Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
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Try using Google with keywords in quotes such as "Iain Banks Song Stone Abacus hardback" - I got an ISBN of 0316640166 that way. If you don't see an ISBN on the back cover, it should definitely be on the title page along with the copyright date, etc. Somewhat "buried" perhaps, but it should be there.
Books published before about 1966-1970 do not have an ISBN number.
BCA is Book Club Associates in the UK (http://www.bca.co.uk/about.aspx). For those not familiar with the wily ways of publishing, book club editions are generally cheaper "knockoffs" of trade editions with ISBNs (this sort of thing can drive first edition collectors to drink. More). Sometimes book club editions will display full publishing data, sometimes they won't. I don't have solid data to back this up yet, but CN is probably referencing an in-house catalog number.
Hey all,ISBN numbers are optional - you should be able to just not specify one. And we'd prefer that to having invalid ones in there.
The newest books are having the new 13-ISBN. Is the field large enough to accommodate this new system?
Adding support for ISBN-13 is on our todo list. It will be a separate field from ISBN-10.
I've got a load of BCA books, which I've recorded the CN numbers for, before storing them away. Could go through by title/author, but would rather not. Is there a way to relate CN to ISBN?If not will have to do the long way around and record the CNs in review (I take it you can only put notes like this in as "reviews").
Oh and what about OLD books - i have a few from the 50s/60s, from before the ISBN system...
Andy wrote: "Is there a way to relate CN to ISBN?"I don't think so -- perhaps BCA has a list somewhere? I know that a lot of book club editions don't have ISBNs at all. There isn't a field for CN specifically, but a librarian could add it to the book description for book club books.
"Oh and what about OLD books - i have a few from the 50s/60s, from before the ISBN system..."
Those won't have ISBNs either, unless they've been reprinted more recently.
Cait wrote: "Andy wrote: "Is there a way to relate CN to ISBN?"I don't think so -- perhaps BCA has a list somewhere? I know that a lot of book club editions don't have ISBNs at all. There isn't a field for CN specifically, but a librarian could add it to the book description for book club books."
For vintage science fiction paperbacks, I have been putting things like 'Signet W7766' in the "edition" field. Could that be used for CN numbers as well?
That sounds like a good point and could be used for my other query, about vintage sf (digit rather than signet...).To do the edition thing do you have to create a new book, or can you just add an edition to an existing book?
To add edition information, you just need to edit the existing book, if it's the right one.
So does this create a duplicate book?What I mean is, if I find a book that is the same apart from the edition (i.e. has a valid ISBN no.) and I edit it, won't that edit that edition?
Is there a way to create a duplicate of a book, and enter the edition information against that copy only?
To do the edition thing do you have to create a new book, or can you just add an edition to an existing book?There is an edition field on records which is used to display edition-specific information that's not part of the content, per se: things like "Second Edition", "Boxed Set", "Anniversary Edition", etc. It makes sense to me to put book club information in that field.
Editing the edition field does not create a new edition record. Adding an edition to an existing book requires creating a new edition record, which is done by creating a new book record (a duplicate book, as you said) and then combining that record with the existing editions so that they form one book. (On GR, a book is a set of editions which are combined because they all have the same content.)
Ohhh Kay...But a book has to have a valid ISBN, yes, or it can't be added?
So could I copy a book or is this a manual process?
(Sorry to ask so many questions, just want to get it right!).
Mod
No. We have many pre-ISBN books in the database.
If you go to the editions page of a book, you can select "add a new edition". This has the advantage of pre-populating certain fields (title, author), but it will NOT automatically combine the new edition with its fellow; you'll need to do manually that after creating the book.
And never apologize for asking questions. That's one of the main things this group is for! :)
So, I find a version as close as possible, add a new edition, and don't populate the ISBN field?Or can I put CN9262 or D.235(for instance)?
Andy wrote: "So, I find a version as close as possible, add a new edition, and don't populate the ISBN field?Or can I put CN9262 or D.235(for instance)?"
If there is no ISBN, or you don't know it, leave it blank. We don't want incorrect ISBN's listed.
Quite, but the CN and D numbers ARE correct.Does the system check that ISBNs are valid? (i.e. check the length/check digit)
Mod
Andy wrote: "So, I find a version as close as possible, add a new edition, and don't populate the ISBN field?Or can I put CN9262 or D.235(for instance)?"
Okay, I think I will walk it through step by step. Things are getting a little confusing. :)
1. Find the book you want.
2. Go to the "book page". Example:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/78...
3. On the right is a bar with a link that says "other editions (number)"; click that.
4. This will take you to the "editions" page. Example:
http://www.goodreads.com/work/edition...
5. On the left there is a link "add a new edition"; click that.
6. This will take you to the "add a new book" page with some fields pre-populated. Example:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/new?aut...
7. There will be multiple fields to fill, but only 'title', 'author', and 'sort by title' are required. (They have red stars next to them)
8. Following these first three fields you will see...
ISBN
publisher
published
number of pages
format
edition
official url
description
etc., etc...
9. Put the CN number in the box following the 'edition' field.
Does that help?
should I combine this back in with the other editions?I hesitate to do so right now, in case its wrong - and it looks like its tricky to separate...
Book is here:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/90...
Yup, but it won't help others find their books with cn, d, or other non-isbn codes...Which was why I wondered about the isbn fields validation.
If it doesn't have validation you "could" put the non isbn (but still unique) code there, allowinjg others to find it.
As it is goodreads import engine makes some assumptions about contents of isbn field and makes some (not very reliable) guesses... (thus I got the writings of jean paul sartre for one of my cn codes, donnerland for another, etc...).
This leads me to a couple of suggestions:
1) be able to choose what sort of code is in isbn field(cn, lcc, isbn, isbn_13, etc...{just noticed that asin is an option})
2) if its an unrecognised code (as isbn) during import don't try to import, offer suggestions and allow importer to make choice
That's it for now
Mod
Please don't.
As far as other fields, you're welcome to suggest the option in the Feedback group, but I doubt it will be considered very high priority.
I wouldn't expect it to be. Thanks for all the feedback.
Useful info.I knew the cns were book club, having bought them from there.
The d. Stuff I have predates isbn, and is digit's internal cataloguing system. Seem to be uk editions of signet originals. Digit seems to have disappeared from the scene, and I can't seem to find anything out about them...
Needs to be a structured/standard way to record these non-standard codes (maybe an extra field?)...
Many thanks
Darren