Libiry

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.

Use cases:

  • Create book notes linked to your library
  • Track reading progress with Dataview
  • Build a personal knowledge base around your books
  • Sync book metadata across devices
  • Store your entire book collection inside your Obsidian vault
  • Write book notes in Obsidian
  • Visualize your library or reading progress in Obsidian
  • Do mass updates of your book data in Obsidian!!!

Setup

Option 1: Libiry2Go export

  1. Run Libiry2Go on your book library
  2. Place the output in your Obsidian vault
python libiry2go.py "C:\Books" "C:\Obsidian\Books"

Option 2: Libiry BookSpineScanner export

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

Option 3: Direct library access

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

File format

Libiry uses YAML frontmatter compatible with Obsidian:

---
cover: https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780385490818-L.jpg
booktitle: "The Handmaid's Tale"
author: "Margaret Atwood "
isbn: "9780385490818 "
tags:
  - distopian
  - scifi
  - read  
rating: 5
---
 
# The Handmaid's Tale 
 
My notes about this book...

Field name configuration

You can adjust the field names that Libiry and Libiry BookSpineScanner use in their settings screens. Match the field names to the ones you 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.

In Libiry, multiline descriptions or notes can contain almost anything. In Obsidian, some of these descriptions or notes will be considered incorrect in the YAML part of the note.

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

The Book Search plugin can create book notes:

  • Creates notes for new books
  • Searches multiple sources, including Goodreads
  • Searches by ISBN, title, or author
  • Creates markdown with YAML frontmatter
  • Compatible with Libiry

Booksidian

  • Imports Goodreads reading activity automatically
  • Creates book notes automatically
  • Compatible with Libiry

Linking books

Reference books in your notes:

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

Tags

Use Obsidian tags for organization:

tags:
  - fiction
  - fantasy
  - read2026

Nested tags work too:

tags:
  - books/fantasy
  - status/read

Cover images

Covers

URL covers and local cover images can both be displayed in Obsidian:

cover: "https://covers.openlibrary.org/b/isbn/9780547928227-L.jpg"

View with: ![cover]({{cover}})

cover: "![[covers/handmaid.jpg]]"
cover: "covers/handmaid.jpg"

Syncing changes

From Libiry to Obsidian

  1. Edit tags in Libiry
  2. Re-run the Libiry2Go export
  3. Your book files will be overwritten

Quickadd in Obsidian

Use Quickadd to create book notes:

  1. Install the Quickadd plugin
  2. Create a macro with Book search
  3. Apply your book template
  4. Fill in the metadata automatically

Beware!!! If you clean metadata in the markdown file in Obsidian, but leave them in the ebook itself!!!!

Obsidian’s Book search plugin

Libiry2Go files are compatible with Obsidian’s Book search plugin:

  • Frontmatter fields match the expected format
  • Cover URLs work with image embedding
  • Tags appear in Obsidian’s tag system

From Obsidian to Libiry

  1. Edit the YAML frontmatter in Obsidian
  2. Press the refresh button in Libiry

Troubleshoot

YAML frontmatter invalid in Obsidian

The YAML frontmatter that is created by Libiry may not be valid in Obsidian, if there are special (HTML) characters in f.e. the description. Libiry gives you the description as is and makes no corrections, as that would be making a choice. 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)

Backlinks