Mods, Please Read! Adding Original Publication Date When Updating Books?

[Rosalie]

I'm wondering if there could be clarification about whether you should add the Original Publication Date when adding the Published date. I've just spent hours adding this date to books that it has been left blank on.

[Sandra]

I nearly always add the original date when I see its missing, especially if I'm working on a book. It affects the GR Choice Awards, so now I'm more conscious of it.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

You can make whatever edits are necessary at any time. It used to be that GR automatically added an orig pub date by slotting the date of the oldest edition in its database. This was often the wrong date and it was harder for librarians to know to correct the date when it was already filled in. Now they leave it blank and allow librarians to fill it in.

[Rosalie]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "You can make whatever edits are necessary at any time. It used to be that GR automatically added an orig pub date by slotting the date of the oldest edition in its database. This was often the wron..."

This answers another of my questions about why very few new releases actually are ending up on Genre New Releases pages these days. Thanks, Elizabeth!

[Rosalie]

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "You can make whatever edits are necessary at any time. It used to be that GR automatically added an orig pub date by slotting the date of the oldest edition in its database. This was often the wron..."

I think the old system had its problems, but was a much better system then getting the librarians to do it for every single book. It also meant that books weren't being left out of the new releases for each genre. I personally find it a lot harder to find new books to read because I don't know what's been released unless I can somehow know to look for it (but how would I know?).

I would love to know a mods take on this.

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

I"ll just volunteer as one who doesn't read new releases - and most books are not new - is that the old way was a terrible system and I'm glad for the change.

[Sandra]

If there is a wrong date in the original pub field, it is very hard for a librarian to notice that it needs to be changed, which is why they removed the auto date in the first place.

[Rosalie]

I have to respectfully disagree that this was the correct solution. As it stands now it's darn near impossible for members to find new releases to read. This has to have a major impact on the author and even on Amazon and Goodreads. I know for myself that I have read a LOT less books because of it. Because from what I see, the dates are very rarely inputted at the moment.

I just want Goodreads to look at other possibilities that would allow for the date to be mined from Amazon at least, if not from other 3rd party sites.

I honestly think there has to be a solution that will work for everyone.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

This group is not the place to request changes to site functionality.

The question regarding policy having been answered, I am closing this thread.