Please do Not delete stray books!

[Cheryl]

Just because nobody has shelved a book, or because it's the only book by an author, or the information is incomplete, is no reason to delete a book. I see new librarians trying to 'clean up' our database by discarding clutter. NO!! Please, the terrific thing about goodreads' database is that it is comprehensive and that it can be improved by any member at any time.

For example, often I find old books at library sales. Nobody has read them for years, so no GR member has shelved them. The records for them are incomplete. But now I have the book in hand, so I can clean up the record, and voila', pretty & new book description.

[[deleted user]]

Thanks for posting, Cheryl! I think a lot of the newest of librarians (like me) are learning as they go, and it's nice to hear these things in a positive way. It's good to think of goodreads as a place to "save" books that might otherwise be forgotten.

[Cheryl]

What you said. My rant is muddled - but you know what I meant - thank you.

[Renske]

And sometimes books are added to prevent clutter, at least I have done that. If I'm already cleaning up a series it is not that much work to add the missing books and it prevents that they are added with errors.
Or books I have added to make a list of an award complete. (Especially with older children's books in less popular languages they are sometimes missing in the database.)

[Cheryl]

Thank you, Renske!