# eBook File Names, Any Rational Constructions? - Squink, Inky A. (ed)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebook-file-names-any-rational-constructions-squink-inky-a-ed/562279
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 29, 2010, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebook-file-names-any-rational-constructions-squink-inky-a-ed/562279 "2010-11-29T14:08:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2010, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebook-file-names-any-rational-constructions-squink-inky-a-ed/562279/1 "2010-11-29T14:08:58Z")
It being 2010, I’ve a modest collection of eBooks on my computer/iPad.
Coming from a variety of sources, they are also named in a variety of of different styles:
Title, Authorfirst Authorlast
Title - Authorfirst Authorlast
Authorfirst Authorlast - Title
Authorlast Authorfirst - Title
Authorlast, Authorfirst - Title
Title Only
Random unintelligible garbage with some sort of code # in it, and lots of \_'s and '##'s
To say nothing of short story marks (SS), (ed) or (eds), multiple authors (, **and** ampersand et. al.), genre (technical, SF, mystery, history, sciences, poesy…) etc. etc. etc.
The situation is manageable at present. I can find the books I want. But I expect that’ll change over the next decade as I accumulate more of the things.
Are there any published conventions for naming these files in a consistent, intelligible and searchable fashion?
Free ISBN lookup sites?
I’m almost tempted to write a little book file packager that lets me bundle an electronic catalog card with each file, regardless of the text’s actual format,
But that’s not going to be very portable.
I know the epub format is _drifting_ in a similar direction, but is anyone ever going take the bit in their mouth and _pull_?
On a related note, which [ebook formats](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats) are likely to have a future, and which are fossils that I should extract my text from, while the utilities to do so still run on current hardware?
Finally, has the computer age killed off the post fixing of ‘the’ in titles, eg (Anubis Gates, The - Powers, Tim)?
Seems to me, the demise of paper catalog cards sort of killed the reason for this convention. Is there some reason for it besides making physical searches easier?
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### Author:  [@Nancarrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nancarrow)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2010, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebook-file-names-any-rational-constructions-squink-inky-a-ed/562279/2 "2010-11-29T14:26:27Z")
Oh look, I sent a mod message to move this thread, THEN I read your ‘reason for editing’. Doh.
Nothing to add to your OP. I don’t have your problem yet, not having any ebooks or ebook readers. But I look forward to having to grapple with it in the next couple of years - my music files have already given me many hours of merriment writing perl scripts to automate their mp3ing, and logical database schemas to cover their properties. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2010, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebook-file-names-any-rational-constructions-squink-inky-a-ed/562279/3 "2010-11-29T21:35:20Z")
Moved from Pit to GQ.
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### Author:  [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2010, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebook-file-names-any-rational-constructions-squink-inky-a-ed/562279/4 "2010-11-29T22:36:52Z")
Forget filenames. This is what [metadata](http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Metadata) is for. MP3 has it in the form of ID3 tags and different eBook formats will have their own schemes.
If you’re not pirating content, most purchased digital files will have metadata already. If you need to add them and have an ISBN, a simple Amazon or Google Books search will give you the relevant info. There are probably APIs for both if you want to do it programatically for many books.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [December 1, 2010, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ebook-file-names-any-rational-constructions-squink-inky-a-ed/562279/5 "2010-12-01T13:49:27Z")
> [@Reply](#):
>
> most purchased digital files will have metadata already.
Keyword being _most_.
With so many different formats, there’s little consistency. Even .epub lacks a proper standard for how cover images should be stored and named. Plus with metadata, I need a specialized bit of software to extract and read the info. As mentioned, I _could_ roll my own container, but still I think it’s preferable to load as much user intelligible data into filenames as is practical.
Anyone else have comments?