diff --git a/installer/linux/freeze.py b/installer/linux/freeze.py
index c381041675..a6151c4931 100644
--- a/installer/linux/freeze.py
+++ b/installer/linux/freeze.py
@@ -81,7 +81,8 @@ def freeze():
                 'PyQt4.QtScript.so', 'PyQt4.QtSql.so', 'PyQt4.QtTest.so', 'qt',
                 'glib', 'gobject']
     
-    packages = ['calibre', 'encodings', 'cherrypy', 'cssutils', 'xdg']
+    packages = ['calibre', 'encodings', 'cherrypy', 'cssutils', 'xdg', 
+                'dateutil']
     
     includes += ['calibre.web.feeds.recipes.'+r for r in recipe_modules]
     
diff --git a/installer/osx/freeze.py b/installer/osx/freeze.py
index 3ec24d3aba..dbaad72748 100644
--- a/installer/osx/freeze.py
+++ b/installer/osx/freeze.py
@@ -342,6 +342,7 @@ def main():
                                        'calibre.ebooks.lrf.any.*', 'calibre.ebooks.lrf.feeds.*',
                                        'keyword', 'codeop', 'pydoc', 'readline',
                                        'BeautifulSoup', 'calibre.ebooks.lrf.fonts.prs500.*',
+                                       'dateutil',
                                        ],
                          'packages' : ['PIL', 'Authorization', 'lxml'],
                          'excludes' : ['IPython'],
diff --git a/installer/windows/freeze.py b/installer/windows/freeze.py
index ab58fb669d..56486f6bd5 100644
--- a/installer/windows/freeze.py
+++ b/installer/windows/freeze.py
@@ -179,7 +179,8 @@ def main(args=sys.argv):
                                              'calibre.ebooks.lrf.fonts.prs500.*',
                                              'PyQt4.QtWebKit', 'PyQt4.QtNetwork',
                                              ],
-                                  'packages'  : ['PIL', 'lxml', 'cherrypy'],
+                                  'packages'  : ['PIL', 'lxml', 'cherrypy',
+                                                 'dateutil'],
                                   'excludes'  : ["Tkconstants", "Tkinter", "tcl",
                                                  "_imagingtk", "ImageTk", "FixTk"
                                                 ],
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/__init__.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/__init__.py
index eabd082142..d9b0514362 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/__init__.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/__init__.py
@@ -192,7 +192,8 @@ class MetaInformation(object):
         for attr in ('author_sort', 'title_sort', 'comments', 'category',
                      'publisher', 'series', 'series_index', 'rating',
                      'isbn', 'tags', 'cover_data', 'application_id', 'guide',
-                     'manifest', 'spine', 'toc', 'cover', 'language', 'book_producer'):
+                     'manifest', 'spine', 'toc', 'cover', 'language', 
+                     'book_producer', 'timestamp'):
             if hasattr(mi, attr):
                 setattr(ans, attr, getattr(mi, attr))
         
@@ -217,7 +218,7 @@ class MetaInformation(object):
         for x in ('author_sort', 'title_sort', 'comments', 'category', 'publisher',
                   'series', 'series_index', 'rating', 'isbn', 'language',
                   'application_id', 'manifest', 'toc', 'spine', 'guide', 'cover',
-                  'book_producer',
+                  'book_producer', 'timestamp'
                   ):
             setattr(self, x, getattr(mi, x, None))
     
@@ -235,7 +236,8 @@ class MetaInformation(object):
         for attr in ('author_sort', 'title_sort', 'comments', 'category',
                      'publisher', 'series', 'series_index', 'rating',
                      'isbn', 'application_id', 'manifest', 'spine', 'toc', 
-                     'cover', 'language', 'guide', 'book_producer'):
+                     'cover', 'language', 'guide', 'book_producer', 
+                     'timestamp'):
             if hasattr(mi, attr):
                 val = getattr(mi, attr)
                 if val is not None:
@@ -276,6 +278,8 @@ class MetaInformation(object):
             ans += u'Series   : '+unicode(self.series) + ' #%s\n'%self.format_series_index()  
         if self.language:
             ans += u'Language : '     + unicode(self.language) + u'\n'
+        if self.timestamp is not None:
+            ans += u'Timestamp : ' + self.timestamp.isoformat(' ')
         return ans.strip()
     
     def to_html(self):
@@ -289,12 +293,12 @@ class MetaInformation(object):
         if self.series:
             ans += [(_('Series'), unicode(self.series)+ ' #%s'%self.format_series_index())]
         ans += [(_('Language'), unicode(self.language))]
+        if self.timestamp is not None:
+            ans += [(_('Timestamp'), unicode(self.timestamp.isoformat(' ')))]
         for i, x in enumerate(ans):
             ans[i] = u'<tr><td><b>%s</b></td><td>%s</td></tr>'%x
         return u'<table>%s</table>'%u'\n'.join(ans)
         
-        
-    
     def __str__(self):
         return self.__unicode__().encode('utf-8')
     
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/meta.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/meta.py
index d8116b33d3..1241238f26 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/meta.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/meta.py
@@ -31,8 +31,14 @@ def metadata_from_formats(formats):
     mi = MetaInformation(None, None)
     formats.sort(cmp=lambda x,y: cmp(METADATA_PRIORITIES[path_to_ext(x)],
                                      METADATA_PRIORITIES[path_to_ext(y)]))
-    for path in formats:
-        ext = path_to_ext(path)
+    extensions = list(map(path_to_ext, formats))
+    if 'opf' in extensions:
+        opf = formats[extensions.index('opf')]
+        mi2 = opf_metadata(opf)
+        if mi2 is not None and mi2.title:
+            return mi2
+    
+    for path, ext in zip(formats, extensions):
         stream = open(path, 'rb')
         try:
             mi.smart_update(get_metadata(stream, stream_type=ext, use_libprs_metadata=True))
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/opf.xml b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/opf.xml
index 94a8f63b3c..9dab4efbf4 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/opf.xml
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/opf.xml
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
         <dc:creator opf:role="aut" py:for="i, author in enumerate(mi.authors)" py:attrs="{'opf:file-as':mi.author_sort} if mi.author_sort and i == 0 else {}">${author}</dc:creator>
         <dc:contributor opf:role="bkp" py:with="attrs={'opf:file-as':__appname__}" py:attrs="attrs">${'%s (%s)'%(__appname__, __version__)} [http://${__appname__}.kovidgoyal.net]</dc:contributor> 
         <dc:identifier opf:scheme="${__appname__}" id="${__appname__}_id">${mi.application_id}</dc:identifier>
-    
+        <dc:date py:if="getattr(mi, 'timestamp', None) is not None">${mi.timestamp.isoformat()}</dc:date>    
         <dc:language>${mi.language if mi.language else 'UND'}</dc:language>
         <dc:type py:if="mi.category">${mi.category}</dc:type>
         <dc:description py:if="mi.comments">${mi.comments}</dc:description>
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/opf2.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/opf2.py
index 32ba2cb45a..2e3b5ff047 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/opf2.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/opf2.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ from urllib import unquote
 from urlparse import urlparse
 
 from lxml import etree
+from dateutil import parser
 
 from calibre.ebooks.chardet import xml_to_unicode
 from calibre import relpath
@@ -436,6 +437,7 @@ class OPF(object):
     series          = MetadataField('series', is_dc=False)
     series_index    = MetadataField('series_index', is_dc=False, formatter=int, none_is=1)
     rating          = MetadataField('rating', is_dc=False, formatter=int)
+    timestamp       = MetadataField('date', formatter=parser.parse)
 
 
     def __init__(self, stream, basedir=os.getcwdu(), unquote_urls=True):
diff --git a/src/calibre/library/database2.py b/src/calibre/library/database2.py
index a7f522cad0..00da8f3e37 100644
--- a/src/calibre/library/database2.py
+++ b/src/calibre/library/database2.py
@@ -380,8 +380,10 @@ class LibraryDatabase2(LibraryDatabase):
             return row[loc]
         
         for prop in ('author_sort', 'authors', 'comment', 'comments', 'isbn', 
-                     'publisher', 'rating', 'series', 'series_index', 'tags', 'title'):
-            setattr(self, prop, functools.partial(get_property, loc=FIELD_MAP['comments' if prop == 'comment' else prop]))
+                     'publisher', 'rating', 'series', 'series_index', 'tags', 
+                     'title', 'timestamp'):
+            setattr(self, prop, functools.partial(get_property, 
+                    loc=FIELD_MAP['comments' if prop == 'comment' else prop]))
         
     def initialize_database(self):
         from calibre.resources import metadata_sqlite
@@ -590,6 +592,7 @@ class LibraryDatabase2(LibraryDatabase):
         mi.author_sort = self.author_sort(idx, index_is_id=index_is_id)
         mi.comments    = self.comments(idx, index_is_id=index_is_id)
         mi.publisher   = self.publisher(idx, index_is_id=index_is_id)
+        mi.timestamp   = self.timestamp(idx, index_is_id=index_is_id)
         tags = self.tags(idx, index_is_id=index_is_id)
         if tags:
             mi.tags = [i.strip() for i in tags.split(',')]
@@ -884,6 +887,8 @@ class LibraryDatabase2(LibraryDatabase):
             self.set_isbn(id, mi.isbn, notify=False)
         if mi.series_index and mi.series_index > 0:
             self.set_series_index(id, mi.series_index, notify=False)
+        if getattr(mi, 'timestamp', None) is not None:
+            self.set_timestamp(id, mi.timestamp, notify=False)
         self.set_path(id, True)
         self.notify('metadata', [id])
         
@@ -1203,6 +1208,8 @@ class LibraryDatabase2(LibraryDatabase):
         self.set_metadata(id, mi)
         for path in formats:
             ext = os.path.splitext(path)[1][1:].lower()
+            if ext == 'opf':
+                continue
             stream = open(path, 'rb')
             self.add_format(id, ext, stream, index_is_id=True)
         self.conn.commit()
@@ -1392,10 +1399,11 @@ books_series_link      feeds
                 f = open(os.path.join(base, sanitize_file_name(name)+'.opf'), 'wb')
                 if not mi.authors:
                     mi.authors = [_('Unknown')]
-                cdata = self.cover(id, index_is_id=True)
-                cname = sanitize_file_name(name)+'.jpg'
-                open(os.path.join(base, cname), 'wb').write(cdata)
-                mi.cover = cname
+                cdata = self.cover(int(id), index_is_id=True)
+                if cdata is not None:
+                    cname = sanitize_file_name(name)+'.jpg'
+                    open(os.path.join(base, cname), 'wb').write(cdata)
+                    mi.cover = cname
                 opf = OPFCreator(base, mi)
                 opf.render(f)
                 f.close()
@@ -1472,7 +1480,7 @@ books_series_link      feeds
                 if not ext:
                     continue
                 ext = ext[1:].lower()
-                if ext not in BOOK_EXTENSIONS:
+                if ext not in BOOK_EXTENSIONS and ext != 'opf':
                     continue
                 formats.append(path)
             yield formats
diff --git a/src/calibre/trac/plugins/download.py b/src/calibre/trac/plugins/download.py
index 63bb4006e1..e63a7d8d0d 100644
--- a/src/calibre/trac/plugins/download.py
+++ b/src/calibre/trac/plugins/download.py
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ class Distribution(object):
         ('xdg-utils', '1.0.2', 'xdg-utils', 'xdg-utils', 'xdg-utils'),
         ('dbus-python', '0.82.2', 'dbus-python', 'python-dbus', 'dbus-python'),
         ('lxml', '2.0.5', 'lxml', 'python-lxml', 'python-lxml'),
+        ('python-dateutil', '1.4.1', 'python-dateutil', 'python-dateutil', 'python-dateutil')
         ('BeautifulSoup', '3.0.5', 'beautifulsoup', 'python-beautifulsoup', 'python-BeautifulSoup'),
         ('help2man', '1.36.4', 'help2man', 'help2man', 'help2man'),
         ]