Amazon is going away as a data source Showing 1,301-1,350 of 1,599

[Elizabeth]

WeaselBox wrote: "Sara ♥ wrote: "Will ASINs go away after this? In that case, will we just have blank ISBN Kindle editions?"

I tried asking this earlier and not a whisper. And I think it's particularly significant..."

No, ASINs will not go away.

[Sara ♥]

Has anyone else noticed that in some cases, what a book really seems to want is to be combined with it's brother and sister books, then it isn't in danger anymore? I've had a couple like that. Once I combined them, poof!

[Elizabeth]

Helen wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "Hello all,
Just wanted to give you all some perspective. Over 99 percent of all books on the site already have an alternate data source. Ultimately, we believe that being able t..."

The script is still running to check. So I would advise to check one more time in a couple hours.

[Niledaughter]

For the kindle editions , I just checked 4 of them on my kindle , all have eISBN by the end of the book .

[Manybooks]

Well, The Newbery Companion just appeared on my list of books to be rescued. I think it's a kindle addition, which I did not know when I clicked on the book because I don't do kindle. So I am not going to bother rescuing it, but I think some kindle editions are now appearing on people's lists of books that require rescuing.

[Ridley]

Sara ♥ wrote: "Has anyone else noticed that in some cases, what a book really seems to want is to be combined with it's brother and sister books, then it isn't in danger anymore? I've had a couple like that. On..."

I have noticed this as well. If I put in an ISBN ebook version then combine it with the Kindle one, the Kindle edition no longer needs rescuing. Working as intended, I hope.

[Sheila]

Gundula wrote: "I have the same problems with German books and older, rare English school stories that are on my bookshelves at home, but that I have as yet not put onto my GR bookshelves. ."

So you own an old book, that as you say you have not yet put onto your GR bookshelf. After the Monday deadline, you will still be able to, at any time in the future, come add that book to Goodreads and put it on your GR bookshelves, and write a review about it. I would not think there is any reason to rush now to add and shelve books that you have not previously shelved. You will still be able to do this after the deadline.

[Experiment BL626]

Elizabeth wrote: "Helen wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "Hello all,
Just wanted to give you all some perspective. Over 99 percent of all books on the site already have an alternate data source. Ultimately, we believe that..."

Thank you very much for keeping us users updated. ^_^

[Paula]

WeaselBox wrote: "Sara ♥ wrote: "Will ASINs go away after this? In that case, will we just have blank ISBN Kindle editions?"

I tried asking this earlier and not a whisper. And I think it's particularly significant..."

Worldcat have started to catalog Kindle Editions, you can start there looking for rescue information for some if the author website does not give the information

[Paula]

Chris wrote: "Here's a question. Why do Kindle ebooks have their own format, where a Nook ebook is simply an "ebook"? What's the difference? Both are ebooks.

To me, the word "Kindle" is giving them advertising...."

Kindle is a specfic format - the Nook is epub format which is not specific to B&N

[Manybooks]

Sheila wrote: "Gundula wrote: "I have the same problems with German books and older, rare English school stories that are on my bookshelves at home, but that I have as yet not put onto my GR bookshelves. ."

So y..."

I know that. It's just more of a pain for those of us who have lots of UK books or books in German, French etc. It's actually too bad that Goodreads has relied so heavily on Amazon for its book information (especially for non American based books). I am not going to rush to do anything, but I am going to save as many German books for GR friends as possible (some of my German and Austrian friends still have more than 600 books on their respective lists).

[Paula]

Brixton wrote: "Question: When I'm looking at a librarian edits page and see on the chart that all fields are attributed to librarians (usually a variety, when I've come across this) except the url is attributed t..."

Can you link to an example, URL information as far as I am aware was never imported via amazon, it may well of been that some one refreshed the edition data with amazon (old function) and the URL was then attributed to amazon rather than the user who actually entered it

[Heather]

Does all this mean that we can start deleting non-books rather than labeling them as NAB?

[Petra X]

Heather wrote: "Does all this mean that we can start deleting non-books rather than labeling them as NAB?"

Interesting question.

[Brixton]

Paula wrote: "Brixton wrote: "Question: When I'm looking at a librarian edits page and see on the chart that all fields are attributed to librarians (usually a variety, when I've come across this) except the url..."

This is not the best example, but it is similar:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/edits/6...

If you look at the final line item, url=amazon_com. Of course, there's nothing in that field anyways...

Further questions:

1. Does the last line item of the attribution chart correspond to the url field of the book edit page, in which people often put links to the author's website, wikipedia, etc?

2. Regarding that last line item of the attribution chart, is this the detail which is requiring people on the rescue pages to provide a non-bookseller-sourced url if they cannot assert that they have a physical copy/record of the book?

[Brian]

Paula wrote: "Brixton wrote: "Question: When I'm looking at a librarian edits page and see on the chart that all fields are attributed to librarians (usually a variety, when I've come across this) except the url..."

Yeah, you folks have hit on a bug. Language and URL have never come from Amazon, but we used the original creator of the book record for the temporary updater on URL and language till we could be sure they came from another source.

We'll be cleaning that up this weekend. Rather, I probably will. ;)

Thanks!

[Brian]

Heather wrote: "Does all this mean that we can start deleting non-books rather than labeling them as NAB?"

Michael is actually working on some code for this. He should make an announcement to the group when it's ready! He may first roll something out that just makes it easier to NAB books. Then maybe follow up with going all the way to deleting them. We shall see, as it'll take a whole bunch more work to prevent re-importing books with the same ISBN (same problem we had with amazon NABs...but now with a ton more data sources).

[Brian]

Brixton wrote: "This is not the best example, but it is similar:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/edits/6791...

If you look at the final line item, url=amazon_com. Of course, there's nothing in that field anyways...

Further questions:

1. Does the last line item of the attribution chart correspond to the url field of the book edit page, in which people often put links to the author's website, wikipedia, etc?

2. Regarding that last line item of the attribution chart, is this the detail which is requiring people on the rescue pages to provide a non-bookseller-sourced url if they cannot assert that they have a physical copy/record of the book? "

Good question. Actually, the URL field on the book pages and on the librarian edits page is different from the "source url" we ask you to fill out on the rescue page. the URL field on book show should only be filled out if there's an official page for the book, so not always relevant.

I'll be cleaning up the updaters for the url field as you're right, there's no point having an updater if the url is blank...and none of those came from Amazon's API.

[^]

I've just 'saved' "The Ascent of Everest" by John Hunt, by entering the 4th impression April 1954.

BUT, underneath, I see a host of community reviews unrelated to this book. See http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31.... I'm rubbing my eyes in disbelief & am wondering if I've done something out of the ordinary, or whether it's a system error?

Help (please).

[Nyssa]

Question: Will GR make an "All Clear"/ "All Done" announcement once the new data has been updated?

As mentioned by others in the Page Numbers thread,information that was manually entered is still being deleted or changed. I've already viewed many books that I personally updated that now has missing or incorrect page numbers.

I'm willing to enter the info again, but I will need to know when it is safe to do so.

[Brixton]

Thanks Brian, your response was informative and helpful. Good to know also that this will all be tidied up.

[Paula]

^ wrote: "I've just 'saved' "The Ascent of Everest" by John Hunt, by entering the 4th impression April 1954.

BUT, underneath, I see a host of community reviews unrelated to this book. See http://www.good..."


Not seeing anything in the librarian logs to indicate merge of books or change of info, think this is one for Dev

[Lisa]

I can't keep up with all these posts. Sorry, guys.

Two things:

1. I have a few books that are Kindle only editions (short books I read on my iPhone) and lots of rescued CreateSpace books. It's no longer Saturday morning Pacific time, but my to be rescued books still show as zero.

2. This morning I wrote Amazon an email. I told them that I was a loyal customer for a decade and a half (didn't tell them I'd opposed many of their previous policies and was already many times considering stopping buying from them) and that I would not buy a single other thing from them because of the books they were taking away from my favorite website www.goodreads.com, and taking them away with inadequate notice. I doubt it will do any good. But I'd love to see the hundreds of thousands Goodreads members who are Amazon customers email them too. Maybe if they are deluged with negative customer feedback, they will have some decent response. Not holding my breath, but I feel better having written, and I won't buy from them again if they don't at least tweak the conditions of their decision.

[Helen]

Funniest thing I've seen is a photo of a book set against someones shelves but on the book page it is credited to Amazon!

[Elizabeth (Alaska)]

^ wrote: "I've just 'saved' "The Ascent of Everest" by John Hunt, by entering the 4th impression April 1954.

BUT, underneath, I see a host of community reviews unrelated to this book. See http://www.good..."

I looked at the shelves of the first mis-linked review. It is linked to the correct book on her shelves. Very strange.

[Lisa]

I can't find the posts about this issue in the Feedback group? Weren't there at least a couple?

[Sara ♥]

Helen wrote: "Funniest thing I've seen is a photo of a book set against someones shelves but on the book page it is credited to Amazon!"

Users can upload their own cover images to Amazon... It probably DID come from there! But I don't think Amazon should "own" it!

[Brian]

UPDATE: i'm running script now to clean up the url and language updaters. it should also remove the updater if the url or language is empty. :)

Looks like it'll take most of today to complete.

[Manybooks]

Brian wrote: "UPDATE: i'm running script now to clean up the url and language updaters. it should also remove the updater if the url or language is empty. :)

Looks like it'll take most of today to complete."

I hope it won't slow down the website enough to make it hard to rescue books. I know it needs to be done, but we are sort of running out of time to rescue people's booklists.

[Brian]

Nyssa wrote: "Question: Will GR make an "All Clear"/ "All Done" announcement once the new data has been updated?

As mentioned by others in the Page Numbers thread,information that was manually entered is still..."

Apologies for not getting to that thread sooner. I've posted a longer answer in the Page Numbers thread

Short answer: any edits you make now are safe (neither Amazon nor any other of our data sources we're importing can overwrite your changes...because manual librarian edits trump all other data sources), but it's best to check the updaters table at the bottom of the librarian edits page to make sure that your changes take effect.

[Patrick]

Quick update:

We just sent out an email to any author with a book at risk.

We are also still sending messages to regular members with books on their shelves at risk. The rescue page is open to them, so hopefully they will jump on that. There may be a jump in activity in this group as a result of that email. I will be online most of the day, and available for questions.

[Helen]

My kindles all seem safe stil... Although their page counts have disappeared. I'm assuming they're saved.

[Sarah (Presto agitato)]

^ wrote: "I've just 'saved' "The Ascent of Everest" by John Hunt, by entering the 4th impression April 1954.

BUT, underneath, I see a host of community reviews unrelated to this book. See http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31344... I'm rubbing my eyes in disbelief & am wondering if I've done something out of the ordinary, or whether it's a system error?


That's very strange. Not only are the reviews unrelated to that book, it looks like they are on lots of different books, with no relationship to each other. It seems like some kind of bug, because there's no way they should all be linked to the same number.

[This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For]

Jennifer wrote: "This may have been asked before and I overlooked it, if so, I apologize. There's a lot of information in the various threads to take in.

I was wondering is Open Library ok to use as a source? It's..."

I had this exact same question. I'd never heard of it before, but today am starting to find a number of the rescue books on it. Poking around, it looks to me like a lot of their data is coming from Amazon to begin with, so they're presumably not an acceptable source.

[Jennifer]

This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "This may have been asked before and I overlooked it, if so, I apologize. There's a lot of information in the various threads to take in.

I was wondering is Open Library ok to use ..."

Well darn...I hadn't realized they got their info from Amazon as well. Thanks!

[Marisa]

Paula wrote: "Kindle is a specfic format - the Nook is epub format which is not specific to B&N "

This is not true. A Kindle book is an ebook in Mobipocket format with an specific kind of DRM, in the same way that a B&N ebook is an ebook in ePub format with an specific kind of DRM. Mi old Palm E2 reads mobipocket books but not with Kindle DRM in the same way my Sony 350 reads ePub books but not with B&N DRM.

[Anna]

This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "This may have been asked before and I overlooked it, if so, I apologize. There's a lot of information in the various threads to take in.

I was wondering is Open Library ok to use ..."

Doesn't GR use Open Library as one of the sources? So it should be OK for us to use it.

[Nyssa]

Brian wrote: "Apologies for not getting to that thread sooner. I've posted a longer answer in the Page Numbers thread

Short answer: any edits you make now are safe (neither Amazon nor any other of our data sources we're importing can overwrite your changes...because manual librarian edits trump all other data sources), but it's best to check the updaters table at the bottom of the librarian edits page to make sure that your changes take effect. "


Thank you, Brian! Much appreciated.

[Helen]

HELP!!

I now have a kindle book listed as needing saving, in danger of being deleted. There are no other editions. However, I entered my paperback edition a few days ago and saved that from deletion.



How has my saved edition changed into a kindle edition? And why has the saved edition vanished? Is this happening with other books? I spent 4 days entering my books, I can't do that again even if we had time!


isbn 978 0 230 711 181

[Paula]

Helen wrote: "HELP!!

I now have a kindle book listed as needing saving, in danger of being deleted. There are no other editions. However, I entered my paperback edition a few days ago and saved that from dele..."

The author on the kindle edition was added as M F W Curran, the others are under M.F.W. Curran (correct format).

I have merged the authors and combined the editions

[Peter]

@Rivka:
RE: FAQs: Amazon is going away as a data source, your comment Using the Rescue Books page:, you stated

If your source has only some of the information (e.g.: title, author, publisher, but no page numbers or publications date) you can use it to rescue the book as long as it has the minimum required elements. (You can go back and add elements from other sources later.)

I've run into the problem that some of the books I'm trying to rescue (primarily anthologies) do not have a listed author at the URLs where I can locate the book. (ISBNdb has a lot like this.) I usually find that I can get everything except the author in those records. What should be done in this case?
Note: The rescue page requires both author and title if they are needed.

[Manybooks]

Peter wrote: "@Rivka:
RE: FAQs: Amazon is going away as a data source, your comment Using the Rescue Books page:, you statedIf your source has only some of the information (e.g.: title, author, publisher, but no..."

I have had the same issue, and would like an answer as well. Once I added the author I knew was correct, but because the name was/is not listed on the url I used, I'm a bit worried that I might have screwed up somehow.

[Helen]

Thanks Paula

[Paula]

Peter wrote: "@Rivka:
RE: FAQs: Amazon is going away as a data source, your comment Using the Rescue Books page:, you statedIf your source has only some of the information (e.g.: title, author, publisher, but no..."

Can you link to an example

Is there an editor or anyone else listed?

[Sarah (Presto agitato)]

Gundula wrote: "Peter wrote: "@Rivka:
RE: FAQs: Amazon is going away as a data source, your comment Using the Rescue Books page:, you statedIf your source has only some of the information (e.g.: title, author, publisher, but no..."

I have had the same issue, and would like an answer as well. Once I added the author I knew was correct, but because the name was/is not listed on the url I used, I'm a bit worried that I might have screwed up somehow. "

I think the right thing would be to use the correct author, and to put the name in whatever format is used on Goodreads so that any other editions will be able to associate. I was working on a book yesterday that had the wrong author listed on Open Library. The ISBNs, title, publisher, etc., were okay, but they had the author's brother (also a writer) listed as author. I kept the correct author on the Goodreads listing. I double checked it on Wikipedia (which was mentioned in the beginning of all of this as a potential source for rescuing books), but I didn't link to Wikipedia, since there were no ISBNs listed on the Wikipedia page.

[Patrick]

Yeah, we have to have something for an author on every book. My advice would be to google it and see if you can find a listing somewhere else (wikipedia) that has the author/editor name.

[Otis]

This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For wrote: " "I was wondering is Open Library ok to use ..." I was wondering is Open Library ok to use as a source? "

I had this exact same question. I'd never heard of it before, but today am starting to find a number of the rescue books on it. Poking around, it looks to me like a lot of their data is coming from Amazon to begin with, so they're presumably not an acceptable source.


As far as I know Open Library data is entered from their scanning project and from other various open library sources. It is granted under a pretty open license, so I don't think it's from Amazon.

[Jennifer]

Otis wrote: "This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For wrote: " "I was wondering is Open Library ok to use ..." I was wondering is Open Library ok to use as a source? "

I had this exact same question. I'd nev..."

So, it's ok to use as a source, then?

[Peter]

Paula wrote: "Can you link to an example

Is there an editor or anyone else listed? "

The cases I found on ISBNdb had no author/editor listed, but did have title, publisher, date, pages, etc.

I'll pass on a link to the next one I find, but I bet you run into some when the ISBNdb is imported.

Patrick wrote: "Yeah, we have to have something for an author on every book."

So, what will happen on the imports when the record doesn't contain an author?


Patrick wrote: "My advice would be to google it and see if you can find a listing somewhere else (wikipedia) that has the author/editor name."

Is that Goodreads official or just your personal advice?

[Otis]

Some updates:

We are down to 1% of works left to rescue! And of those remaining, 70% have only been shelved once, and 96% have been shelved less than 5 times - so we are really getting down to the long tail.

Many of the missing editions are Foreign: German, French, Japanese - as Amazon has API's for those. We are working on getting licenses for the German and French national libraries. Not sure what to do about Japan yet (suggestions for sources are welcome). For Italy we have imported Mondadori and some library data and gotten most of the formerly Amazon.it sourced books.

Many of those are also KDP/CreateSpace editions, which until yesterday we thought we would be getting a feed for from Amazon. We have emailed all the authors of those books that are on Goodreads, and the good news is we can keep the asins, so we will be able to rescue them more easily going forward.

Starting today we are beginning to null out Amazon sourced descriptions, images, page numbers, publishers, and formats. Much of this data is still sitting in feeds from various data sources we have, but we haven't processed them yet because we were focused on keeping the record (aka importing title/author/isbn/isbn13). So don't worry about this data until we import the rest, which may take a few days after the 30th.

Also starting today we are starting to delete works from Amazon that nobody has added. We have cached a number of these in our database, but as nobody has added them I don't think they will be missed.