Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Vivienne wrote: "Actually here is a question generated from something mentioned above about Audible.

In the formats listed for audio we don't have digital downloads. Certainly the majority of titles carried by Au..."

There was a discussion about this quite a while back. Can't search for it because I'm on my phone. The correct format to use for Audible is 'audiobook'.

Rivka, I've got a list of Dutch publishers sites, for the FAQ, if that helps. All of them support ISBN search.

http://www.debezigebij.nl
http://www.boekerij.nl
http://www.degeus.nl
http://www.uitgeverijcargo.nl (is an imprint of De Bezige Bij)
http://www.uitgeverijathenaeum.nl

The big import seems to have run out of steam. After starting with over 500 books at risk, I've ended up with around 60 - so about an 85% success rate.

To my surprise, while a lot of the books I felt were obscure have been saved, I am left with a substantial number of contemporary UK editions of popular authors that are now in the "will be merged" category. So I conclude that the Ingrams database is poor on UK editions. Is that a correct conclusion, and can anything be done to find a better source for UK books?

I have a question about individual GR librarians' using WorldCat.org as a source--isn't it against WorldCat.org's terms and conditions?

"Data. OCLC grants you a nonexclusive, nontransferable license to use Data solely for Non-Commercial Use. The following activities are prohibited and you agree not to engage in (or permit) such activities:

1. use of Data for Commercial Use, in any manner not expressly authorized by these Terms or in any unlawful manner;
2. use of Data for cataloging;...

5. distribution, display or disclosure of Data except to the extent reasonably incidental to Non-Commercial Use; and
6. permanent or long-term storage of Data (including, but not limited to, creation of or repackaging in a database containing material amounts of Data).

Using individual library catalogs, when those libraries are sourcing their records from OCLC's WorldCat, is probably a violation of those libraries' member agreement with OCLC as well.

What I foresee is the possibility that OCLC could ask GoodReads to remove data sourced from WorldCat.org or from library catalog records that were sourced from WorldCat. It's a gray area when we're talking individual pieces of information and not an entire record, but I think the thing with Amazon has shown that even the pieces of information (which Amazon, of course, does not own) can be too sticky to deal with.

While GR will need to officially respond, I think one of the imports for new book data has been from Worldcat's catalog, so GR probably have an agreement with them.

There are certainly entries in the librarian log tagged worldcat in the same way ingrams import is tagged ingram

The FAQ (msg 7) shows the sources Goodreads used. worldcat.org is listed under suggested resources. GR will have to answer this one. I hope it won't mean another pass at this in the future!

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/7...

Paula wrote: "While GR will need to officially respond, I think one of the imports for new book data has been from Worldcat's catalog, so GR probably have an agreement with them."

Yes, my question is along the lines of whether GR has an agreement that covers all use of WorldCat data, no matter how it is acquired (if so, where is the language letting GR librarians know they are authorized to take actions counter to the terms of service?), or whether they have a license covering specific extraction and usage (not questioning that they do, but rather how far we can assume it extends).

As part of my job, I create data in WorldCat, so I could really be getting myself into a jam if I just assume everything's okay to use.

John wrote: "The big import seems to have run out of steam. After starting with over 500 books at risk, I've ended up with around 60 - so about an 85% success rate.

To my surprise, while a lot of the books ..."

I think a lot of us in the UK have noticed the same thing. The best source would appear to be the BL, who are also open to free use of their database.

Catherine, maybe you should consider posting your concerns in a new topic? It could get lost in this one.

Jeannette wrote: "Catherine, maybe you should consider posting your concerns in a new topic? It could get lost in this one."

I agree though we are not actually importing data from WorldCat - basically using it to verify facts such as publisher etc. and then manually typing it in ourselves.

I have noticed that publishers sites while wonderful resources in many cases tend not to carry historical data - that is about older editions once they are no longer in print or they've been replaced by the latest new cover edition.

I'm in the UK and I had to rescue so many of my editions. Still, I did enjoy it! Can GR make an agreement with British Library?


Also well done techie guys.

can they make a agreement with the king county libarary system as well.

Libraries are not e-commerce sites or booksellers, so, per early messages, they are ok to use. No agreement necessary.

A couple of weeks ago there was an import from WorldCat, so I assume that implies an agreement between them and GR.

Paula wrote: "While GR will need to officially respond, I think one of the imports for new book data has been from Worldcat's catalog, so GR probably have an agreement with them."

Correct. I don't know any details, but I was told it was ok to use when rescuing books.

John wrote: "The big import seems to have run out of steam."

As Patrick announced yesterday (both here and in the FAQ thread), the major imports are complete. Other sources are currently being looked into, and many librarians are hard at work too!

Jan wrote: "Rivka, I've got a list of Dutch publishers sites, for the FAQ, if that helps. All of them support ISBN search.

http://www.debezigebij.nl
http://www.boekerij.nl
http://www.degeus.nl
http://www.uitg..."

I'll pass those along.

Jan wrote: "Rivka, I've got a list of Dutch publishers sites, for the FAQ, if that helps. All of them support ISBN search.

http://www.debezigebij.nl
http://www.boekerij.nl
http://www.degeus.nl
http://www.uitg..."

Awesome. Thanks for this. I added it to the FAQ thread.

Gundula wrote: "I hate to bring this up again, but is there going to be any way that we (GR librarians) are going to be able to click on GR friends' icons etc. to be able to view a specific list of their own books..."

Should be available soon.

rivka wrote: "Gundula wrote: "I hate to bring this up again, but is there going to be any way that we (GR librarians) are going to be able to click on GR friends' icons etc. to be able to view a specific list of..."

Thanks, that's good news.

I have a question. What's going to happen with the users who are not librarians, doen't know anything about this and have books in need of rescue?

I think Finnish works should be mostly fine as Finnish books are very rarely available through Amazon. But in case someone comes across some that need to be rescued, here are some useful links:

Library databases:
https://fennica.linneanet.fi/ (National library database)
http://www.helmet.fi/ (Database of capital area libraries)
http://monihaku.kirjastot.fi/en/frank... (search engine to search from all Finnish library databases - it's rather slow)

Some publishers (bigger ones):
http://www.tammi.fi/
http://www.otava.fi/
http://wsoy.fi/yk/
http://www.soderstrom.fi/ (publishes books in Swedish)
http://www.karisto.fi/portal/suomi/
http://www.teos.fi/fi/etusivu/index.php
http://www.like.fi/

A very good list of Finnish publishers can be found in Wikipedia: http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luokka:S...

Marisa wrote: "I have a question. What's going to happen with the users who are not librarians, doen't know anything about this and have books in need of rescue?"

I was going to ask a similar question. There was some talk of finding a way to view other users rescue lists. I'd like to see how many books are still on my wife's rescue list (she's not a librarian) to rescue those that we may have copies of or easy access to information for.

We just released a new tool to allow you to rescue your friends' books: http://www.goodreads.com/rescue_books...

The link is also now at the bottom of the original page that shows your at risk books.

This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For wrote: "Marisa wrote: "I have a question. What's going to happen with the users who are not librarians, doen't know anything about this and have books in need of rescue?"

I was going to ask a similar ques..."

I have spent most of my day printing out German language book information from the German National Library for my list of over 300 to rescue books (many of these are German). It is going to take a huge amount of time to rescue each of these books, type in the correct information (which I can only hope is correct, some of the books have a lot of editions). I think it's really quite too optimistic that non librarian users (especially those who are international users or have a lot of books in languages other than English) are going to be able to rescue all of their international books by the 30th of January. I know this is mostly Amazon's fault, but there are going to be a lot of very confused and likely very angry users post January 30th with scads of foreign language books with no information (including titles, many of my German books are to-read books and I am often the only one who has shelved them, sigh).

Yes, and think about users who doesn't any librarian friend.

Marisa wrote: "Yes, and think about users who doesn't any librarian friend."

I only found out about this by accident this weekend (I happened to read the thread in the librarian group), and I applied to become a librarian mostly because I have a lot of obscure books on my list. And I also have friends whose books I would like to check out, but that's not even possible at this time. I know the staff is working around the clock on this, and it is not meant to be a criticism, but typing in hundred of book entries takes me a very long time (espec. if typing in German or French, the umlauts have a way of not working).

Gundula wrote: "Marisa wrote: "Yes, and think about users who doesn't any librarian friend."

I only found out about this by accident this weekend (I happened to read the thread in the librarian group), and I appl..."

You can rescue your friends' books now:
http://www.goodreads.com/rescue_books...

Mayanka, that is so awesome. Thanks!

Could there be a way to see how much books they need saved on that page?

Oh and when we rescue a friends book, could it jump back to their rescue list instead of our own?

Gundula wrote: "typing in hundred of book entries takes me a very long time (espec. if typing in German or French, the umlauts have a way of not working). "

See if copy/paste will work. I am using two tabs for GR, which makes this sort of thing a bit easier.

Jan wrote: "Oh and when we rescue a friends book, could it jump back to their rescue list instead of our own?"

Jan, I will get that fixed, good point!

However, I don't think I can show the number of books each of your friends has at risk because it would probably be too slow to calculate.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Gundula wrote: "typing in hundred of book entries takes me a very long time (espec. if typing in German or French, the umlauts have a way of not working). "

See if copy/paste will work. I am using..."

It's my own fault, I have not figured out how to do that, sigh.

I can see that Mayanka. Could you maybe delete the people whose books are already completely rescued from the list then?

Thanks a lot again!

Gundula wrote: "Marisa wrote: "Yes, and think about users who doesn't any librarian friend."

I only found out about this by accident this weekend (I happened to read the thread in the librarian group), and I appl..."

Gundula, if it's ok that I would just type in the basic info I would help you with the German editions.
Only if you want me to ;)

I'm rescuing some of my friends her books, and one of them gave me the rescue page without an ISBN number:

http://www.goodreads.com/rescue_books...

edit:
another one:
http://www.goodreads.com/rescue_books...

Dodo wrote: "Gundula wrote: "Marisa wrote: "Yes, and think about users who doesn't any librarian friend."

I only found out about this by accident this weekend (I happened to read the thread in the librarian gr..."

Honestly, I would appreciate any help I can get. Thanks, that's really nice. Maybe I should send you a friend message (then you could see my exact list). I think that's what I will do :-)

I can see your list already but do as you please ;)

Dodo wrote: "I can see you list already but do as you please ;)"

I sent you a friend request (I hope you don't mind). I liked what you said about being an unread book hoarder (I have so many unread books that I really should not be getting any more, but books are a huge addiction).

Gundula, keep me posted how it's going. I'm going to work on my friends who do not have librarian status and for those books that might be deleted. When I get finished with those, I can help with yours.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Gundula, keep me posted how it's going. I'm going to work on my friends who do not have librarian status and for those books that might be deleted. When I get finished with those, I can help with y..."

Thanks, I think I am going to take a bit of a break now. Yesterday, I think that I rescued about 100 (or more perhaps) German language books, many of which I had not even shelved on my bookshelves. At least this has made me organise the books I do have a bit. I think it's going to take quite some time again tomorrow (but I should not complain, I checked on the list of one of my friends who is also German and her list is above 500, many of them books I am very unfamiliar with).

Great feature to be able to see our friends' lists!

Gundula, I'm going to look at my friends' lists, too, but I should be able to help you. For the rescue you typically only need the title, author and url (or I have the book), so go for the minimum! I'll get back to you. *soon*

Jan wrote: "I'm rescuing some of my friends her books, and one of them gave me the rescue page without an ISBN number"

Jan, a librarian stripped off the ISBNs of those. (Why? Confusion about how to edit, I'm guessing.) I restored them. Let me know if you find any more.

Thanks Rivka! I'll get to them now.

FYI, I only added back the ISBN13s (it was easier).

Here's a suggestion:

When I added books from Amazon which had the name wrongly spelled or in the wrong order I left it like that and then merge the wrong author with the right one, so all books by that wrong author would be corrected. Now it seems that the author field on those cases is still from Amazon but it really isn't anymore.

Couldn't the GR staff remove from the Rescue list those books or fields where data doesn't match Amazon's now (even if it's credited as coming from Amazon)?

Trikis, books like that on their rescue page most often only need the title rescued, and not the author name.

I don't know if that's possible, but I'm looking for new books to rescue through all my past librarian edits:

http://www.goodreads.com/librarian/us...

Could there be a note beside each book in danger there? (Like the one on the editions page)

Just to be sure: If I have a book to be rescued, and I can't find a record with the matching ISBN (some old book, for example), do I create a new entry with no ISBN, and then combine the two entries?

Otherwise, what's the procedure?

This book is on the to-be deleted list:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46...

This is the WorldCat entry:

http://www.worldcat.org/title/emily-t...

Jeannette wrote: "Just to be sure: If I have a book to be rescued, and I can't find a record with the matching ISBN (some old book, for example), do I create a new entry with no ISBN, and then combine the two entrie..."

Jeanette, that's fine.


Moloch, I don't think so. Creating the rescue pages (and the editions page) took a LOT of work by the devs.

About that, can I just say that I find the rescue page a whole lot easier to input data in then the regular add a book page? I really like the design of the thing.

Can we keep it?