Calibre gets a major update, becomes even more invaluable for managing your ebook library

If you’re not using Calibre on your computer to manage your ever-growing library of ebooks, why not? It’s free, it runs on OS X, Windows, and Linux systems, and it will let you manage your entire library easily. It’s also just been upgraded to version 0.7, and packs a lot of incredibly useful new features to help readers manage their libraries.

Why do you need Calibre?

I’ve described it in the past as the equivalent of iTunes for ebook libraries, and that’s probably the easiest way to think of it. It even has its own version of coverflow, the imaged-based scrolling interface that Apple loves so much:

But that’s not all it does. Here’s why anyone with an ebook library of more than a dozen titles will want to use it:

1. You can organize all of your ebooks, not just your Kindle purchases. Now every ebook in your library–including all those free titles that I hope you’re getting from Feedbooks and Project Gutenberg–can be in one location. This makes it easier to find things, easier to make backups, and easier to load/unload files to your Kindle.

2. You can use it to add things like summaries, genres, and ratings to your Kindle books so that you can more easily sort them.
3. When you connect your Kindle to your computer, you can see the device in Calibre and see what files are already on it, then add or remove books.
4. (This one is pretty cool.) You can create a catalog of all of your ebooks and send that catalog to your Kindle. This way, you can quickly see a full list of everything you have stored on your PC, so you can decide what book to buy next, or what to move over to your Kindle the next time you connect it to your computer.

New features: custom categories and adjustable interface

The reason I’m writing about this today is that version 0.7 has just been released, and it’s definitely worth downloading.

The resizable interface windows and the snappier overall speed are probably the most visible improvements. However, version 0.7 also comes with a vastly improved search functionality, a tag browser, the ability to create custom metadata fields, and more.

• You can create your own categories. Say you want to create a column titled “Illustrated” with a simple yes/no value. Now you can create that category and add that value to every ebook, then sort by that column if you choose. You’re not limited to binary values; you can also use numerical or text strings, it’s all up to you.

• Regular expressions and relational operators can now be used for power searches.
• There’s a new Tag Browser pane, similar to the labels that Google Gmail uses to help sort email. You can use the default ones and create your own, and you can use them to restrict searches to subsets of your larger library.
• You can retrieve metadata from Amazon in addition to Google Books and isbndb.com.
• Comparing your Kindle to your library is easier, thanks to new “on device” and “in library” columns that appear when your Kindle is connected.

Where to get it

If you’d like to test drive Calibre before installing it, you can watch a video tour first. If you’re ready to download, here’s where to go:

http://calibre-ebook.com/download

And finally, a quick warning. Please note that if you already use Calibre, there are a couple of changes that will make reverting back to a 0.6 version of the software difficult, so be sure to read up on everything at the Calibre site. (See “Incompatible changes” at the bottom of this page.) Also, version 0.7 no longer supports older SONY PRS 500 devices that haven’t been upgraded–but if you’re reading this you almost certainly are using a Kindle and shouldn’t have to worry about that.