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Amazon is going away as a data source
Lisa wrote: "Are you guys above saying that data is already disappearing even though it's not the 30th yet?!"Just looking at the cover view of all of my books, I can say that there are covers that are disappearing. I haven't yet checked individual books to see what information is still there or not.
Lisa wrote: "Are you guys above saying that data is already disappearing even though it's not the 30th yet?!"Yep... I see covers disappearing from my shelf...
@ Sarah:
But downloading a cover that is still up on GR and coming from amazon and then uploading it again... *scratches head* is that legal then?
(I'm all for it, seems the easiest solution... ;-) )
Gundula, I'm also confused about this time line.I'm glad you knew the books needed to be put in the database, at least, and can do that.
Lisa wrote: "I really hope that everyone will stop purchasing from Amazon and will write and tell them why. I did."I will certainly no longer buy English language books from Amazon (I was already pretty well boycotting their American site). But if I want to purchase German books, at least new German books (for used ones, I usually use ABE), I don't have much of a choice but to buy them from Amazon Germany (I have not bought any German books lately, but if I need to or want to get books on German literature etc., I basically must use Amazon, unless I go to Germany and buy books there). If anyone knows of a good online store (which ships to Canada) and also has a good/great selection of German books, please let me know.
The_Freddy wrote:"@ Sarah:
But downloading a cover that is still up on GR and coming from amazon and then uploading it again... *scratches head* is that legal then?
(I'm all for it, seems the easiest solution... ;-) ) "
I'm not Sarah, but as I stated earlier, you have to be able to confirm that the cover matches the edition you're wanting to put it on AND confirm that it did not come from Amazon.
But downloading a cover that is still up on GR and coming from amazon and then uploading it again... *scratches head* is that legal then?
(I'm all for it, seems the easiest solution... ;-) ) "
I'm not Sarah, but as I stated earlier, you have to be able to confirm that the cover matches the edition you're wanting to put it on AND confirm that it did not come from Amazon.
Lisa wrote: "Gundula, I'm also confused about this time line.I'm glad you knew the books needed to be put in the database, at least, and can do that."
Well I had them piled up in front of my computer. I rescued a huge number on Wednesday and Thursday, but Friday and Saturday, I spent rescuing friends' books and books on my own list that I do not have actual copies of (and it was just yesterday that GR staff announced they would delete these books and unfortunately, they seemed to have deleted them right away).
Christa wrote: "The_Freddy wrote:"@ Sarah: But downloading a cover that is still up on GR and coming from amazon and then uploading it again... *scratches head* is that legal then?
(I'm all for it, seems the eas..."
Yeah, that's what I was thinking...
So I see myself spending hours scanning all my German (or other international) books and uploading covers in the near future...
Gundula wrote: "Lisa wrote: "I will certainly no longer buy English language books from Amazon (I was already pretty well boycotting their American site). But if I want to purchase German books, at least new German books (for used ones, I usually use ABE), I don't have much of a choice but to buy them from Amazon Germany (I have not bought any German books lately, but if I need to or want to get books on German literature etc., I basically must use Amazon, unless I go to Germany and buy books there). If anyone knows of a good online store (which ships to Canada) and also has a good/great selection of German books, please let me know. "I think it would be great if a thread were started in the Feedback group to post resources, stores, etc. where to buy books of all types from all locations.
Lisa wrote: "Gundula wrote: "Lisa wrote: "I will certainly no longer buy English language books from Amazon (I was already pretty well boycotting their American site). But if I want to purchase German books, at..."I think that's a really good idea :-)
As far as book covers go, some options:- if you have the book, some time, and a scanner or camera, you can scan/take a pic of the cover and upload
- You can install a plug-in called TinEye (http://www.tineye.com/). Using this plug-in, you can click on the cover image you're looking for (say, on B&N's page for that book, and it will search the web for non-commercial versions of that same image. As long as those images aren't on an e-commerce site, you can grab them and upload them to GR.)
- You can use images.google.com and search the book title and the term 'cover'. Again, look for search results that come from author sites, blogs, and non-commercial websites. Grab the image and upload to GR.
- Go directly to the author's website and see if the cover images are there.
I've found a lot of cover images on www.isbnlib.com. They are non-commercial and link to many e-commerce sites for purchase, so they are not affiliated with Amazon.
:)
The_Freddy wrote: "Yeah, that's what I was thinking...
So I see myself spending hours scanning all my German (or other international) books and uploading covers in the near future... "
Meanwhile, I'll probably be screen-capping hundreds of Kindle ebooks.
Speaking of which, for anyone using Windows looking for a lightweight image editor for those screencaps or adjusting your book cover scans/photos, I use Photofiltre. It's free and less clunky than Paint, and a lot faster than Gimp, so it's perfect for stuff like this.
So I see myself spending hours scanning all my German (or other international) books and uploading covers in the near future... "
Meanwhile, I'll probably be screen-capping hundreds of Kindle ebooks.
Speaking of which, for anyone using Windows looking for a lightweight image editor for those screencaps or adjusting your book cover scans/photos, I use Photofiltre. It's free and less clunky than Paint, and a lot faster than Gimp, so it's perfect for stuff like this.
The_Freddy wrote: "Lisa wrote: "Are you guys above saying that data is already disappearing even though it's not the 30th yet?!"Yep... I see covers disappearing from my shelf...
@ Sarah:
But downloading a cover that is still up on GR and coming from amazon and then uploading it again... *scratches head* is that legal then?
(I'm all for it, seems the easiest solution... ;-) )
."
I don't mean download Amazon covers, but covers of other editions. Those are pictures that Goodreads has the right to use, so it seems like that should be okay. You are still using them on Goodreads. You want them to be covers that match the cover of the edition you're trying to fix, but for a lot of modern Kindle books, for example, the cover often matches the paperback edition.
It's much easier to do this when the covers haven't disappeared already so you can keep track of which picture you want.
Are the book covers permanently gone? Please tell me they're doing some import that will fix this! I've lost so many. :(
Gundula wrote: "I will certainly no longer buy English language books from Amazon....But if I want to purchase German books, at least new German books (for used ones, I usually use ABE)"
Don't mean to rain on your parade but Amazon owns ABE Books http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/...
I don't think there can be much doubt now that Amazon doesn't just want to compete - it wants to dominate the book selling/publishing/discussing market place
Don't mean to rain on your parade but Amazon owns ABE Books http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/...
I don't think there can be much doubt now that Amazon doesn't just want to compete - it wants to dominate the book selling/publishing/discussing market place
Jennifer E. wrote: "As far as book covers go, some options:- if you have the book, some time, and a scanner or camera, you can scan/take a pic of the cover and upload
- You can install a plug-in called TinEye (http://www.tineye.com/). Using this plug-in, you can click on the cover image you're looking for (say, on B&N's page for that book, and it will search the web for non-commercial versions of that same image. As long as those images aren't on an e-commerce site, you can grab them and upload them to GR.)
- You can use images.google.com and search the book title and the term 'cover'. Again, look for search results that come from author sites, blogs, and non-commercial websites. Grab the image and upload to GR.
It's all so tricky, because there's a good chance that images on blogs, etc. may have come from Amazon or another commercial site initially. It gets to a point where there's not really any way to know. It's easy enough to make sure that the pictures aren't coming directly from Amazon's feed, since GR is shutting that off, but the provenance of images otherwise is often sketchy.
Gundula wrote: If anyone knows of a good online store (which ships to Canada) and also has a good/great selection of German books, please let me know. I don't know what kind of selection they have though:
Bookstage in Stratford, ON
Pontius in Montreal, QC
Everything Deutsch (no website, but do take online orders) out of Edmonton, AB.
Sarah wrote: "I don't mean download Amazon covers, but covers of other editions. Those are pictures that Goodreads has the right to use, so it seems like that should be okay. You are still using them on Goodreads. You want them to be covers that match the cover of the edition you're trying to fix, but for a lot of modern Kindle books, for example, the cover often matches the paperback edition.It's much easier to do this when the covers haven't disappeared already so you can keep track of which picture you want."
Okay, thanks! I misunderstood that. :-)
This will definitely work for my own books, as I know all of those covers.
Lisa wrote: "Are you guys above saying that data is already disappearing even though it's not the 30th yet?!"Otis did say this somewhere, yesterday. I could probably find it if I looked really hard....
That's okay, Lobstergirl. I believe it. There are way too many posts now for any of us to find anything, very long threads. Thanks, Lobstergirl. I missed it. I'm sure I've missed quite a bit, even though I'm trying to keep up with everything.
Sarah wrote: "It's all so tricky, because there's a good chance that images on blogs, etc. may have come from Amazon or another commercial site initially. It gets to a point where there's not really any way to know. It's easy enough to make sure that the pictures aren't coming directly from Amazon's feed, since GR is shutting that off, but the provenance of images otherwise is often sketchy. "I take the position that I can only do so much due-diligence. Plus, I've actually looked at the metadata of Amazon's images. There is nothing on their image files that gives them 'creator' status of the images. I will NOT use images directly from Amazon, but if I find the correct image on a non-commercial site, I'm not going to worry about where they got it. I haven't broken any rules/laws by obtaining it and that's as far as I can go. :)
Well I currently have one book remaining for being as 'To be deleted' while a few others that I can't recall being on the shelve at all seem to have lost covers now.I take it, going from that it's in progress now then.
Lisa wrote: "mlady_rebecca wrote: "They said from the beginning that reviews aren't going away, therefore comments attached to reviews are safe, as well....
Of course, a rating or not too much else with no title/author might be meaningless. But at least it's something..."
As long as the record is still there, a librarian can determine what book it is from the librarian change log. So the titles and author names can be fixed after the deadline.
Jennifer E. wrote: "I've found a lot of cover images on www.isbnlib.com. They are non-commercial and link to many e-commerce sites for purchase, so they are not affiliated with Amazon."Not so. If you right-click and open the image, you will see in the url the image has come from amazon.
Well, crap. Okay - scratch the last option. I wonder how they are able to offer multiple retail options?...
As long as the record is still there, a librarian can determine what book it is from the librarian change log. So the titles and author names can be fixed after the deadline. "Thanks.
Are the google image covers going away or will they be maintained, does anybody know?
Lisa wrote: "Are the google image covers going away or will they be maintained, does anybody know?"Can you link to an example? We have been told not to get rescue data from google books, but I wasn't aware that cover images could even be "imported" directly from Google.
Gundula wrote: "I will certainly no longer buy English language books from Amazon (I was already pretty well boycotting their American site). But if I want to purchase German books, at least new German books (for used ones, I usually use ABE), I don't have much of a choice but to buy them from Amazon Germany (I have not bought any German books lately, but if I need to or want to get books on German literature etc., I basically must use Amazon, unless I go to Germany and buy books there). If anyone knows of a good online store (which ships to Canada) and also has a good/great selection of German books, please let me know. "If you know the ISBN, correct title, or correct author, you can use the Bookfinder and Bookfinder4u sites. The search locations are http://www.bookfinder4u.com/ and http://www.bookfinder.com/ . Bookfinder will search out sites that sell your book in English, French, Dutch, German, Italian and Spanish. Bookfinder4u will search out sites that sell books from US, UK, Canada, Germany, France and Japan.
They also find vintage and out-of-print. (They do not sell any books directly; they only find sites that sell the books.) The list of bookseller sites that they search can be found at http://www.bookfinder4u.com/member/st...
Lobstergirl wrote: "Can you link to an example? We have been told not to get rescue data from google books, but I w..."http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/89...
Looks like a "google preview" cover
I don't think that "google preview" link has anything to do with the cover. From the librarian edits, that cover image was uploaded in 2008.
I just checked -- 2400 of my books are now missing publication dates -- any hope that the publication dates will return short of hand-entering all of them? -- I guess I will hand-enter them but it will take me weeks to get them all. :0(
Brixton wrote: "Jennifer E. wrote: "I've found a lot of cover images on www.isbnlib.com. They are non-commercial and link to many e-commerce sites for purchase, so they are not affiliated with Amazon."Not so. If you right-click and open the image, you will see in the url the image has come from amazon.
Darn it. I'm now seeing that I have uploaded covers from other places without knowing they came from Amazon initially. They won't show up in the GR system as coming from Amazon's feed, but technically that's where the picture originated.
I've been at this so long today I'm feeling totally frazzled. This is all madness. It seems like the only way to be totally safe is to take your own pictures/screenshots.
Brixton wrote: "there go the covers.... :o\"Oh, I kinda want to cry.
Edit: I only have 86 that disappeared... And the MAJORITY of those are ones I haven't actually read yet. I guess that's not SO bad out of 1310, right?
and who knows if there will be new scripts run that might bring some of the deleted covers back. i'm not going to worry about covers until some time next week. like, i won't even *look* at how many covers are gone until all of the dust has settled.
Kara said here http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/7... that they are importing covers from somewhere. I am not going to bother adding any until they are done with that.
Alright, like I suppose all of us I've spent the better part of the weekend busily saving books (my own and others), but it's 2:35am where I am now, and I'm still a few folks' "rescue" lists short. I'm sure all of you have plenty of stuff of your own to work on, but just in case someone has a few minutes, it would really, really be nice if you could pitch in with any of the below before it's too late ... even a single book would help! Thanks so much in advance!!!http://www.goodreads.com/rescue_books...
http://www.goodreads.com/rescue_books...
http://www.goodreads.com/rescue_books...
http://www.goodreads.com/rescue_books...
http://www.goodreads.com/rescue_books...
http://www.goodreads.com/rescue_books...
http://www.goodreads.com/rescue_books...
http://www.goodreads.com/rescue_books...
http://www.goodreads.com/rescue_books...
P.S. Incidentally not a small amount of the at-risk books on these GR members's shelves are foreign editions that may take a long time to be reinstated manually ...
Deedee wrote: "I just checked -- 2400 of my books are now missing publication dates -- any hope that the publication dates will return short of hand-entering all of them? -- I guess I will hand-enter them but it ..."In many cases, it was a case of rescuing the book and leaving the publication date blank or not rescuing the book at all. Publication dates, cover images, ISBN numbers are all nice to have, but not nearly as important titles and authors. In the next few weeks, librarians will likely be busy reentering publications dates and the like, but for now, at least the books themselves (title, author) are safe. I know that when I was rescuing German books, there were times when the rescue form would not let me put in publication date, so I often had to leave that blank (I'll try to get to the books I rescued as soon as possible, but I also hope people will be patient and not expect us to do this with lightning speed, some of us, like me, are brand new at this and I'm finding certain things a bit daunting).
If you go to your books, you can "sort" by cover, and it'll put all the blank cover books at the top. That's helpful. You can also use sorting to help you figure out which books are missing other data (publication date, page numbers, etc.) and don't forget that there are a lot more columns you can make appear in the shelf settings!Also, remember there's a difference between the "date pub" column and the "date pub (ed)" column. The former is the original publication date, and the latter is the publication date of your specific edition. Before you freak out that all your books are missing publication dates, I think the "default" column is the original publication date, so make sure you're looking at the edition publication date, since that's really more important for individual books.
Lobstergirl wrote: "I don't think that "google preview" link has anything to do with the cover. From the librarian edits, that cover image was uploaded in 2008."Hmm. Okay. I'm seeing a lot of these covers, just recently, with the google preview underneath as part of the cover image.
Sara ♥ wrote: "If you go to your books, you can "sort" by cover, and it'll put all the blank cover books at the top. That's helpful. You can also use sorting to help you figure out which books are missing other..."Sara - thanks for that tip on covers. At least I can now see what is missing. Luckily I keep cover images (non Amazon ones) for my blog reviews so can draw on those for 'read' books. As for those in my 'to be read' well not quite so bothered as when I come to read them i can always sort out covers and other info if not already done.
Themis-Athena, some of those are private. I'm not touching the German or whatever, sorry. But I've done several English and will keep working on them for a while, and check again tomorrow.
T.A., I got about 20-25 of them. Another 5 or so I couldn't find.
Sara ♥ wrote: "If you go to your books, you can "sort" by cover, and it'll put all the blank cover books at the top. That's helpful. You can also use sorting to help you figure out which books are missing other..."Excellent advice. Aack, I'm getting carpal tunnel from re-entering book date and re-uploading cover-art.
If I recall correctly, somewhere in this thread Patrick(?) mentioned that publication dates, page counts, etc. are things which likely will be (re-)imported from our new sources after the more immediate situation is dealt with.
Themis-Athena wrote: "Alright, like I suppose all of us I've spent the better part of the weekend busily saving books (my own and others), but it's 2:35am where I am now, and I'm still a few folks' "rescue" lists short...."Oh my gosh I'm such an amateur. I had only been rescuing books I physically own. But your plea was so heartfelt., I got a couple for you by looking up their publishers. Man, you work hard.
I'm sorry it was only two, but yes, it is late ...
Themis-Athena wrote: "Alright, like I suppose all of us I've spent the better part of the weekend busily saving books (my own and others), but it's 2:35am where I am now, and I'm still a few folks' "rescue" lists short...."I rescued a whole bunch of german books from your links =)
Alessandra msg 1530: I'm the same way. I just became a GR "Librarian" a few days ago after I heard about this, to see what I could do to help out, and thankfully I have a lot of books that have kept me busy with all my friends, but yeah, it's so much harder looking up everything without everything sitting right in front of you! Kudos to everyone who has worked so hard, because I've only tried to help out for a few days and I'm exhausted!
Stacey wrote: "I've only tried to help out for a few days and I'm exhausted! "Stacey, librarian work is usually not this overwhelming and it's usually really fun. There usually isn't the time pressure we've had recently. And we're not usually in danger of losing books. We tend to just improve things. And since we can do as little or as much as we want, it's very enjoyable work.
Her Royal Orangeness wrote: "Are the book covers permanently gone? Please tell me they're doing some import that will fix this! I've lost so many. :("According to Michael, We've got a batch of maybe a million replacements cover images we should do in the next week or so....
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/7...
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The only books completely disappearing are books that n..."
I have ten books on German literary criticism that I now have to manually put back onto the database because they were deleted before I had a chance to rescue them. I thought that I had until Monday to do that (well I guess looking on the bright side, I can now make sure the titles etc. are spelled correctly, some of the Amazon information was very inaccurate).