FAQs: Amazon is going away as a data source

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Because that thread has gotten very long, here are some frequently answered questions and links to key posts. I will lock this thread; only mods will be able to post here.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Otis' post: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/7...

Patrick's post: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/7...

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Rescue books link: http://www.goodreads.com/rescue_books...
Rescue other users’ books: http://www.goodreads.com/rescue_books...
Rescue friends' books: http://www.goodreads.com/rescue_books...

Links will currently only work for librarians.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Using the Rescue Books page:

Only the fields listed are needed to save the book. Sometimes the author or title already have an alternate source, and is not listed on the rescue book page. That’s ok – just fill in the fields required for your book.

Secondary authors will be kept. They don't need to be (nor can they be) added on the rescue page.

If you have any trouble with publication date, remember it is not a required field to rescue a book. Leave it blank to rescue, and you can edit it later.

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.)

[rivka, Former Moderator]

The URL is the web address at the top of your browser. If you search for the book by ISBN, we need you to enter the specific and complete URL of the site which you obtained the data from. If you have a physical or ebook copy of the book, no need to enter the URL (Just check the box that says you have a physical copy).

The URL listed on the librarian logs is not the Source URL, it is just the URL of the book, if there is one. So no need to fix it, we have stored your source URL elsewhere.

Acceptable URLs: Any trustworthy independent website that isn't a bookseller will suffice. You may use the publisher's site even if they sell their books. (Except for Amazon.)

[Patrick]

Many, many thanks to Vicky for compiling much of this list!

Sources we are already importing automatically:

Ingram
Most major US Publishers (Including Random House, Harper Collins, etc)
Library of Congress

Resources for Finding New Data:

Author Websites
Publisher Websites (even if they also sell their own books)

National Libraries of the World: http://www.publiclibraries.com/world.htm
Use this site to find non-US libraries, some even have English based sites in addition to the native language, so this would be a good resource for librarians rescuing non-English books.

WorldCat: http://worldcat.org

Argentina
http://agencia.librosar.com.ar/portal...

Australian
http://trove.nla.gov.au/book

Danish
http://bibliotek.dk/

Dutch
http://zoeken.bibliotheek.be/
http://www.kbr.be/catalogues/catalogu...
http://www.kb.nl/
http://www.debezigebij.nl
http://www.boekerij.nl
http://www.degeus.nl
http://www.uitgeverijcargo.nl (is an imprint of De Bezige Bij)
http://www.uitgeverijathenaeum.nl

English (UK)
http://www.nls.uk/catalogues/online

English Publishers
http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk

Finnish
https://fennica.linneanet.fi/ (National library database)
http://www.helmet.fi/ (Database of capital area libraries)
http://monihaku.kirjastot.fi/en/frank...

Finnish Pulbishers
http://www.tammi.fi/
http://www.otava.fi/
http://wsoy.fi/yk/
http://www.soderstrom.fi/ (publishes books in Swedish)
http://www.karisto.fi/portal/suomi/
http://www.teos.fi/fi/etusivu/index.php
http://www.like.fi/

List of Finnish publishers
http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luokka:S...

German
German National Library/Deutschen Nationalbibliothek: http://www.d-nb.de/

http://www.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/kvk....
http://www.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/kvk_... (English version)

German Manga Publishers
http://www.carlsen.de/web/manga/a_bis...
EMA/ Egmont Manga & Anime: http://www.manganet.de
Panini comics/ Panini manga: http://www.paninicomics.de
Tokyopop Germany: http://www.tokyopop.de (click Bücher)

Greek
http://www.gbip.gr/main.asp

Italian
Bibliotecha Nazionale Centrale di Roma: http://193.206.215.17/BVE/ricercaBase...
Internet Culturale: http://www.internetculturale.it/openc...

Italian Publishers
http://www.einaudi.it/
http://www.librimondadori.it/web/mond...

http://www.astrolabio-ubaldini.com/
http://rizzoli.rcslibri.corriere.it/
http://www.adelphi.it
http://www.feltrinellieditore.it/
http://www.minimumfax.com/
http://www.elliotedizioni.com
http://www.laterza.it
http://www.guanda.it
http://www.neripozza.it
http://www.polilloeditore.it
http://www.mulino.it
http://www.sellerio.it
http://www.skira.net
http://www.fandango.it
http://www.meridianozero.it
http://www.garzantilibri.it
http://www.iperborea.com
http://www.fanucci.it
http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/2...

Japan
Kodansha and Shueisha are a couple of the big publishers in Japan.
http://www.bookclub.kodansha.co.jp/
http://www.shueisha.co.jp/

Spanish
http://www.mcu.es/webISBN/
http://www.laeditorialupr.com/catalog...
http://www.publicacionespr.com/cgi-bi...

UK
The British Library: http://explore.bl.uk/

Rare, Old & Out of Print Books
http://archive.org (Multi-Lingual)
SC University Libraries Rare Books & Special Collections: http://library.sc.edu/spcoll/rarebook...

Specialty
RPG Game Index: http://index.rpg.net/ (for tabletop RPG gaming books)

Cover Images
http://www.tineye.com/ (Search for images similar to the one you provide)

Sites that are not acceptable to use:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Library Thing
Shelfari
Baker & Taylor
Google Books
Alibris
Abebooks
Powells
Indiebound
all other bookseller sites

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Use this to convert ISBN10s to ISBN13s and v.v.: http://pcn.loc.gov/isbncnvt.html

[Patrick]

We have now finished with our imports from Ingram and ISBNdb. We will make another pass at those databases to get data besides author, title, ISBN, and ISBN-13, but all of the books in those databases should be safe at this point. It made pretty major progress, and we have high hopes for some of the imports that are still running to knock out many of the non-English works in need of rescue.

Keep in mind that we are continuing to import from other sources, and that's likely to continue throughout the week, so some of the books on your rescue lists may still get rescued from a subsequent import. But our major import is now finished.

[Patrick]

If you are a Goodreads Author and you are curious about your books' data, please see our author-specific FAQ thread in the Goodreads Author Feedback group.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Not sure if a book was successfully rescued? To check if a book is rescued, go to the editions page. If you expand all, you can see the source for each edition. If you successfully rescued it, your name should appear as the source. If not, it will still show Amazon.

[Patrick]

Librarians can now rescue the books on their friends' shelves:

http://www.goodreads.com/rescue_books...

Just pick a friend to see if they have books needing rescue.

[Patrick]

An Important note regarding Kindle and CreateSpace books.

Late this afternoon, we received word from Amazon that we will not get a feed of book information for Kindle and CreateSpace books. Previously, we’d been told that we would get a feed and that’s what we’ve been communicating to Librarians and authors. What this means is that these books will now need to be rescued. If they are not, the reviews and ratings will be merged into other editions of the same book, if we have other editions. If no other editions of the book exist, the ratings and reviews will move to a blank book record with no author or title until we can find a new, alternate source of data for those books. We apologize for the late notice, but as I said, we just got the news late this afternoon. If we could have given you more notice, we absolutely would have.

We have just opened up the rescue books page to all users, and later tonight (Friday) or early tomorrow (Saturday), we will be sending an email to all authors with a book at risk, as well as to all users with books at risk. We are continuing to import books from WorldCat and several other sources, which will help a bit.

Thank you for all your efforts in helping us with this transition. We’ll continue to keep you updated and please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have additional questions.

[Patrick]

Update:

The rescue books page is now open to all users.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Some updates from Otis.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Regarding cover images.