Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
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Rina
Questions (from Librarians only)
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Two entries for the same book, one with ISBN and the other with ASIN
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The one with the ASIN was a second hand edition, based on the result when you follow the link to Amazon. Second hand editions can indeed be marked invalid or merged into the valid edition. (Personally, I only mark them directly as invalid if they are not shelved by anyone, otherwise I try to merge them.)As this one was shelved by too many people, the merge required a super-librarian, so I have done the merge for you.
Thank you! By the way what is second hand edition and how can I tell it from Amazon links?
If it is a physical book (hardcover/paperback) with ASIN, it is likely a secondhand book record. It may also have a description that describes the condition of the book, rather than its contents. For our purposes, only Kindle or Audible formats should have an ASIN.
So just I'm checking. I found this https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... and this is with an ASIN. Then should I make this "invalid" or "deleted"? (I searched this book's ISBN but GR didn't have it, so there is no book to merge with this)
Please don't mark it as invalid. We were told months ago that the system always assigns ASINs. In the past they haven't been visible. I have noticed that is slowly changing. Having ASINs makes a search easier. Titles don't always work, especially for non-Latin alphabet titles. They are not hurting anything to stay there. Since Amazon owns GoodReads it makes perfect sense that they would institute these. Please correct its title though.
If you wish to add the proper edition and merge this one into it here is the ISBN for the actual book:9788936446734
And here is the WorldCat page for justification:
https://search.worldcat.org/title/142...
Here is the publisher's page:
https://www.changbi.com/BookDetail?bo...
Always look first to see if there is one. With the ASINs I always leave them if the book predates ISBNs. Many countries today DO NOT use them. Most of the Middle East and many Eastern European countries don't. I was shocked to find this out. One of the Supers told me my first month that Israel doesn't use them often, so it is not the poorer countries only. ISBNs are not expensive as a whole and they are worth it, but I can see them being hard to get for some regions.
Thanks for the reply!I checked for the ISBN 9788936446734 in GR and couldn't find one, so that's the reason I said there was no book to merge this with. I can add one for 9788936446734 myself though.
(As you already checked) Korean books use ISBNs. Also this book was published in 2015, so it doesn't predate ISBNs.
Because https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... already has an ASIN and it doesn't let me modify its ISBN fields, I couldn't add ISBNs there. Also Renske above said ASINs for physical books are only for the second hand books and are invalid, so I thought it should be either removed (in case it doesn't have any reviews) or merged with another entry (which doesn't exist, so I should create one).
What do you recommend? And are ASINs with physical books invalid or not? I'm getting conflicting answers.
Definitely create the book. This particular book isn't one of the ones that I worry about. I was saying that books that ONLY have ASINs should stay if there isn't an equivalent one with the ISBNs. Since I like doing the older books I see it way too often where they are being marked invalid.With ASINs being assigned to every single book automatically I find it best to err on the side of caution and allow them to stay. Searching the net for ASINs and not finding an entry doesn't mean anything either. I have found that it will say something doesn't exist, but when I search the actual Amazon sites for other countries it will show up (normally with a warning that it is not available in my region). ASINs for the SAME book can be different for the other regions and will not show up all of the time.
Also not finding an ISBN doesn't mean anything. You will also want to search using the ISBN10 (this was all that was used until about 10 years ago) and the title. With this book when I searched the actual publisher's site for the ISBN it said it couldn't find anything. Putting in the title (in Korean) brought it up immediately.
Most ASINs will be used books that are invalid. I just wanted to let you know that there are some that should stay. I believe that anything that helps readers find what they are looking for is important. This site exists for them, the readers.
Secondhand bookseller records will usually look like these:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
Note everything that Scott listed in message 4 above.
If you can't tell from the title or description, I would just leave it or ask in the group. For this one I would just leave it if no one knows for sure.
Thanks! Then can I create a new book with ISBN 9788936446734 and merge the old one with ISBN using "How to merge two identical editions" process described in https://help.goodreads.com/s/article/... ?That process involves deleting the old entry (after merging it with the new one), which means the one with ASIN will go away and the new one with ISBN will stay. Is this the correct process? Sorry for many questions.
I have a dummy address I use for Amazon to search for the ASINs:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08JM11426
just substitute the B08JM11426 at the end for whatever one you are checking. This is not foolproof though, since as I said the different Amazons can have different ASINs in their systems. I don't know why they don't share their inventories. One would think it would be easier.
Even stuff from Canada doesn't automatically appear on the US site.
OK I created the book with ISBN 9788936446734:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
I'm not sure whether I should merge this with https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1.... Will wait for more answers or leave it to the group. Will fix the title and the authors on the old entry.
The whole reason I said anything on this thread was due to seeing the date that "The brothers Lionheart" was published. When I saw it was the "Korean edition" I went in search of the real book. Mainly I just wanted to say that the ASINs shouldn't automatically discounted.
Now that there is a legitimate edition I would merge it.
The amazon link for this book is https://www.amazon.com/Rina-Library-K.... This page has ISBN/ISBN13 listed but not ASIN. But If I search with ASIN B01K2IMQU6 (as listed in the second link) in Amazon search box, this book appears.
I'd like to merge the two entries. But I'm not sure if I can just delete the second one with an ASIN. What should I do in this case?