Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
Book & Author Page Issues
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ASIN question
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Yes, apparently Amazon is assigning ASIN numbers to everything now, not just Kindles.So combine away.
Some of these being imported seem really strange- containing a lot of information in the title that should be in other fields, etc. For example, take a look at some of the uncombined titles on Ann Patchett's page:http://www.goodreads.com/book/combine...
Also, so far every one that I've clicked through to Amazon on says the page doesn't exist (although I've only done three or four, so that might not hold true for all). Something just seems really weird with these, and they are popping up all over the place!
I can only agree, Ashley. Suddenly they are everywhere and what doesn't make sense to me is who will add a hardcover/paperback/whatever with an ASIN?
Maybe we can NAB them?
(I decided not to do anything until some reasonable solution comes up - I can't undo every book I already combined but I won't do it further or NAB them)
Maybe we can NAB them?
(I decided not to do anything until some reasonable solution comes up - I can't undo every book I already combined but I won't do it further or NAB them)
Ashley wrote: "Some of these being imported seem really strange- containing a lot of information in the title that should be in other fields, etc. For example, take a look at some of the uncombined titles on Ann ..."Ashley & Eugine, I clicked on 2 of Ann Patchett's and they were legit books. They do have ASIN regardless of pb or hc, because Amazon is now issuing ASIN numbers to products they are selling.
If you come across them in future, clean up the obvious faults and combine them.
A lot of them seemed to have been imported on 6/6/11, and I've been coming across ASINs by other authors recently too. I don't know why that would happen on a particular day.The ASINs are assigned to Amazon Marketplace sellers, i.e. used books, not Amazon's new books.
ASINs are also assigned to Kindle editions, which is a completely different issue (none of the ones linked to in this thread are kindle editions).
Most of them can be deleted, because they are duplicates of other editions. I just deleted several of Ann Patchett's and then tried to reimport them using the ASIN, and they didn't reimport. If they did reimport, that would indicate we need to NAB them.
But, please, only delete if you know what you're doing...(ask someone in the delete thread if you're not sure).
Okay, thanks for clarifying the issue!
I think management needs to weigh in here. I have come across many more books (non-Kindle) that are being imported without ISBNs, solely with ASINs. These are books that do not have an ISBN in their Amazon or Goodreads record, but they are books which almost certainly do have ISBNs; i.e. they are duplicates of other books already in the database. If these are consistently being imported, it will create lots of work for librarians, either deleting or NABbing them.This is a new issue, as ASINs attached to Kindles have been importing for a long time, but ASINs attached to books haven't, to my knowledge. Is there some way the auto-import feature can distinguish between the two, and prevent ASIN-books from being imported?
I think the problem with this is due to sellers on Amazon listing books they have for sale without including the book's ISBN, thus the only identifier is Amazon's ASIN. This is going to be very annoying for us librarians to sort through since most of these books are probably duplicates of books already in the system.
Mod
A few tests seem to indicate the problem is not happening any longer. So it should be safe to combine these editions with their fellows and delete any you can determine are NOT unique editions. (Please leave any with unique covers and/or publisher & pub date.)
That is good news. All the ones I noticed had been imported between 6/6 - 6/9, fwiw.
Good news indeed!I can't imagine the works to be done if it's not a glitch only.
The duplicates I deleted keep coming back, so I NABed them.
I've combined some, deleted some, just depends on the book. If you have to NAB so be it :)
Ok, sounds like a plan! Thanks all for the info :)
Just for those who are wondering whether to NAB or delete them: They all keep coming back. Better NAB them.
Note: Books with ASIN imported by Amazon and created on 2011/6/12 are showing up
Note: Books with ASIN imported by Amazon and created on 2011/6/12 are showing up
This totally sucks.Rivka, any new info about whether this is just an ongoing glitch, or here to stay?
Mod
The ones I have deleted and then searched for by ASIN have all stayed deleted, though.
What about when a reader has added them to their to read list or has rated them as if they have read them? And what if they don't match exactly with books listed? I do not think they should be NABed with reviews attached.
Mod
Query: Even if Amazon were to go bust, would books that have only been published under Amazon and thus linked by ASIN be deleted from Goodreads' database?
Books that have been published ever, are never deleted. Think of us as a library, not a book store.
But doesn't Amazon send you the information of ASIN's? Or is Amazon's ASIN's store separately on Goodread's servers so that even if Amazon went bust, then the eBook titles wouldn't be deleted on Goodreads?I thought that they wouldn't be as secure as let's say, ISBN's.
I don't see them being any different. Amazon puts out multi ASIN's for the same books already, and in the process does retire some as well.
So if a book is no longer listed on Amazon, and it was previously only available on Amazon, what happens to the book on Goodreads?
The book stays on GR, the Api would return something along the lines unable to find the book as it does now if Amazon does not have the book.I would suspect GR would turn off the Api to Amazon which would prevent automatically adding /changing books imported via the Api.
Generally once the book is on GR it does not get deleted.
Probably a better question to the feedback group which is monitored more by GR staff
Edit: Check out this Topic
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5...
I have NABed some entries I've found as it does seem to me to make more sense to NAB them to stop them returning next time Amazon glitches and sends ASIN 'books' via the API. If anyone with far more experience would prefer to see them deleted, these are the 'books':
(6 BOOKS) by Larson; The Far Side, In Search of the Far Side, Valley of the Far Side, Bride of the Far Side, Beyond the Far Side, & Wildlife Preserves
Far Side Set
Gary Larson Far Side comic set of 7: In Search of Far Side, Hound of the Far Side, Beyond the Far Side, The Curse of Madame C, Unnatural Selections, The PreHistory of Far Side, Far Side Gallery
Since no one has added it to their shelf, nab is just fine.
rivka wrote: "Agreed. Ones with reviews I have been merging into (combine+delete) the closest match I can find."I have a question related to this. I have deleted a MASSIVE amount of ASIN books from the author Sidney Sheldon. All the ones I deleted had 0 people shelving them. However, a few do. The ones I have a question about are listings for multiple books, such as this:
The Best Laid Plans / The Sands of Time / Windmills of the Gods / Tell Me Your Dreams / The Other Side of Midnight / The Doomsday Conspiracy.
What do I merge it with???
On a side note, new items are still coming through. I was just looking through Sheldon's page to find the above link. Two new ASIN items came through just yesterday according to the date.
Mod
I've been merging them with the first book in the series, unless I can find omnibus editions.
Don't worry too much about them; after the patch goes live, she's also working on a script to delete the ASIN editions.
It's not a series though. They're all stand alone books. Someone is just selling a bunch of them together.Good news about the patch, though. I mainly deleted these because there were so many, they were cluttering up the combine page something awful. It was something like 70-80 "works", nearly a third of the total.
Mod
Hooray for Louise!!!They were sure a pain in the behind.
Mod
rivka wrote: "While we're cheering, it took Michael, Otis, and a couple other developers to nail down the sneaky little bug to begin with!"Did the patch delete all the ones in the GR database? So, if we find these we can delete them unless they've been added by a user?
Mod
But yes, it should be fine to delete (or merge, if they have been added by people) these buggy editions.
rivka wrote: "I don't think the cleanup script has been run yet.But yes, it should be fine to delete (or merge, if they have been added by people) these buggy editions."
Thanks, I'm still seeing them.
rivka wrote: "While we're cheering, it took Michael, Otis, and a couple other developers to nail down the sneaky little bug to begin with!"Hooray, Michael, Otis & all the others !!
Mod
Another 5000+ need help from librarians, because they have been shelved/reviewed, but had nothing to be merged into. Your task, should you accept it, is to find the closest match for each one, and merge. (Or ask for superlibrarian help if the items was shelved by 5+ people.)
rivka wrote: "The script has been run. That took care of about 25,000 of the suckers.Another 5000+ need help from librarians, because they have been shelved/reviewed, but had nothing to be merged into. Your ta..."
Crunch! Do you guys have a list of them or just keep an eye out for them?
Mod
Excellent news Rivka, congrats to the team!
Awesome! I'll keep an eye out for the leftovers, but glad this is fixed! Thanks everyone who worked on this!
An example: http://www.goodreads.com/book/combine...
Should I combine them?