Last summer I went through a how to on backing up your ebook library using Calibre and Dropbox. At the time I did it solely because I am a paranoid person and my world would end if I lost my ebook library. Recently I stumbled upon a new benefit, downloading books from your Calibre library directly through the Kindle web browser.

Yes, that’s right. With a few select tools you can use the experimental web browser on your Kindle to access your library, and further, download mobi/prc/amazon formatted books directly to your Kindle’s memory.

Before we get to the step by step, let me make mention that this is going to look complicated. It is not a one step process and involves 3 different programs. However it is easy if you follow the instructions and once it is set up, even easier to maintain.

Part 1 – Setting up your Calibre & DropBox

In order for your Kindle to access your ebook library, it must be online somewhere and it must be cataloged. The easiest way for one to achieve this is to use Calibre and DropBox.

• A. Sign up for a DropBox account
• B. Download & Install Calibre. You can check out a slightly outdated post on why I love Calibre so much here.
• C. Follow these instructions to get your Calibre & DropBox installed and working together.

Part 2 – Creating your Library Catalog

Now that Calibre is installed and your books are being backed up in your public DropBox folder, you want to create a catalog that you can access using a web browser. Calibre2OPDS is perfect for this, and free, and open source. When we are finished here you will have an online web catalog that is secure and only accessible to you and/or whoever you give the link address to. It will allow you to browse through your books by author, series, cover, tags, etc from anywhere you can get a web connection and will look something like this:

So, let’s get to it!

• Download Calibre2OPDS here. I am using version 2.3 for Macs.
• Install the program and open to configure your options. You should get a screen with three “tabs”, the first being “Main Options”. Here you want to change the “Database Folder” to the location of your Calibre library folder within your public DropBox folder on your computer. You can also change your “Catalog Title” to something more personal. When you have adjusted those sittings, do not hit save or generate catalog, instead click on the middle tab, “Catalog Generation Options”.
  
• Under “Catalog Generation Options” you can customize what your online catalog of your library will or will not show. I am including my settings, however you may want to show the ratings or disable being able to view all books on one screen. Whatever you choose is your preference just remember to keep the “download” options unchecked. Once you are satisfied with these settings move on to the third tab, “Advanced Customization Options”, again do not click save or generate yet.
  
• Under “Advanced Customization Options” you can set the book formats you would like to be included in the catalog. I have chosen only those compatible with the Kindle but you could also include EPUB, LIT, PDB, etc. This is also where you adjust the number of books on a page and other similar details. When you are happy with all of these options, go ahead and click “Generate Catalogs“. Once you do a screen will pop up showing you its progress as it works, this will take some time. Be patient.
  

  

• Congrats! When it is finished you should now have a working catalog of all the books in your Calibre library. I can see you over there, smirking… saying… “Well that is nice, but where is it? Now what?”. Patience grasshopper. It will take a few minutes for your Dropbox on your computer to update the Dropbox on the web server. Go ahead and get some tea and a cookie, when you come back check to make sure your Calibre Library/Dropbox icons have the green check marks indicating they are done updating as shown below.

  If so, now we need to get the url to your catalog. You want to browse to your Calibre library on your computer, find the _catalog folder and within that find the “catalog.html” file as seen below.
  

• Select the “catalog.html” file and right click on it. Select the “DropBox” option and then choose “Copy Public Link”
  

Go ahead and open a browser window and paste the link into the address bar. You should have a url that looks something like this: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/0101011/name_of_your_library_folder/_catalog/catalog.html (Numbers have been changed to protect innocent books, your url will contain your own random numbers). Bookmark this page. That is the website url of your catalog that you may access from anywhere that has an internet connection. You should see something that looks like the very first image in this post and you should be able to browse and look through your library.

You will want to write the address down, or keep it handy at least, for the next step.

Part 3 – Accessing & Downloading a book using your Kindle

Here comes the fun, nerdgasm, portion of today’s lesson. Warning, these instructions will vary depending on the Kindle you own. I’m giving specifics to a Kindle 3 but other versions should not be too different.

• Pick up your Kindle and turn it on. Make sure your wifi is turned on. Hit the Menu button and choose “Experimental” then tell it to the launch the Web Browser.
• When the browser is up and running, hit the menu button again and choose “Enter URL”. This is the most tedious part, but you only have to do it once! Within the address bar type in the url you found above for your online catalog (ex. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/0101011/name_of_your_library_folder/_catalog/catalog.html). When the page loads you should see your online library looking something like this:
  
• Take a moment and do yourself a favor – hit the Menu button again and tell your Kindle to bookmark this page.
• Now, go ahead and choose a category to browse into using the joystick/navigator on the Kindle. I am choosing “Recent Additions” And then the most recent material.
  
  That will bring you to another screen showing you the covers of the books within that category. Use the mouse to select one.
  
• When you select your book you are brought to the book’s catalog page, complete with title, cover, description and other useful information.
  
  
  Scroll all the way down towards the bottom until you see the link that says “Download this ebook as MOBI” – use the mouse to click it.
  
• A pop up should appear asking you if you are sure that you want to do this…. (don’t you love those?)
  
  Click yes. When it is finished you should get another pop up confirming the download.
  
• Congratulations fellow Kindle lover, your book should now show up on your Kindle home page and be available for your reading pleasure.
  
• The next time you would like to use this feature, simply open up your Kindle web browser, go to your bookmarks page and find the link to your library. Click it and repeat the download process!

Stuff you should know….

• I did this on both a 1st generation Kindle and a 3rd generation Kindle. I assume it works on a 2nd generation as well but I do not have one to test it on.
• The catalog does not automatically update itself whenever you add a new book to calibre or change something in the library. To update the library you must run the Calibre2osds program again. It will keep all your settings, so all you will need to do is open it and click “generate catalogs” and wait patiently. If you are a smarty pants you can set up a cron job or schedule a task to run it.
• None of this is probably necessary if you only buy your books from Amazon.com. However, if you receive a lot of review books, buy from other stores, or use any of the free book sites, this can be an incredibly useful tool.

Hopefully you got just as excited about this as I did. If you have any questions or problems, feel free to comment and I will help you out if I can!