Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
Page Numbering Requests
>
Audiobook hours rounded up = page numbers?
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Lavinia
(last edited Feb 08, 2012 06:57PM)
(new)
Feb 08, 2012 06:57PM
I apologize if this has been asked and answered - I wasn't able to find a definitive verdict nor any mention in the Librarian Manual. Is it true that the page count for an audiobook should be the number of hours of the audiobook rounded up? So, for instance... the page count for The Forgotten Garden should be 21, given that the publisher's website says it's 20 hours and 40 minutes long? (Which means this entry is wrong, but I can fix that, assuming I have my information right.)
reply
|
flag
If the audiobook is on multiple CDs, I have also seen the number of CDs used in the pages field. Hours makes much more sense.
Is it possible to question this practice?In my eyes it is extremely irritating, when a book site for an audio book is stating "15 pages".
In fact until now I always thought this is an import error and had removed this field.
I think this formatting does not help a user. They do not know anything about this rule and are irritated like me.
I suppose to:
- Either left this page field clean for audio books and state the length of a book in the edition field instead. This makes sense, because many books have editions of various lengths (abridged/unabridged) and can be seen right from the edition selection.
- Or the devs can change the formatting. But honestly, I don't think this will happen, so the first option makes the most sense to me.
Daniel wrote: "Either left this page field clean for audio books and state the length of a book in the edition field instead. This makes sense, because many books have editions of various lengths (abridged/unabridged) and can be seen right from the edition selection."I listen to a lot of audiobooks and often keep track of how far in hours I am into the book by status. Confusing as it might be, it would render the page/percentage status completely useless for audiobooks. Which, personally, I would find more irritating.
I always use the percentage version when updating my "reading" status of audio books. The "page" numbers are not needed. ;-)
Needed, no. But I much prefer to look at my Audible app, see that I am 3 hours into the book and change my status to 3 to having to calculate the percentage on the fly.At any rate I suspect that since this has been policy for so long it us unlikely to change.
Mod
I am in the process of reverting these edits.
It is expected that all active librarians will be familiar with the manual. Failure to follow current policy can be cause for revocation of librarian status.
(That is, once you realized you had made a mistake, you should have reverted your incorrect edits. Then starting a discussion regarding policy might be appropriate.)
The decision to add "page numbers" for audiobooks was based on requests from many audiobook listeners. It has been policy for several years, and is unlikely to change any time soon. If you do not find those "pages" useful, the percentage read option is always available. But many other audiobook readers do find them useful.
Speaking as the user who brought this to Daniel's attention, I can say that I quite like the way things are done. Hours for page numbers makes sense enough for me.
I wish there were another way to do this. It makes sense to have the number of hours for purposes of progress tracking, but this means the book lengths aren't really "counted" for personal page stats. War and Peace was definitely the longest book I've read this year, but since I read it as an audiobook it counts as fewer than 100 pages in my stats.
Aren't the page number stats screwed up anyway if there's no said information attached to an audiobook in the first place (as irritating as it may be)?Besides, the page number can vary considerably even in different papery or ebook editions, so it would be kind of tricky to decide where to get the information in any other form than as the number of hours in the book, which the publishers often provide.
You can shelve a paperback to get it into your stats and the audio can go on another exclusive shelf. I personally care less about yearly page stats then updating my status and it is difficult to know on which page I am if I am listening to an audio book.
Aavis wrote: "Besides, the page number can vary considerably even in different papery or ebook editions, so it would be kind of tricky to decide where to get the information in any other form than as the number of hours in the book, which the publishers often provide."Yep, that's why I would consider a dedicated field for hours or minutes.
Daniel wrote: "Yep, that's why I would consider a dedicated field for hours or minutes."That would be nice, but which page numbers do we add? There will be librarians changing back and forth. You may look into one of the topics about it in the feedback group and bump it. It must have been suggested or commented on.
I believe there should be a dedicated field for running time. I also believe the Number of pages should be "Number of Pages, CDs or Cassettes," but that's just one man's opinion and until they change it I'll comply with the current rule.I always add the number of CD's/Cassettes and running time at the bottom of the description on all of the media I personally own so if or when the rule does change, the information is already there for the next librarian. It also helps identify the media.
I was filling it in incorrectly, myself, till another librarian contacted me!
I sent goodreads a suggestion to add a toolbar bubble next to the "Number of Pages" field.
The most important thing is, that we're all doing it the same way!!!
Daniel wrote: "Is it possible to question this practice?In my eyes it is extremely irritating, when a book site for an audio book is stating "15 pages".
In fact until now I always thought this is an import erro..."
That's a very good point Daniel!! The main purpose for this site is for the mass members, not the librarians! The masses are not going to read those rules.
Vicky wrote: "Daniel wrote: "Either left this page field clean for audio books and state the length of a book in the edition field instead. This makes sense, because many books have editions of various lengths (..."Vicky, wouldn't the number of disks do the same for you? I agree leaving it blank is a problem for you and that's understandable.
The main problem I see is we're all looking at this from a librarians point of view and not the normal user's point of view. We should be making it work for those who are not librarians and they have no idea what that number means when it's an audiobook.
Mod
Actually, this practice was originally determined based on a poll of what was at the time the largest Goodreads group of audiobook readers. Most of whom were not librarians.
Mike wrote: "Vicky, wouldn't the number of disks do the same for you? I agree leaving it blank is a problem for you and that's understandable."Not Vicky, but your thought assumes that the person is listening to the audiobook on one format - CD.
Scenario:
I am listening on a download, and my friend A is using the CDs. B wants to join in reading with us, but on cassette. Time allows us to say where we have got to without confusion - the third hour is the third hour on all formats, but CD3 may not match up to Cassette3, and is completely untranslatable into Download.
By all means, ask for an Extra field, but I can see why audiobook groups would prefer to have a cross-platform(ish) method for discussion.
