Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
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Amazon is going away as a data source
I don't understand all of this. I see about 200 books on that list that are all on my shelf. I have better things to do than type in their titles all over again (why isn't the title filled in automatically when you click the "rescue button), let alone go and hunt for some URL for the book. Why do you *require* a URL, since when is the internet the only possible source of information? Surely if I've entered it & check the box stating I've had the book in my hands, that should suffice?Geeze, there's a book on it that I've translated myself.
I don't even know why you mark these books as "Amazon sourced", since for many I've manually entered the information. Amazon had nothing to do with it (I bet it doesn't even have info on some of those Dutch books).
Lousy idea, this whole operation, if you ask me.
If you check the box stating you have the book present you don't have to supply a URL.
Okay, that's good news. It's not apparent from the interface, but in that case it's a lot less work, I'll rescue some. Thanks.
I'm just learning about quite a bit of this, so I'll start to get to work on some of the editions I see that need saving. I can work on some of them that I know I've read and gotten information from NetGalley among other sources, but it'll take some time. I think the vast majority of my books lucked out enough to have other editions, so at least it's in the merge list.
Two questions :)1. Randomhouse.co.uk doesn't have page numbers listed (if they do, someone tell me where to find it?). Since it is a big publisher though, it's a reliable data source though to use. Is it okay to find the page numbers from another website or should we just leave it blank?
2. Is there a way to see a list of ALL books that are in danger of being deleted? I'm far from done with fixing my own shelves but I'm sort of done with the critical ones and I think it would be better to help out rescuing books that are to be deleted, than those that are to be merged.
Leila:1. It's okay to use page numbers from another site if both the following are met...a) it is not an ecommerce site and b) the page numbers given are for that specific ISBN. If you have the book with you, just check it manually.
2. Not at this time. I think the staff is waiting to see how many books still need rescuing after the big import before implementing these types of tools.
*wanders off to rescue all her books*
I feellike that dude that was walking through a river, holding a basket of books over his head!
I feellike that dude that was walking through a river, holding a basket of books over his head!
Library sites, including World Cat can be quite useful for getting page numbers. You do have to ensure it's the right ISBN of course. I have to say though I often find Amazon's page counts can be wildly wrong compared to actual copy.
Ok, I read through several pages here but not all of the comments so I apologize if this has already been asked. How will this effect books not yet published? Especially from Indie authors that do not have full websites?
Pam wrote: "Ok, I read through several pages here but not all of the comments so I apologize if this has already been asked. How will this effect books not yet published? Especially from Indie authors that do ..."
If they or their publishers entered the books themselves, with them as the source, they should be fine. If they sourced the data from Amazon (which they could have done if it's pre-order there) then it may be in danger.
If they or their publishers entered the books themselves, with them as the source, they should be fine. If they sourced the data from Amazon (which they could have done if it's pre-order there) then it may be in danger.
One of the GR staff said earlier in the thread that they should go away; it's a caching issue. I don't know how long it will take to clear the cache though. It may not be until after all the new data is in.
ETA: I was replying Abigail's question about her rescue list, not indie authors!
J.R. wrote: "Patrick wrote: "They don't need to cut and paste from Amazon to know the title, description, cover, etc. "Wait. That isn't correct because it requires a "source URL". I don't have to cut and past..." Same here. That's the question that keeps getting asked that isn't getting answered. I emailed goodreads; hopefully I'll get an answer with instructions that make sense. If I do, I'll be sure to post it. I'm a KDP select author.
Goodreads has said this doesn't affect anything about KDP.
KDP authors not enrolled in the select program have other options, but select authors don't. They will only have their books for sale at amazon.com. Does this mean that these authors are excluded from the goodreads policy because they are enrolled in kdp select? I received the warning that the book I wrote is in danger of being removed...so clarity is needed from goodreads.
Christa wrote: "If they or their publishers entered the books themselves, with them as the source, they should be fine. If they sourced the data from Amazon (which they could have done if it's pre-order there) then it may be in danger. "That is what I was afraid of...
I've added a few new books this weekend and then found them appearing on the "at risk" list. Given what's going on, wouldn't it be sensible for the Goodreads team to turn off the sourcing of new data from Amazon with immediate effect. These new books must only be making the scale of the problem worse.
To all who have to save a lot of books (especially non-English editions which will propably just end in smoke): Just forget about all those not neccessarily required details as description, publisher, page numbers and so on for now. You can allways come back and edit them later. It is more important that those editions actually stay in the system after the 30th. It's all a matter of priorities...
John wrote: "I've added a few new books this weekend and then found them appearing on the "at risk" list. Given what's going on, wouldn't it be sensible for the Goodreads team to turn off the sourcing of new ..."They did, the ability to search by ISBN/ASIN and auto import a book from Amazon has "not worked" for a week or so
Can you link to a book - so we can see what data is "Amazon" sourced
Is data from sites using a Creative Commons License appropriate to draw info from?I am specifically thinking of The Internet Speculative Fiction Database which uses Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0).
Stephen wrote: "KDP authors not enrolled in the select program have other options, but select authors don't. They will only have their books for sale at amazon.com. Does this mean that these authors are excluded..."Anyone who is a goodreads author can rescue their own books, if they own a copy (it seems highly unlikely that they wouldn't have at least one copy around physically or digitally). Simply select the 'I have a copy present' check box. Then a source url is not required.
@PaulaI've rescued the affected books so I don't have an example to offer.
However, Thinking about it further, maybe I was adding books to my shelves from the Goodreads database that had uncleaned Amazon data (hence being "at risk") rather than sucking in new Amazon data.
I'll keep an eye on it and share anything of interest (but I now currently plan a personal moratorium on adding new books until things have stabilised).
I did rescue my own book, thanks. My concern is that I'm not able to allow for downloads of my book via goodreads. And, unless I'm wrong, I can't allow access to my book at amazon via this site to any readers who might be interested. But I guess that's not a big deal--it's only for 5 more weeks.
Stephen wrote: "KDP authors not enrolled in the select program have other options, but select authors don't. They will only have their books for sale at amazon.com. Does this mean that these authors are excluded..."
It's already been stated by Otis that Amazon will continue to provide the feed for KDP books, it is the books from "other publishers" for which Amazon-sourced data can no longer be used.
I would assume this is because Amazon is providing the data as a publisher in the case of KDP books, not to mention that Amazon probably doesn't want all their KDP books disappearing from the most popular book site on the internet.
It's already been stated by Otis that Amazon will continue to provide the feed for KDP books, it is the books from "other publishers" for which Amazon-sourced data can no longer be used.
I would assume this is because Amazon is providing the data as a publisher in the case of KDP books, not to mention that Amazon probably doesn't want all their KDP books disappearing from the most popular book site on the internet.
Stephen wrote: "I did rescue my own book, thanks. My concern is that I'm not able to allow for downloads of my book via goodreads. And, unless I'm wrong, I can't allow access to my book at amazon via this site t..."
We posted at the same time. I see what your concern was now. I believe I saw something about this only effecting the data contained in the book records, not the linking to book sources.
We posted at the same time. I see what your concern was now. I believe I saw something about this only effecting the data contained in the book records, not the linking to book sources.
It would be nice to hear a word from the staff, I've posted several questions (msg 357) and the Italian librarians are working really hard to rescue as many books as we can.
Moloch wrote: "It would be nice to hear a word from the staff, I've posted several questions (msg 357) and the Italian librarians are working really hard to rescue as many books as we can."It's the weekend, so we will likely not be hearing anything until Monday morning (Pacific time).
I also would like to know when on Monday the massive import of data is going to occur and if that will in any way affect accessibility and speed (we don't want to be busy trying to rescue books if the site will be very much slowed down during the data imports etc.).
Its the weekend and only 11am in California give them a chance
Well, it's the weekend for me too and I'm working FOR FREE to save a lot of books.After such a big announcement, and having seen that your community is clearly worried, I would have expected more presence.
Michael was working late last night, Saturday, on the import. It has been said, many times, don't work your butt off on this. The request was to try a few to make sure things are in place and the general approach is viable. Then wait to see how the import goes and what is left afterward.
Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Michael was working late last night, Saturday, on the import. It has been said, many times, don't work your butt off on this. The request was to try a few to make sure things are in place and the g..."I have tried a few and it seemed to work. Now, I am going to wait until after the mass import of data on Monday. I have a feeling that I will still have more than enough German language books to deal with, sigh, but hopefully, some of my over 1300 books to be rescued will be helped with and by the data import.
I've tried to rescue two books now, have physical copies of them, and the form is challenging me on the copyright dates. These are not book club editions or reissued copies. I believe the actual book would be the correct date. How do I get past this to complete the rescue?
Steph wrote: "I've tried to rescue two books now, have physical copies of them, and the form is challenging me on the copyright dates. These are not book club editions or reissued copies. I believe the actual bo..."I had one book that had the same issues. I just gave up. But another librarian suggested just leaving the publication date blank and only filling in the title and the author's name (and then revisiting the publication date later).
Steph wrote: "I've tried to rescue two books now, have physical copies of them, and the form is challenging me on the copyright dates. These are not book club editions or reissued copies. I believe the actual bo..."I would put the date that is on the current listing, rescue it, and then change it after it's rescued (at least that's how I bypassed some of my rescued books).
Thanks. That's the same conclusion I came to -- leave the date blank, move on and fix it later.
Is there any indication about whether or not the new data to be imported in the 14m title db will overwrite the data we are manually entering when rescuing titles? Or will our data supercede the new import?
Hi there. Does anybody else have problems with the link 'http://www.goodreads.com/rescue_books...' please? I keep getting "You do not have permissions for this operation". ???
That would be because at the moment only librarians can access the link since the initial request for them to test the tools
Velma the new data should only override Amazons data or empty slots.
Mod
No, books that have been rescued by a user will not be overridden by imports.
Pam wrote: "Ok, I read through several pages here but not all of the comments so I apologize if this has already been asked. How will this effect books not yet published? Especially from Indie authors that do ..."Pam - I had quite a few books not yet published on my rescue list, but I found all of them listed on Worldcat.org. I was able to rescue all of them using the worldcat data. And I got a lot of cover images from the author's websites or blogs. Hope this helps you. :)
Will it be a problem if the "original title" field for rescued works continues to show the Amazon-sourced title?For example, I rescued this book:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41...
whose title was apparently previously listed as "La lumière du matin: Roman (Les Bonheurs courts)" -- I entered it as just "La lumière du matin" -- and the previous title is still showing as the original title.
(I'm not sure what can be done if this is a problem, so I hope it's not!)
If you get the message "Thank you for rescuing this book!" I should think it will be fine. Odd that your corrected title didn't show - but perhaps it's a caching issue?
I'm amazed at how much Amazon has taken credit for books I've input in the past. Books that I know I input all the data for, including typing descriptions and scanning covers. Case in point the catalogue for the Rubens exhibition in 1992 in Canberra (I'm the only person with that book), which I've since rescued.
I'm wondering if whether, after someone manually added a book, Amazon's import "found" the book and then over-wrote enough information to tag the entry as it's own. *Pure* speculation on my part, but so many people have had books they've entered showing up as Amazon sourced...
I just can't read 411 posts.I skimmed a bit and members seem to be able to figure out how many of their shelved books are at risk.
How, please?
And, what does this mean?
Thanks for any info in a nutshell.
Mod
Lisa wrote: "I just can't read 411 posts.I skimmed a bit and members seem to be able to figure out how many of their shelved books are at risk.
How, please?
And, what does this mean?
Thanks for any info in..."
IF you're a librarian, go to Post #1 and click on Otis' link. If you're not a librarian, hang tight. After the 14+ million import, GR will re-evaluate and decide if the rescue function should be opened up to all the members of GR. (If a relatively small number of books remain to be rescued, the librarians will probably be able to get them all.)
Mod
It never worked that way. The problem is more like this: users searched by ISBN or title. Book imported from Amazon with title, author, ISBN and nothing else. Users edited book to add more info. But it still shows up (and will unless an import or rescue changes it) as sourced by Amazon.
The "anchor" data for a book is what the rescue page make you correct: Title, author, (and ISBN).
Jennifer E. wrote: "IF you're a librarian, go to Post #1 and click on Otis' link. If you're not a librarian, hang tight. After the 14+ million import, GR will re-evaluate and decide if the rescue function should be opened up to all the members of GR. (If a relatively small number of books remain to be rescued, the librarians will probably be able to get them all.)"Thanks, Jennifer. I am a librarian. I've just been mia recently. I'll check the link, yes. I'm still not sure how anxious I should be about this.
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I noticed that almost all of the books I hav..."
I checked out one of the books on that publisher's site, and found that it was in ISBNDB. I think I saw a link in one of the forums where Michael was testing a batch of imports from that site, so maybe hold off until we've been told that all imports are done and the list of at-risk books is final?