Numbers in book titles

[William]

I recently acquired a new book: "100 Acts of Minor Dissent" by Mark Thomas (with 5 spaces between his names on Goodreads). Scanning the barcode with the goodreads android app didn't find it. I couldn't find it by searching for the title nor did it show up on the author's page. So I added it using the title as written, the ISBN13 printed under the bar code but no ISBN10 as the book didn't have one printed on it.

Shortly thereafter I found there was an existing entry for the book but with only one space between the author's names, only the ISBN10(it is what http://www.isbn.org/ISBN_converter gives when fed the ISBN13 from my copy) and the title written as "One hundred Acts of Minor Dissent". I've combined these but I suspect I should really merge them.

My instinct is that writing the title as written on the cover is the correct way to enter a book(since any change would be an interpretation) but I thought I should check there isn't a policy that numerals should be converted to words before I do the merge. Also what is the policy on converting between ISBN types when only one is specified? We may one day have ISBN13s which can't be converted to ISBN10.

[Krazykiwi]

I would merge them. As for the title, book in hand trumps most any data source and I would correct that too. There is no policy on converting numbers to text afaik, although we do normalise data some (mostly re series formatting and capitalisation), but in general I try to keep the text as nearly exact to the cover as possible.

It's usually worth a glance at the librarian log for the edition though, just to check it hasnt been flip-flopping with warring editors.

[lethe]

I agree, the number should be written as it appears on the cover, and the two should be merged.

Personally, I only ever fill in the ISBN(s) in/on the book, but I know there are librarians who always convert, precisely to avoid duplicates like this.

[William]

Thanks. I've merged the two now. The "one hundred acts" version didn't have the 13 digit ISBN entered at all just the converted 10 digit one. I've added the 10 digit version to the remaining edition so it can be found either way.

I wonder why goodreads lets you enter both since the transformation between them is completely automatable.

[lethe]

Yes, there are several threads about this in the Feedback group, f.e.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Arenda]

lethe wrote: "Personally, I only ever fill in the ISBN(s) in/on the book, but I know there are librarians who always convert, precisely to avoid duplicates like this."

There is a third option (that I use): convert all pre-2007 isbn10's to isbn13's and include both on the book page. For books published after 2007, only list the isbn13, as the isbn10 added to these editions often results in a search error.

[lethe]

Ah, so in this case it is better to remove the ISBN-10?

[Arenda]

lethe wrote: "Ah, so in this case it is better to remove the ISBN-10?"

When someone has added the isbn10, I don't remove them.
From the librarian manual/help about isbn:
https://www.goodreads.com/help/show/2...
It is best if you can list both the 10 and 13-digit numbers, as it will aid in future searches for the book. If only one is listed on the book itself, you can use the ISBN Converter here to retrieve whichever ISBN is missing.

[lethe]

Thanks!