Create more than one database for Calibre and load both or switch between them

Question

I'm new to Calibre and just installed it yesterday to manage my books. It seems great for handling books in various formats. I have thousands *pdf books and about 250 printed books that I'm going to add to Calibre regularly. I'd like to have two different databases, one for electronic books (mostly pdfs), and another one for printed books, and don't like to have both categories in a single database and Calibre displays printed books and *pdfs ebooks side by side that cause confuses me when I look up a title.

Is it possible to have two different databases and load both at the same time or just load one of them and browse books? If the answer is "no", what are your suggestions to avoid confusing printed books with electronic books?

Answer 1

Under “Calibre Library” the first option, “Switch/create library”, is the one you want.

Answer 2

In addition to multiple separate libraries, there is also the option of virtual libraries https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/virtual_libraries.html. This may be more convenient, as you won't have to switch libraries, and books within a physical library can belong to multiple virtual libraries. To make switching even more convenient, under the Virtual Library button is an option to show them as tabs.

To create one, click the "Virtual library" button next to the search box, and choose Create Virtual Library. They are based on Calibre's search system, so just make sure that your printed and electronic books have some sort of metadata that is unique.

For example, if all your printed books are tagged with Print and all your electronic books are tagged with Digital then your virtual library search terms would be tags:"=Print" and tags:"=Digital" respectively. You could also create a custom column (Preferences > Add your own columns) and filter on that if it fits your needs better.