Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
Questions (from Librarians only)
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Bot Adding Incorrect ASINs to Placeholder Editions
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The bots are adding ASINs to EVERY SINGLE !! edition on the site. They warned us it was going to happen. The roll out started in full swing back in November. Now every ebook looks like a Kindle.
Tawnya wrote: "The bots are adding ASINs to EVERY SINGLE !! edition on the site. They warned us it was going to happen. The roll out started in full swing back in November. Now every ebook looks like a Kindle."
I understand, but the ASINs you are referring to are valid, as they correspond to the ISBN for the eBook, paperback, or hardcover editions. The ASINs I’m mentioning now don’t exist because the book isn’t sold by Amazon. Additionally, Wattpad stories are also not sold on Amazon. This is a different situation, and I wanted to clarify that.
That is what I mean. I wasn't talking about legitimate ASINs. They have kicked the ISBN10 that was in the ASIN slot out of thousands of e-books and added a false ASIN. They have added false ASINs to audiobooks. They have added false ASINs to ACEs.
Before this kerfuffle a Kindle that wasn't valid may have been for one that had been removed from Amazon's database. Now, books that were never sold by Amazon (if we follow policy) will have to be changed to Kindle. They need to just combine all of the ebooks. Over half seem to have the ebook on the same edition as the Kindle. I stopped asking support to separate the ebook from the Kindle because it is worthless to do now.
They need to stop having Kindle, ebook, and Nook as separate formats. They are all electronic books. Since in a few months we will literally not be able to tell what is actually a Kindle and what is something that the bots just threw an ASIN into...
We cannot even use the timeframe as a reference. Last month I added a book for someone. Literally by the time I hit "Save" and then went back in to add my source there was already an ASIN that had been added by the bots.
I noticed that when I create an ACE the AISN moves to the new edition and then the BOT goes back immediately to the original and adds an AISN that doesn't exist. This is crazy that so many editions now have invalid AISN.
Cyndi Marie ☆★Audiobook Addict★☆ wrote: "I noticed that when I create an ACE the AISN moves to the new edition and then the BOT goes back immediately to the original and adds an AISN that doesn't exist. This is crazy that so many editions..."Yes, lately the logs have been filled with this bot edit on books that have no existing ASIN or ISBN, regardless of whether they are ACEs, fanfiction, placeholders, or books without identifiers:
format: '' to 'Unknown Binding'
publisher: '' to 'Generic'
asin: '' to 'ABCDEFGHIZ'
All the ASINs are invalid :(
Tami wrote: "Hi everyone,I noticed that the bot has been adding ASIN numbers to placeholder records for editions that aren't even sold on Amazon. For example, a few days ago, I wanted to request a merge of th..."
Sometime early last year they announced that all books on GR would be assigned an ASIN, regardless of format or origin. Not just physical books as was stated in the original announcement.
"On Goodreads, ASINs are assigned to all books that appear in the database."
source: https://help.goodreads.com/s/article/...
Up until 2023/2024 (basically until the majority of catalog maintenance was delegated to the bots, which apparently don't have to follow librarian policy as layed out in the manual) the documented policy was that only Kindle editions and Audible editions had an ASIN, see -> https://help.goodreads.com/s/article/...
Unfortunately they never updated the manual to reflect the new bot driven behavior and you have misinformation like this still out there:
"Ebooks with ASIN numbers are Kindle editions." <- not anymore since everything has an ASIN not just Kindle format books.
"Audiobooks with ASIN numbers are Audible Audio editions." <- not anymore since the bot is assigning random ASINs to empty audiobook ASIN fields and also removing valid ISBN 10's from the the ASIN field of audiobook (non-Audible) editions and assigning a random ASIN.
The new bot driven policy has virtually eliminated the ability for readers to distinguish widely available digital (ebook & audiobook) editions from Amazon specific formats (Kindle & Audible) on their shelves.
Tami wrote: "Yes, lately the logs have been filled with this bot edit on books that have no existing ASIN or ISBN, regardless of whether they are ACEs, fanfiction, placeholders, or books without identifiers:format: '' to 'Unknown Binding'
publisher: '' to 'Generic'
asin: '' to 'ABCDEFGHIZ'
All the ASINs are invalid :("
I've seen it happen to a lot of ACE's where the original was stripped of the ASIN or ISBN by the ACE tool move. If I depended on GR to catalog my reading I'd probably be inconsolable from the damage I've seen done to my shelves.
The bots are also updating the GR book records with whatever is on the current Amazon book page regardless of accuracy. Publisher fields are being changed from specific Imprints to the larger publishing house, abbreviated publisher names that in no way matches the publisher of record for those ISBNs.
They've consciously chosen to use Amazon's book data as the authoritative (accurate, reliable & independent) source for GR. Overwriting the GR book records already containing accurate metadata with Amazon book page data. The latter not resembling anything remotely accurate, reliable and independent. Think about that for a while and ask yourself why you care more about accurate book data than GR itself does.
Tami wrote: "In this case, someone has since marked the placeholder as invalid. While I was initially hoping for a merge, I’m now wondering: how should we handle situations like this going forward?Thanks in advance for your input!"
The longtime librarians (10+years) I know that are still active are merging like they always have, which are true duplicates.
Situations like your example, early incomplete placeholders that become redundant after an import (*assuming they can't be converted to ARCs), canceled pre-orders that were never published, etc.
For some reason newer librarians seem afraid to merge duplicates if they have the ASIN populated because they think an ASIN means it was "published." That's never been a hard and fast rule because imported pre-orders have been being canceled forever, and especially not now that everything is assigned an ASIN on GR. So I've seen many duplicates that should be merged set to Invalid status instead, as in your example.
*early (incomplete)placeholders are more often than not on GR in the first place because the author/publisher sent ARC's out and they want those readers to be able to track and review them on GR.
Tal wrote: "Sometime early last year they announced that all books on GR would be assigned an ASIN, regardless of format or origin. Not just physical books as was stated in the original announcement...."Hi Tal,
Thanks for the detailed explanation! I understand now that the bot’s behavior has changed, and ASINs are assigned to all books, regardless of whether they are actually sold on Amazon. That definitely adds some confusion, especially when it comes to differentiating between valid and invalid records. I had misunderstood that announcement I thought they meant valid ASINs not some random invalid ASINs haha
It's helpful to know that the presence of an ASIN shouldn't automatically prevent a merge, I had thought it would prevent a merge and was so confused, I requested two superlibrarian merges and they were done.
I appreciate your input on handling early incomplete placeholders and canceled pre-orders. I’ll keep that in mind when reviewing duplicates going forward. Thanks again! <3
I noticed that the bot has been adding ASIN numbers to placeholder records for editions that aren't even sold on Amazon. For example, a few days ago, I wanted to request a merge of the placeholder record https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6... with the valid edition https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
However, I saw that the bot had added an ASIN to the placeholder record, even though this edition isn’t sold by Amazon. I’ve even noticed the bot assigning ASINs to Wattpad editions.
In this case, someone has since marked the placeholder as invalid. While I was initially hoping for a merge, I’m now wondering: how should we handle situations like this going forward?
Thanks in advance for your input!