Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
[Closed] Added Books/Editions
>
Adding a book with a duplicate ISBN
date
newest »
newest »
It occasionally happens that the (I)SBNs on the copyright page and the back cover differ.The incorrect ISBN is noted here as well: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?1...
I for one agree with your proposed solution.
Marc wrote: "Ballantine Books accidentally published two books with the same ISBN. Goodreads is not letting me add a book as the ISBN is in use.I want to add
Title: 1984: Spring / A Choice of Futures
Author:..."
Duplicate isbn's get the first added keeping the ISBN (avoids messing with reader catalogs and activities).
The duplicate gets a librarian note and a comment in the book description explaining that it also uses ISBN xxxxxxx.
From the librarian manual at https://www.goodreads.com/help/show/2...
"...In the other case of duplicate ISBNs, it may be that an ISBN was reused on a completely different book. This shouldn't happen because ISBNs are supposed to be unique, but exceptions have been found. If that is the case, manually add a new edition to the database, leaving the ISBN field blank then in the Description field, add a note stating the issue with the ISBN and listing the actual ISBN. You can also use the Librarian Note feature found near the top of the book edit page to attach a note to the book (this helps prevent the book from accidentally being deleted by a librarian who thinks it is an invalid entry)..."
#3 But in this case, one of the books has two different ISBNs. It would make sense to just use the correct one for that book, even if the wrong ISBN did not match with another book.
lethe wrote: "#3 But in this case, one of the books has two different ISBNs. It would make sense to just use the correct one for that book, even if the wrong ISBN did not match with another book."In reading over https://www.goodreads.com/help/show/2... it appears there is no fully "correct" way to handle this as Goodreads' database does not support two or more records with the same ISBN.
I am thinking now the lesser of all evils workaround is to add the new record for "1984: Spring" using the details I noted in the first post of this thread but with a blank ISBN. This record would have a librarian's note:
This edition has "ISBN 0-345-31357-7" on the copyright page and the SBN "345-31357-7" on the back cover. Ballantine later published "Job: A Comedy of Justice" (link this to https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...) that also has "ISBN 0-345-31357-7" on the copyright page but a different SBN, 345-31649-5, on the back cover.
On the existing https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... add a librarian note with:
This edition has "ISBN 0-345-31357-7" on the copyright page which is the same as "1984: Spring, A Choice of Futures" (link this to the new record) published seven months earlier. The back cover of this edition has the SBN 345-31649-5 which can be translated into the ISBN 0-345-31649-5. (if you allow links in the notes you can link 0-345-31649-5 to https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...)
My thinking is that "1984: Spring" is a rather obscure book. It's non-fiction and is a collection of essays with most written in the early 1980s but some are from the 1950s to 1970s. I suspect 90% of the people who want to look up 0-345-31357-7 are seeking "Job" which is a more popular (compared to "1984: Spring") fiction work. Thus most people will get taken to the correct record and hopefully those seeking "1984: Spring" will see the Librarian Note with the link to the record for "1984: Spring".
Goodreads would have two records for the same edition of "Job", one under ISBN 0345313577 (from the copyright page) and the other under ISBN 0345316495 (derived from the SBN on the back cover).
Marc wrote: "...345-31357-7" on the back cover..."I doubts that's a valid ISBN number. Duplicate or not; invalid. I'll check over on ISBN agency site and edit this post if turns out it is valid. Usually ISBN numbers are 10 digits or 13 digits.
And it's not an evil workaround; it's just how goodreads handles duplicate ISBN numbers [the standard database practice on goodreads for book data (see the policy in librarian manual links above)].
ETA: http://www.isbn.org/ISBN_converter confirms not a valid isbn number.
It's an SBN (precursor of ISBN). In order to make it a valid ISBN one puts a 0 at the beginning.See f.e. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
I want to add
Title: 1984: Spring / A Choice of Futures
Author: Arthur C. Clarke
ISBN: 0345313577
Publisher: Del Rey / Ballantine
Published: February 1984
# pages: 259
Format: Hardcover
Description: This publication has "ISBN 0-345-31357-7" on the copyright page and the SBN "345-31357-7" on the back cover.
The cover image on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/dp/0345313577 includes part of the copyright page and so looks messy. This Abebooks listing has a clean cover scan: http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookD...
This would be a new-edition for https://www.goodreads.com/work/editio... (and would be the first edition, first printing of this story).
The book I want to add to Goodreads has "1984: Spring / A Choice of Futures" on the spine and "1984: Spring" over "A Choice of Futures" on the half-title and title pages. The title is not stated on the copyright page. Within the book "1984: Spring" appears at the top of the even numbered pages. If Goodreads requires that the titles match exactly for all editions then use "1984, Spring: A Choice of Futures" for the new record.
When Ballantine published "Job: A Comedy of Justice" in September 1984 they had "ISBN 0-345-31357-7" on the copyright page and the SBN "345-31649-5" on the back cover. Unfortunately, that means the ISBN 0-345-31357-7 appeared in two different books from different authors.
If Goodreads will not allow Librarians to add a record with a duplicate ISBN then we should merge https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... into https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... The 572059.Job record is for ISBN 0-345-31649-5 would matches the SBN on the back cover of that edition of "Job". Unfortunately, it would then mean that people with a copy of "Job" that search for ISBN 0-345-31357-7 from the copyright page would be surprised that Goodreads goes to "1984, Spring: A Choice of Futures"