How To manage your eBook library

[jaylward]

With the huge quantity of paid and free eBooks available, it's easy to suddenly find yourself with a Reader^TM Library full of disorganised content. Here are some tips for organising and managing your eBooks in the Sony Reader^TM software.

1.) Delete unwanted eBooks

First of all, consider whether you actually want all those eBooks.  Sure, it can seem like a treasure trove when you find the entire back catalogue of Jane Austen or Plato's Republic in Italian, but do you actually want to read them?   Sure, you can fill your Library and Reader to the brim (and it doesn't get any heavier to carry around!), but you don't have to.  Delete any titles that you think are just taking up space. Simply locate the books in your library and select them so they have a dark red rectangle around them:

Then click on the 'More Actions' --> Remove button along the bottom-left of the screen:

2.) Sort your eBooks

View the titles in list mode by clicking on the right option in the lower-right of the Reader^TM software window:  .  You'll see that there are columns for Title, Author, Status, Date Added, etc.  You can select and drag these columns around to suit how you want to see the information.  Also, you can expand or contract the width of the columns by dragging on the edges of the column.  When you click on a column, you sort the eBook contents by that column's category.  For example, clicking on 'Author' will allow you to view the eBooks in alphabetical or reverse alphabetical order by author's name.

You can also sort in thumbnail mode   using the drop-down menu in the upper-right part of the screen: .

Do bear in mind that, depending on their source, the eBook files may have inaccurate or missing information in some of the fields which will cause them to sort in unexpected ways.

3.) Identify your favourites

Select eBooks and then select   in the bottom of the Books screen.  The thumbnails acquire a heart symbol:  .  You can then see your favourites in the dark red Favourites tab.

4.) Put the books into collections... and sync them

The 'Collections' feature allows you to group your books in a way that is useful to you.  Select the Tab along the dark red bar and then click and give the collection a name.  If you want to rename a collection, select the collection and choose 'Rename' from the 'More Actions' button at the bottom of the screen. To add eBooks to a Collection, just select the titles and select   then select the Collection name. You can add eBooks to multiple collections. Double-clicking on the Collection will allow you to see its contents.

When you sync your device with the library, you will be given the option to sync your collections individually. This could be very useful if you don't want to move the entire Library onto the device.

Once synced, you can access Collections from the Home Screen of your device.

Consider these kind of collections:

• Collections of eBooks by the same author.  This would be especially useful if the authors names were excluded from the Author field (see sorting, above).
• If you are studying, create a collection for your text books and another for books you want to read for enjoyment.
• Separate books by genre or language.
• Perhaps you and your spouse or children have different tastes in books? Create a collection for each of you before you go on holiday.