Database import of massive amount of books

[Mattias]

Excellent site this, but as a member and librarian for a few years now I find the GR data very thin on books in my native tongue. When adding a book to my shelf, in nine out of ten I'll also have to first add the book itself.

One obvious approach would be to do a massive import of books, translated or native. The technical aspects are sort of trivial, reading from a database, or harvesting data from a web site, and autoadd via the ordinary form. The legal aspects however...

I have been asking around among some of our local online book sellers and found at least one that would be willing to help. They are themselves using Goodreads and find this a very good community. Obviously they are interested in some sort of return for handing over access to all their data. Adding their site in the description mentioning they wrote it, or something other.

I would consider this a one-time import, not continuously updating. Of course not touching any isbn already in the GR database. Number of books would be somewhere between ten and hundred thousand, starting with specific genres, and depending on what is already in the GR database.

So, how to go about doing this? I would not add what could be seen as an advertising link in the description without expressly told it is ok to do so. Do we have anything else to offer them for handing over all data including descriptions and cover images?

I could easily set it up to add a book every few second or so to avoid killing the servers. Or is there a better way to add this amount of data?

[Paula]

You should contact GR Support or post in the GR Feedback group.

[Banjomike]

I expect we still couldn't use your online book sellers but, as Paula says, contacting Customer Support must be your best bet.

[Mattias]

Yes I would think someone of more-than-librarian authority would need a say on this. I'll see who I can find...

However, still interested in other ideas and general knowledge from this group. This something we do every now and then? What would be considered the proper way to add many books? Is that something we would want do do with non-english litterature?

Do we want a database as complete as possible, or with the books people actually read? I could certainly see it both ways...

[Banjomike]

Goodreads wants ALL books. Big imports are run frequently from publishers, other database sites, and others locations that are more difficult to identify.

The process of importing can be discussed when the PTB talk to the potential suppliers but this is certainly something GR would want do do with non-English or even English literature.

[Devin]

When it comes to Swedish books, both native and translated, I have the same experience. I use http://www.kb.se/libris as my primary source for book data, and some other library sources. I don't mind adding books manually - many automatic imports are really screwed up... Doing it manually takes time, but I think it's kind of fun. If I didn't, I wouldn't have applied to be a lubraruan.

[Devin]

Eh, *librarian. I should stop typing on my phone and read instead. ;-p