Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
Policies & Practices
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Librarian Inquiry: Replacing Incorrect Covers per Group Requests
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As it is hard to prove a negative, the policy is to be on the cautious side. It is impossible to be certain that other sources have every cover ever used for an ISBN listed.To be clear, we're not talking about:
- Books published with multiple known covers who need an extra edition added in the correct way. (See Alternate cover editions)
- Images that are clearly recognisable as placeholder images. These can be replaced with the real covers from valid sources, but please add a change comment when doing so.
These are common reasons why people make requests for covers edits but do not fall under the 'never associated with that ISBN' policy.
Maybe you could give some examples of books you think this rule applies to?
I understand some covers are attributed to the wrong edition on the catalog. I understand that, according to the Manual, "existing covers should rarely be deleted and only if you absolutely know that cover is in no way associated with that ISBN." The "rarely" is what confuses me a bit, as this problem is rather commonplace!
If we're certain about the issue (and we specify it in the changelog), is it okay to replace these covers in response to group requests? I've double- and triple-checked each time, but I want to make sure I'm not in violation of Goodreads policy. Any guidance or help on this matter would be greatly appreciated!
—J.