Goodreads Transitions to New Data Sources

We're happy to announce that Goodreads has reached a new milestone: We are no longer dependent on Amazon for book information. Ingram, the largest wholesaler of books in the U.S., is our new primary data partner, and our agreement with them will ensure accurate and reliable information for the foreseeable future. In addition to Ingram, we are working with dozens of other open data sources, such as libraries, to find book records from all over the world (see below for a list). This is an exciting moment, and we're confident that this change will be better for the members of Goodreads and long-term success of the site.

What has changed? Not as much as you might think.
Fewer than 2 percent of our 7 million users have books currently affected. However, you may notice some missing cover images. We are still in the process of importing millions of images from several sources, so please be patient—most of those images will be back very soon.

Today, 99 percent of the transition to new data sources is now complete. For the remaining 1 percent of books without new sources, book records may appear blank: listed as "Unknown Title" and "Unknown Author." Once we've found a new source of data for those books, they will be restored. Please be assured that all of your reviews and ratings will continue to be available during the transition.

What can I do right now?
Here's what you can do to help make the switch as smooth as possible:

If you see a blank book record—one listed as "Unknown Title" and "Unknown Author"—and you know what book it is (for example, if you reviewed the book and can recognize it from your review), please report it in the Goodreads Librarians Group or apply to become a Librarian yourself. If you're a librarian and you see a blank book record that you can identify, please feel free to enter new information using one of the approved sources listed in this post.

If you see a book missing a cover, feel free to find a new one on the author's or publisher's Web site and upload it to Goodreads. While many of the missing cover images will be included very soon in our ongoing imports, we also welcome book information from Goodreads members.

Why did we do this?
Quality book information—such as titles, authors, publication dates, and cover images—is the life blood of a site dedicated to book discovery and literary discussion. Since its inception, Goodreads has relied on Amazon's public API for much of this information, and while Amazon data was free, it came with many restrictions. For instance, we couldn't use their information for our mobile apps or link to competing bookstores. If you have any additional questions about the transition, please feel free to contact us.

We'd like to say a big thank you to the many Goodreads Librarians and Goodreads Authors who have worked tirelessly to help with the transition over the past few weeks. Thank you again for continuing to make Goodreads the amazing and unique place it is. We look forward to providing you with the best, most accurate, and most all-encompassing book database in the world for many years to come.

Our sources of data
Ingram
WorldCat
ISBNdb
All Major American Publishers
Many Smaller American Publishers
The Library of Congress
The German National Library
The British National Library
Goodreads Authors
(And growing!)

Authors and Publishers, would you like to be a source?
We are very proud of the enormous community of authors on the site, and keeping your book information accurate has always been a priority of ours. We are most likely already importing a feed of data for your books (either from Ingram or directly from your publisher), but if you would like to confirm this, or offer us a feed of data to ensure that your books will always be available to the millions of readers on Goodreads, please contact us.