diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/sources/cli.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/sources/cli.py
index d7d5153cf9..61b250e1db 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/sources/cli.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/sources/cli.py
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ from calibre.ebooks.metadata.sources.base import create_log
 from calibre.ebooks.metadata.sources.identify import identify
 from calibre.ebooks.metadata.sources.covers import download_cover
 from calibre.ebooks.metadata.sources.update import patch_plugins
+from polyglot.builtins import unicode_type
 
 
 def option_parser():
@@ -99,7 +100,7 @@ def main(args=sys.argv):
     log = buf.getvalue()
 
     result = (metadata_to_opf(result) if opts.opf else
-                    type(u'')(result).encode('utf-8'))
+                    unicode_type(result).encode('utf-8'))
 
     if opts.verbose:
         print (log, file=sys.stderr)
diff --git a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/sources/identify.py b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/sources/identify.py
index 5fc4a5bfb0..44cdba029b 100644
--- a/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/sources/identify.py
+++ b/src/calibre/ebooks/metadata/sources/identify.py
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ from calibre.utils.html2text import html2text
 from calibre.utils.icu import lower
 from calibre.utils.date import UNDEFINED_DATE
 from calibre.utils.formatter import EvalFormatter
+from polyglot.builtins import unicode_type
 
 # Download worker {{{
 
@@ -471,7 +472,7 @@ def identify(log, abort,  # {{{
         for r in presults:
             log('\n\n---')
             try:
-                log(type(u'')(r))
+                log(unicode_type(r))
             except TypeError:
                 log(repr(r))
         if plog: