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Amazon is going away as a data source
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This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For
(last edited Jan 28, 2012 03:30PM)
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Otis wrote: "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."Maybe the first book I tried to use the site as a rescue source was a fluke (I have subsequently found in in ISBNDB), but start with this book:
Then click on the history link in the upper right part of the record, just to the left of the Edit button.
What you see is the initial record came from Amazon on April 12, 2008. After noticing that I stopped using it as a potential source.
Jennifer wrote: "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 ques..."
I think so.
Otis wrote: "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."Thanks for the update, Otis. I agree with this. If someone wants to shelve it, librarians can add it to the system or members can request that GR add the record.
I have a valuable first edition of a famous book listed for sale on amazon. Today I noticed some clown has listed another, using some of my item description as their own. I gave amazon until 11.59pm Monday to delete the record from their database. ;o)
Brixton wrote: "I have a valuable first edition of a famous book listed for sale on amazon. Today I noticed some clown has listed another, using some of my item description as their own. I gave amazon until 11.59p..."Good one!! I wonder how Amazon will react?
Otis wrote: "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)."Maybe an agreement could be made with the Kyoto International Manga Museum?
Brixton wrote: "I have a valuable first edition of a famous book listed for sale on amazon. Today I noticed some clown has listed another, using some of my item description as their own. I gave amazon until 11.59p..."Snort!
Gundula wrote: "Brixton wrote: "I have a valuable first edition of a famous book listed for sale on amazon. Today I noticed some clown has listed another, using some of my item description as their own. I gave amaamazon until 11.59p..."Good one!! I wonder how Amazon will react?"
True to form, probably by squarely ignoring the issue ...
I totally would help to grow goodreads book DB: IF it becomes an OPEN data source to others. Also, I think that it would boost cooperation from librarians and users if they know that they are helping more than just goodread's users.
This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For wrote: "Otis wrote: "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 ..."OL says they have 20 million records, but their API says they have 5 million available. So that must be why there is a difference. Amazons terms are pretty clear on this point - you aren't allowed to sublicense data in an API (we have - or should I say had - the same issue).
I have to say that I do not agree with simply getting rid of books sourced from Amazon that no one has shelved.Two things: the first is that we don't have a choice - these books either have to be nulled out or deleted. No point nulling it out if nobody has added it. Second thing is that we haven't added any new editions from the new datasources - we have just been focused on sourcing ones we already have. After we get through this, we may add those editions in, and actually have a larger database than we do now! That plus, Ingram and possibly Worldcat will be available on the search page starting next week, so you will be able to query their databases in real time.
Elizabeth wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "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 thi..."
Thank you. :)
José wrote: "I totally would help to grow goodreads book DB: IF it becomes an OPEN data source to others. Also, I think that it would boost cooperation from librarians and users if they know that they are helpi..."Many have tried this - it's very difficult. There are many companies that charge prices you wouldn't believe just for databases of book meta-data. Our API terms currently allow non-commercial use of our data - but until now most of it wasn't our data, and we weren't allowed to put book titles, authors names, etc for most of the data. We are now sourcing directly from publishers in many cases, so we'll start to see this change.
Patrick wrote: "We are also still sending messages to regular members with books on their shelves at risk."The trouble is I know I have books that are at risk again but my at risk page is still showing 0 books at risk. Any solution for this? Or, are the CreateSpace books rescued as CreateSpace saved? But, I know I/my groups' shelves have some kindle only editions and I have a hard time believing all were saved. I did just combine one book that used to be kindle only into a safe ebook edition and my friend Jeannette saved a book that is kindle only for me. Both have Goodreads' author members.
Thanks. Will all at risk books show back on our books at risk page by tomorrow?
Lisa wrote: "Patrick wrote: "We are also still sending messages to regular members with books on their shelves at risk."The trouble is I know I have books that are at risk again but my at risk page is still s..."
The script that is looking up Kindle/CreateSpace books and adding the ones that need rescuing to the rescue list is almost done running. So while you may see some books added to that list, there shouldn't be too many, as the script is near completion.
Thanks, Patrick. Two did just pop up on my personal books at risk page and I fixed those.
With the Kindles back at risk, I've got a couple of indie books on there. Since most of those are published via Smashwords, I was wondering if Smashwords counts as a publisher, which would mean we can use it as a source url.And is that data good for Kindle? They do carry the mobi format.
Sometimes the technicalities of this are mind-boggling.
Helen wrote: "My kindles aren't asking to be saved and I haven't previously saved any."I just went through all my kindle books on my kindle, even though they weren't on my rescue list, and a small percentage of them needed rescuing. So there's no guarantee that, even if they aren't showing on the rescue list, they are not in danger!
Thanks for the continuing updates guys:)
Otis wrote: "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 th..."
Russian books
http://www.livelib.ru/
I don't think that their data comes from Amazon.
Otis wrote: "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 th..."
That's good. Except that those books shelved only once or a few times (and I have many of those and there are many shelved in some of my groups) will be harder to find again than the more popular books.
I need help! This book http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/64... is a recording of a book by Ann Rule. The author name is incorrect, as you can see from one of the reviews of this recording. How can I change the author name on this so it can be combined with the other editions for this? It's called Dead By Sunset by Ann Rule. When I click on edit details, it takes me to the rescue page. I don't have a copy of this audio recording and I can't seem to find any other source for the data. :(
When you get the rescue page via the edit link, there is a link to continue to the edit page. You can then make whatever edits you want.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "When you get the rescue page via the edit link, there is a link to continue to the edit page. You can then make whatever edits you want."Thank you so much. I changed the author name and combined it with the other editions of this one.
Glad it worked! That combining feature has made a difference to me, too.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Glad it worked! That combining feature has made a difference to me, too."So, now it should just be in danger of merging, right? I still can't find anything for this audio recording anywhere to confirm it. I do have a paperback copy of this book but that doesn't help much.
I am logging off for the night. I will be back tomorrow to answer more questions (to the best of my ability). Thanks again for the time you all spent rescuing books today. It means the world to us.
Patrick wrote: "I am logging off for the night. I will be back tomorrow to answer more questions (to the best of my ability). Thanks again for the time you all spent rescuing books today. It means the world to us."Thanks, Patrick. Get some rest. Everybody get some rest if you can.
^ 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..."
Hm. I wonder if we had an incorrect isbn in the past? a lot of those reviews with tons of shelves look like they might've been reviews imported from files users uploaded? I guess this is the book some of them are looking for?: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26...
Not too sure what can be done except move the reviews over to the right book. For now, I believe that has to be done by the users themselves....
Sandra wrote: "Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Glad it worked! That combining feature has made a difference to me, too."So, now it should just be in danger of merging, right? I still can't find anything for this aud..."
Sandra here is details of this cassette recording from Recorded Books: http://www.recordedbooks.com/index.cf...
I think what has happened is that the ISBN shown on the record here is for the non-library edition and Recorded Books seem to have been shedding many direct-to-consumer titles of late passing many over to Simply Audiobooks. I found this out when I was rescuing some of my own audiobooks. This particular title though was not taken over by Simply but the same narrator Richard Ferrone (not Richard Rule that was a weird listing via Amazon) now is on the 2011 Simon & Schuster Audio listing. Got that from his website and Audible.
Otis wrote: "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)."Kodansha and Shueisha are a couple of the big publishers in Japan.
http://www.bookclub.kodansha.co.jp/
http://www.shueisha.co.jp/
Kodansha's bookclub site is easily searchable by human hands; I'd imagine it should be query-able, too.
Googling, I came across a Publishers Weekly article from '09 listing the supposed Top 7 publishers in Japan at the time of the article:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by...
Perhaps some sort of agreement could be reached with them.
Otis wrote: "Some updates: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.."
Sorry I'm a bit late with this information - I got hit with stomach flu and was down for the count the last two days - but www.isbnlib.com has CreateSpace books listed. I don't know if it has the whole catalog but I saved a bunch of them a few days ago using isbnlib.com and everyone of the ones I rescued showed up - most often with covers. Hope this helps some of you.
REQUEST:How about a "Save books from your read authors" link?
I don't know if this is a thread in which this has been mentioned. It's late and I've lost track.Too late I'm sure and not the biggest priority, but I'm not wild about books with no shelvings being automatically deleted. Yes, some will be missed. Some are soon to be published books, some shelved in one of my groups so that we don't forget about them. Ah well.
Sandra wrote: "I need help! This book http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/64... is a recording of a book by Ann Rule. The author name is incorrect, as you can see from one of the reviews of this r..."Got 1407.
It only took 6 search engines 2 minutes. :D
Jennifer E. wrote: "Otis wrote: "Some updates: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 bo..."
Thank you. I've added it to my search engines.
I advertise once again this pagehttp://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...
where the GR staff can find many other links for Italian publishers websites apart from Mondadori.
I don't mean to spam, I'm just worried it could get lost in the thread: we're trying to help. Thanks for all the efforts!
What exactly is it about Amazon's terms that has become so restrictive for goodreads? I'm working on a new social network site (not the same as this site, but will be enabling people to buy books of a particular subject) and I'd like to know about these terms so I can plan accordingly.
Lola, it had something to do with the mobile API. It was mentioned earlier, but I can't remember by whom.
Lisa wrote: "I don't know if this is a thread in which this has been mentioned. It's late and I've lost track.Too late I'm sure and not the biggest priority, but I'm not wild about books with no shelvings bei..."
I know that really makes me angry. I have a lot of German books I have never gotten around to shelving, and now I feel as though Goodreads is punishing me for this.
Although I am more mad at Amazon, I do kind of feel angry at GR for even considering doing this. Also, if these books are shelved on group bookshelves, they should be strictly off limits.
A lot of Italian editions have been wrongly attributed by open library to an author named "Na"...http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
Please, DON'T merge this author into "VV.AA.", "Anonymous", "Unknown", etc., we'll slowly take care of the Italian titles. Thanks.
Where German books are concerned: A friend of mine is a real-life librarian in Germany, and she told me to give you this link:http://lobid.org/en/resource.html
And frankly, I think it was and is not very good and useful that GR staff started erasing books that had had no one shelve them before the deadline of Monday January 30, 2012 has even come to pass. I have been very busy rescuing German books that have been shelved by GR members (both mine and friends) and today, Sunday, I was going to check through my own bookshelves a second time and rescue German books and obscure British and American school stories that I had not had the time to rescue yet (if they did, indeed, require rescuing). But, if GR has already started deleting them, I guess I and others are basically out of luck. I can sort of (grudgingly) accept that books which have not been shelved by anyone might have to be removed, but I find it somewhat hard to accept that GR had to do this before the deadline had passed (I guess I can always manually add these books in the future, but why did staff not wait until at least this coming Tuesday to get rid of these book, and why, for heaven's sake, did staff not mention this as a potential for happening a few days ago, I could have made at least some time for this and rescued more of my own books).
And just to make clear. I am not angry about this, at least I am not angry at GR staff. They have been dealt a really low and mean-spirited hand by Amazon and have been doing their best and utmost. But I am a bit frustrated at the fact that Amazon sourced books on the GR database which have not been shelved by users are going to be removed (and might already have been removed prior to the deadline). That really does jump the gun a bit and takes away precious days/hours that could have been spent rescuing said books.
I am sorry - as I am sure this has been asked but there are just too many posts to sort thru...This question is a two parter:
Is there any way we can sort thru the group shelves to pick out books that might be lost?
I have a lending group that relies HEAVILY on the group shelves to indicate who has what books - I am assuming even if the books merge on the shelf the tags will not, right?
Group Shelves - no way to do that It would be my understanding,
If the books are combined, it is an edition that is shelved, then that edition will stay on the shelves it is assigned to
If the book is merged i.e. deleted then the shelf should stay since the merged version is replaced on your shelf with the version that is kept
Edit: Tried to make response clearer on re reading
Otis wrote: "We are working on getting licenses for the German and French national libraries. Yay! I really hope this is going to work out. That would be sooooo awesome!
Gundula wrote: "And frankly, I think it was and is not very good and useful that GR staff started erasing books that had had no one shelve them before the deadline of Monday January 30, 2012 has even come to pass...."I'm a bit disappointed about this too, I had some time set aside today to "rescue" books and figured I'd be in time for the deadline, but now I found out that a large 45 volume series (http://www.goodreads.com/series/71867...) I created a while ago from amazon.co.jp data has been almost completely erased because I hadn't shelved any of it. It'll take me a lot longer to restore this from scratch. I thought I missed an announcement but per this thread it looks like there wasn't any?
Paula wrote: "Group Shelves - no way to do that It would be my understanding,
If the books are combined, it is an edition that is shelved then no I don't think the shelves (tags) will.
If the book is merged..."
Yikes! my group is going to be a total disaster! **Groan**
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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 th..."
I have to say that I do not agree with simply getting rid of books sourced from Amazon that no one has shelved. Many German books and I bet many French books are in that position (I actually rescued some German books I had on my shelves but had not gotten around to putting on Goodreads yet, also I don't want my GR bookshelves to explode like crazy, my friends would go crazy). Just because a book has not been shelved on GR yet, does not mean the book is uninteresting or worthless.