Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Is a Wiki a suitable source?

Edit: Never mind, I see you answered that on the actual "rescue this book" page.

I just rescued this book

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11...

but before I rescued it, its ISBN-10 was in the ASIN slot, it's not showing an ISBN-13, and that hasn't changed. Does this mean it will disappear, or stay rescued?

Otis~~Is there any way to make a button on the could be merged to click to just merge it???

Quick question about Publisher - how far 'up' the publisher chain should I go? Do I just, for example, use the imprint name (i.e. Perseverance Press) or should I put the actual Publisher parent company, (Daniel & Daniel, Publishers)?

After I've rescued a book which I own, is there some reason why in the URL field the source is listed as amazon_de?

Jennifer E. wrote: "Quick question about Publisher - how far 'up' the publisher chain should I go? Do I just, for example, use the imprint name (i.e. Perseverance Press) or should I put the actual Publisher parent co..."

We usually go with imprint.

What if on the rescue page it asks me for author, but not title?

Susie wrote: "Otis~~Is there any way to make a button on the could be merged to click to just merge it???"

+1 that. same with the delete?

Lobstergirl wrote: "What if on the rescue page it asks me for author, but not title?"

None of my books have asked for the exact same information, so I'm guessing each books "rescue fields" are just the information that is cited as belonging to Amazon. Operative word in that sentence is "guessing". :D So, the book that asks for the author but not the title, perhaps the title had already been corrected/altered by a source other than Amazon?

ETA: Thanks Lobstergirl for the clarification. :)

JK wrote: "I don't know how this exactly works now that I think about it. How is Amazon able to tell Goodreads that it can't use information from Amazon? So long as something is properly sour..."

You could add a new book by copying and pasting everything on the Amazon listing into the appropriate field and thus "use the information," but this would be a manual entry of the data.

Goodreads was partnering with Amazon to get automatic imports (and I believe to some extent updates) of books and data. Anything "sourced" from Amazon was automatically imported in this way - it is this feature that is being discontinued.

Does this mean that every book that is not rescued, or reimported from the new mystery data source, will disappear from Listopias?

There are 94 books on my "rescue" page. Am I really expected to hand enter data on all these, when the data is already in the system?

Earlier it was mentioned not to worry so hard on it now. they are loading a master file from a non-amazon source. Just do a couple to "test the tools"

Scott wrote: "There are 94 books on my "rescue" page. Am I really expected to hand enter data on all these, when the data is already in the system?"

Otis has already said that with the import of 14 million ISBNs from another source over the weekend, this may not be necessary.

Also, no one is EXPECTED to do anything.

Vicky wrote: "You could add a new book by copying and pasting everything on the Amazon listing into the appropriate field and thus "use the information," but this would be a manual entry of the data."

Technically you can't - the rescue page says:

IMPORTANT: Do not use Amazon's information to rescue books.

Quoting the original article...

Early next week, we will be importing a database of 14 million ISBNs from a new source, so many of the books that seem to need rescue today may not actually be in jeopardy. We won't know until we import this new data source. So please don't spend a lot of time rescuing books—we don't want you to do unnecessary work. What we really need is for everyone to try rescuing a few books to see if the tools are working as we hoped. That way, once next week rolls around, we'll be ready to get down to the business or rescuing the books that actually are in jeopardy.

Scott wrote: "There are 94 books on my "rescue" page. Am I really expected to hand enter data on all these, when the data is already in the system?"

Scott, as Otis explained in the first post, they are preparing an import of 14 million titles. Odds are in favour of most, if not all, of your 94 books being included in that import. BUT, if those 94 books are unique in some way (book club editions for example) then yes, they might disappear. Which is why we have the opportunity now to replace the Amazon-sourced information with our own. Just in case. :)

Brooke wrote: "Scott wrote: "There are 94 books on my "rescue" page. Am I really expected to hand enter data on all these, when the data is already in the system?"

Otis has already said that with the import of ..."


No one makes anyone do anything. BUT if your books are eliminated, no one else will probably fix them for you. Just a guess..

Jennifer E. wrote: "Scott wrote: "There are 94 books on my "rescue" page. Am I really expected to hand enter data on all these, when the data is already in the system?"

Scott, as Otis explained in the first post, th..."

Does Amazon sell book club editions, for example and therefore have them in their database?

Brooke wrote: "MissJessie wrote: "Sounds like Amazon dumped Good Reads actually. Not the reverse. And given the exhortations not to use any Amazon information, threatened legal action ???

If they have an agreem..."

I wonder if this is somehow related to the new Goodreads agreement with Facebook. Maybe something about sharing information that comes through the Amazon API with Facebook? Total speculation, just seems like a coincidence of timing. The biggest frustration I see is the pressured timeline. If the new ISBNs still leave a lot of gaps, there won't be much time to fix things.

MissJessie wrote: "Jennifer E. wrote: "Scott wrote: "There are 94 books on my "rescue" page. Am I really expected to hand enter data on all these, when the data is already in the system?"

Scott, as Otis explained i..."

I have no idea actually. I know some on this list have said that Greek books are showing as needing to be rescued, even though Amazon apparently doesn't offer those Greek books and I was using book club books as the first thing that popped into my head.

Come to think about it, I do know that Amazon lists books it doesn't stock. Think out-of-print books that "are offered by these sellers". So they must keep a database of all assigned ISBN's and that is what GR mined up until now.

Sarah wrote: "I wonder if this is somehow related to the new Goodreads agreement with Facebook. Maybe something about sharing information that comes through the Amazon API with Facebook? Total speculation, just seems like a coincidence of timing. The biggest frustration I see is the pressured timeline. If the new ISBNs still leave a lot of gaps, there won't be much time to fix things.
"

Sarah - you've reminded me: I use software called "Delicious Library" to catalogue my books on my computer. They query Amazon whenever I scan a book in. They released a mobile version of the app so you could keep your catalogue on your phone - it was brilliant - until Amazon smacked them down, saying the EULA did not allow mobile devices to access their DB. They made Delicious Library take the app off the app store just a few months after it's release.

I'll bet GR's mobile apps have Amazon's knickers in a twist as well, since you can scan books that query a DB whose source is (was) ultimately Amazon. Just a guess though. :D

Jennifer E. wrote: "Sarah wrote: "I wonder if this is somehow related to the new Goodreads agreement with Facebook. Maybe something about sharing information that comes through the Amazon API with Facebook? Total spec..."
Sarah - you've reminded me: I use software called "Delicious Library" to catalogue my books on my computer. They query Amazon whenever I scan a book in. They released a mobile version of the app so you could keep your catalogue on your phone - it was brilliant - until Amazon smacked them down, saying the EULA did not allow mobile devices to access their DB. They made Delicious Library take the app off the app store just a few months after it's release.

Interesting. Maybe Amazon has just decided to start cracking down on stuff it used to tolerate before. From some things I've seen online it looks like the Amazon TOS require links back to them when their data is used.

I hope there are good cover art alternatives to Amazon. It will be a shame if our shelves all start to look bland. I was looking at Open Library, which has cover art, but also requires a link back to them. There doesn't seem to be a way to do that with the way pictures are set up on Goodreads.

I know we don't have to do anything, but when the editions all have warnings that they are "in danger" and bold red letters saying they may be deleted, it kind of goes against the "relax and see how it goes" sentiment.

Is this a good source for books?

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/index.cgi

I've started 'rescuing' mine.. there were over 280 on there!!! It'll take me forever:(

544 on mine, don't feel bad (:

OMG!!! Are you serious??? This is an impossible task:(

Brenda wrote: "OMG!!! Are you serious??? This is an impossible task:("

I'm hoping most of mine are rescued by that 14 million they are talking about.

That's why I am going to wait until the soon to be announced database is imported. I hope some of them go away (I mean, off the rescue list, not off my books :))

But if they are still there, there will be less time to fix them!!

True. It's a no win situation but I live in hope that there will be some fewer. I have made a copy of my current books though and hope everyone else will too, just in case. I don't want to think of any of them disappearing completely.

BTW, I see you are an Aussie--to be trite, how's the weather.

It's 25 degrees F here and has been ice-storming for over 6 hours. It's a wonder the power is still up.

Hot, hot, hot Jessie!!!! :D Air con on at the moment:) Temperature around the 30C mark, not sure how that converts...used to know;) I couldn't live with your conditions, though I guess you do get used to it.....maybe??

How's the easiest/best way to make a copy of our books? I have a large number to copy!

Brenda wrote: "How's the easiest/best way to make a copy of our books? I have a large number to copy!"

You can export your books (in import books page) in csv format. Btw I still have to rescue 725 books :/

Luisa wrote: "Brenda wrote: "You can export your books (in import books page) in csv format. Btw I still have to rescue 72..."

OMG!!! I won't complain about mine now!! Thanks for the info:)

Wondering how the people who AREN'T librarians go about finding out about this/rescuing their books etc as well?

Does the new source with the 14 million books have non english ISBNs too? I see that it could be better to wait and see, but I fear my italian books are more in danger than others...

I rescued The Atlas of the Land and that seemed to work fine. I also tried to rescue Our Tempestuous Day but it kept telling me the edition date couldn't be earlier than the first publication date. But the first pub date per the actual physical book, in hand, and per WorldCat was 1986, which is what I entered (twice). I don't know what it's comparing against, the current GR record? something else? Is this something that will likely be fixed with the big import or could it be a problem with rescue?

Betsy wrote: "I rescued The Atlas of the Land and that seemed to work fine. I also tried to rescue Our Tempestuous Day but it kept telling me the edition date couldn't be earlier than the first publication date..."

Publication date is not a required field it can be fixed later

Brenda wrote: "Hot, hot, hot Jessie!!!! :D Air con on at the moment:) Temperature around the 30C mark, not sure how that converts...used to know;) I couldn't live with your conditions, though I guess you do get u..."

30C is 86F (Yank living Melbourne *grin*)

Jennifer E. wrote: "Brenda wrote: "Hot, hot, hot Jessie!!!! :D Air con on at the moment:) Temperature around the 30C mark, not sure how that converts...used to know;) I couldn't live with your conditions, though I gue..."

Ha! Thanks Jennifer:) Little different to 25F then!!

Sorry if this has been asked already, but I didn't notice it. Say for example we don't rescue a book because we don't notice it or something, and it's the only edition and has its information from Amazon. But a user has manually added in say a cover image, or a blurb, etc - will that all disappear too? Or will it only be the stuff that's courtesy of Amazon?

When I finish my personal rescue list, is there a way I can have a list of other books I edited that need to be rescued (i.e. that I have edited but not shelved)?

OK, I've had a nice play with whats required, my list is now down to 800.

When is the script running, and when will we be notified, I assume here?

S. Bell wrote: "Sorry if this has been asked already, but I didn't notice it. Say for example we don't rescue a book because we don't notice it or something, and it's the only edition and has its information from ..."

As I understand this the fields you have edited are linked to you so they'll stay (in theory) but the nfo that's never been touched, because it was fine, and it appears still linked at amazon as source, will be overwritten by the new database they are adding. If that database doesn't have your book then I'm not sure if the book will stay with blank fields or poof in smoke...
I said in theory because I'm finding all my books have reverted the page count to amazon's value. If nothing else I'm very careful to fix always that. Wonder where those edits went...
My guess is: books with an ISBN prolly will be fine but books with an ASIN number is another matter because ASINs are the amazon invention to number books without an ISBN. What other database is going to include those ASIN numbers?
Quoting Murphy:"If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong" :D

I'm showing 510 books at risk. No way I could deal with those by 30 January - it would take me several months. When will be 14 million book import have taken place so that we know the scale of the real problem?

Hm
Here:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/edits/4...
All edits are mine, I own the book, why is still saying at the bottom: "url amazon_de" ?

I have a question about German books (not English books translated from German, but books written in German). I hope most of them are not going to be affected. Also, since many of the books on my bookshelf are in German (I am German and I have a degree in German language and literature), I would be extremely annoyed if after the deadline, most of my German language books were to simply disappear (I might even consider leaving Goodreads, if there is nothing in place to make sure that German language books are replaced and not simply permanently deleted).

Also, a quick question!! Do I have to be a Goodreads Librarian to be able to view the "rescue" link? I tried clicking on the link, but it says that I am not permitted to do this.

If the books have been imported from any Amazon then they are at risk.

If you have manually added the books yourself then no they are not at risk

I think you need to be a librarian to see the link. Somewhere on the thread there is talk of opening it up to all once the 14 million books have been imported from another source IF there remains a sizable number

For books from Belgium, I'm using the Belgian library database. http://zoeken.bibliotheek.be/ . When I'm on a specific page, it's not changing the url though, I think because of frames. So it's okay if I add the general url?

I'm also worried about the Dutch and German editions. How international will this 14 million books database be?

Cara wrote: "Oh nooo, please! That means tons of work in order to keep all German editions in place because they are ALL from Amazon.de (well, with the few exceptions of manually added books, but this number is..."

I know one thing. I will be quite annoyed if most of my German language books suddenly disappear. Even if the fault is Amazon, I do severely fault Goodreads for again leaving this until the very last minute, basically giving users and librarians less than ten days to weed through their book piles. And I am not even a librarian, so it seems as though I cannot even link with a book list that shows how many books on my shelves might need to be rescued. For goodness sake, why did GR staff not give us a heads-up or perhaps at least a warning at the beginning of the month!!!!