I found 2 different book titles that share the same ISBN number.

[Vivian]

Hi,

Here is the book that I have:

http://www.alibris.com/search/books/i...

The Works of Rudyard Kipling, published in 1994
ISBN: 1853264059

Here is the same ISBN number listed for:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/83...

The Collected Poems of Rudyard Kipling
ISBN: 1853264059

Can 2 books have the same ISBN number? Can I add my book using the same ISBN number?

Thanks,
Vivian

[JG (Introverted Reader)]

Until someone else weighs in, here's my temporary answer. Sometimes publishers do reuse ISBNs but the Goodreads database doesn't allow two different books to have the same ISBN. If I were you, I would leave the one that already has the ISBN in the Goodreads database alone. For now, add your book and note in the description field that the ISBN is whatever number. Another librarian might have a better answer, but that will do if you just want to get your book in there now while you're thinking about it.

[Becky]

You have the one titled Works as opposed to Collected Poems right? Do you have yours on hand? Cause then you could compare it to the Contents list of Collected Poems and see if it's an older/newer edition under the same isbn. Here's the first page of the contents: http://www.amazon.de/gp/reader/185326...
Hope the link works!

[Melissa]

Aha, I recognize this problem. This is the Wordsworth Classics series of poetry by famous authors. The earlier editions are titled "the works of" but later editions are more correctly called "collected poems of." I have several of the older editions in this series and ran across the issue when I was cataloguing them in my personal library database. You can verify that the contents are the same in both editions.

Probably what needs to happen is that somewhere at the top of the synopsis field, the most recent edition should have added "Previously published as" etc.

[Vivian]

Thanks, everyone. I guess there is just no way to add a different edition of the same book when all editions have the same ISBN number. It's too bad that both copies can't be entered into the one listing (displaying the two book covers and book titles).

[Lisa]

Vivian, You can add the other editions. Just don't put the other ISBNs in the ISBN field. You can state their ISBNs in the book description field though. If they're different editions of the same book then you can combine them after you've finished entering any new editions.

[Vivian]

Okay, thanks. :)

[Julie]

I have a similar problem. The ISBN is 0439148022, which both Goodreads and Amazon claim is a book with two titles: Beezus & Ramona and Ramona the Pest http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20...

However, I have the book sitting next to me, and the cover is different from that shown, and the title is just "Beezus and Ramona".

There are many ratings already for this ISBN, so I don't want to overwrite with the information that I have - should I just manually add a new book and put the ISBN in the comments?

[Lisa]

Julie,

II thought that first book would be 2 books in 1 but now it doesn't look that way, despite what Amazon says.

The covers looks as though it's Ramona the Pest.

Worldcat says it's Beezus & Ramona.

Google books shows no record of that ISBN at all.

Hmm. I started writing this post figuring I'd be able to give my opinion/advice, but I'm not sure what's the best action to take. This is a peculiar one.

I'm eager to see if another librarian has a good suggestion.

[rivka, Librarian Moderator]

That image on Amazon is weird. It LOOKS like it's a "search inside" book, but it's actually not! The fact that WorldCat seems to have gotten its info on this book from Amazon surprises me, and not in a good way. (There's actually something very weird about the WorldCat listing -- the libraries it claims have the book mostly seem not to!) So let's ignore both Amazon's listing and WorldCat's for this book, and see what else there is.

Powell's has no image, but says it's Beezus & Ramona
Paperback Swap agrees
Alibris is conflicted, but look at that cover!

I think it's pretty definitely Beezus & Ramona. (And the number of pages corresponds to Beezus & Ramona, not to Ramona the Pest. Obviously, that's not much to base a decision on alone, but it does seem to be consistent.)

Julie, is either of the covers (from the second and third links above) the same as your book?

[Julie]

Yes! My cover is the same as the second link Paperback Swap!

I also thought it was odd that the Amazon image looked like a copied and pasted 'search inside' image.

So, what now? Copy the info from Paperback Swap onto Goodreads?

As I have the book here, I can scan in a better (ie. larger) image.

[rivka, Librarian Moderator]

So, what now? Copy the info from Paperback Swap onto Goodreads?

That would be my suggestion. And yeah, scan in a better image if you can. :)