ten ISBNs in one search when you look up many books, and keeps each answer on your device for 30 days, so the same book isn’t looked up twice. Suggestions show their source; you choose which details to take, and nothing changes until you save. Only the ISBN or the title and author are sent, never your files. Guidance: Open Library APIs.

Limitations

• Books with DRM are listed but not read or changed; DRM is not removed.
• MOBI, AZW3, FB2 and CBR files keep their changes in the library only (their own formats aren’t rewritten here). To change a Kindle book, convert it from EPUB with the Ebook Converter.
• CBR comics are packed with RAR, which can’t be unpacked here: their covers and ComicInfo.xml are read only when stored uncompressed.
• Writing into the folder needs a Chromium browser on a computer (File System Access); elsewhere the changed books are downloaded as copies.
• The library lives in this browser: clearing the site’s data removes it (the books themselves stay).

Privacy

Sends data to online services

Your books are read and changed in your browser and never uploaded. Only when you press Find details online are the book’s ISBN, or its title and first author, sent to Open Library’s public catalogue (openlibrary.org), straight from your browser, and the covers it suggests are loaded from it.