diff --git a/src/calibre/devices/usbms/books.py b/src/calibre/devices/usbms/books.py
index e5a67463e7..23ce1716af 100644
--- a/src/calibre/devices/usbms/books.py
+++ b/src/calibre/devices/usbms/books.py
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ from calibre.devices.interface import BookList as _BookList
 from calibre.constants import preferred_encoding
 from calibre import isbytestring
 from calibre.utils.config import prefs, tweaks
-from calibre.utils.icu import sort_key
+from calibre.utils.icu import sort_key, strcmp as icu_strcmp
 
 class Book(Metadata):
     def __init__(self, prefix, lpath, size=None, other=None):
@@ -241,7 +241,7 @@ class CollectionsBookList(BookList):
             if y is None:
                 return -1
             if isinstance(x, (unicode, str)):
-                c = cmp(sort_key(x), sort_key(y))
+                c = strcmp(x, y)
             else:
                 c = cmp(x, y)
             if c != 0:
diff --git a/src/calibre/gui2/library/models.py b/src/calibre/gui2/library/models.py
index e854ffc1bc..311cbaf369 100644
--- a/src/calibre/gui2/library/models.py
+++ b/src/calibre/gui2/library/models.py
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ from calibre.ebooks.metadata import fmt_sidx, authors_to_string, string_to_autho
 from calibre.ptempfile import PersistentTemporaryFile
 from calibre.utils.config import tweaks, prefs
 from calibre.utils.date import dt_factory, qt_to_dt, isoformat
-from calibre.utils.icu import sort_key
+from calibre.utils.icu import sort_key, strcmp as icu_strcmp
 from calibre.ebooks.metadata.meta import set_metadata as _set_metadata
 from calibre.utils.search_query_parser import SearchQueryParser
 from calibre.library.caches import _match, CONTAINS_MATCH, EQUALS_MATCH, \
@@ -1023,8 +1023,8 @@ class DeviceBooksModel(BooksModel): # {{{
                     x = ''
                 if y == None:
                     y = ''
-                x, y = x.strip().lower(), y.strip().lower()
-                return cmp(x, y)
+                x, y = icu_lower(x.strip()), icu_lower(y.strip())
+                return icu_strcmp(x, y)
             return _strcmp
         def datecmp(x, y):
             x = self.db[x].datetime