Libiry

6.1 Obsidian integration

Obsidian is a powerful app that uses markdown files. Libiry’s markdown support makes it as good as fully compatible with Obsidian vaults. Use Libiry alongside Obsidian for comprehensive book management and knowledge linking. It can handle extra fields and different field sequences.

Libiry’s files work with well Obsidian:

  • The YAML frontmatter format is compatible
  • Libiry’s cover images display correctly in Obsidian
  • Libiry’s tags appear in Obsidian’s tag system

Use cases:

  • Store all your books including their book data inside your Obsidian vault
  • Build a personal knowledge base around your books with Libiry2Go
  • Sync your book data across devices
  • Track your reading progress with Obsidian Dataview
  • Visualize your Obsidian book notes in Libiry
  • Update your book data in Libiry, Obsidian Bases or both

Setup

Option 1: Libiry2Go export

With Libiry2Go, you can create book notes for your entire digital book collection.

  1. Run Libiry2Go on your book library
  2. Place the output in your Obsidian vault

Option 2: Libiry BookSpineScanner export

With the Libiry BookSpineScanner, you can create book notes for your entire analog book collection.

  1. Scan your physical books in the BookSpineScanner
  2. Place the output in your Obsidian vault

Option 3: Direct library access

  1. Change your Libiry settings to ‘store book data in sidecar’
  2. Run Libiry2Go on your book library
  3. Place your library folder inside an Obsidian vault
  4. Books and book notes coexist

Field name configuration

You can adjust the field names that Libiry and Libiry BookSpineScanner use in their Settings menus. Match the field names to the names you already use in Obsidian.

Field name booktitle: title
Field name description: summary

Result:

---
title: "The Handmaid's Tale"
summary: "Offred is a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead..."
---

Restrictions

In Libiry and in other book management tools, you can use almost anything as a tag (for example: “Columns & Interviews Language: English”). In Obsidian these kind of tags will be considered incorrect.

Libiry overrules book data from the book itself with book data from the accompanying markdown file. So, if you delete an empty field from the YAML frontmatter of the markdown file, Libiry will incorrectly read the field from the e-book itself again. Therefore, you are advised to not delete empty field lines from the YAML frontmatter.

When you edited YAML frontmatter in Obsidian, you should press the refresh button in Libiry before you continue to edit there.

In Libiry, the relationship between the source file and the sidecar file is based on the file name. Sidecar files have the same base name as the source file, but with a different extension. Because most operating systems and file managers have no knowledge of these relationships, they might allow the user to rename or move one of the files, thereby breaking the relationship. You should be aware of this when using other tools like Obsidian.

In Libiry, multiline texts can contain almost anything. In Obsidian, some of these descriptions or notes will be considered incorrect, because they exist in the YAML part of the note. To check if your vault is free of malformed Markdown files, various Obsidian plugins are available (see https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/markdownlint, https://community.obsidian.md/plugins/vault-inspector).

Obsidian plugins

Dataview

Query your books with Dataview:

TABLE author, rating, tags
FROM "Books"
WHERE rating >= 8
SORT rating DESC

Reading list:

LIST
FROM "Books"
WHERE tags = "status/reading"
SORT file.file_modified DESC

Book search plugin

  • Creates book notes for new books
  • Searches multiple sources, including Goodreads
  • Searches by ISBN, title, or author

Libiry’s book data enable additional lookups in the Book Search plugin.

Booksidian

  • Is compatible with Libiry
  • Imports Goodreads reading activity automatically
  • Creates book notes automatically

Linking books

Reference books in your Obsidian notes with internal links:

I loved [[The Handmaid's Tale]] - see my full review.
 
[[Neuromancer]] reminded me of ...

Backlinks