Books without ISBNs

[John]

I have a lot of books without ISBNs that I want to catalogue. They were published before ISBN's were invented, and relate to a specific author (John Buchan) but the issue is generic.

To help me distinguish between editions, is it okay to do what academic journals often do and put the publisher and date of publication in parenthesis in the title field?

eg "Memory-Hold-The-Door: The Autobiography of John Buchan (Hodder and Stoughton, 1940)?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

No, please do not. We have a field for the publisher, and a field for publication date. If you have details expanded, both those bits of data can be seen on the editions page.

[John]

OK. I can see that works. Now another question. To stay with the example I had before, the edition I am cataloguing is a reprint. The genuine 1st edition was June 1940. Mine is a Jan 1942 reprint. Is it okay to add "Reprinted 1942" in the "edition" field.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

"Second edition" is the more preferred notation. Be sure to add June 1940 to the work's original publication date field.

[John]

Thanks. No problem with adding June 1940 to the original publication field.

In this case though, it isn't formally a second edition. The page that shows the publication history (ie the page where you would find the ISBN in a modern book) shows it was reprinted several times between Jun 1940 and Jan 1942, and except for this page of publishing data this would have been a rerun of the original metal printing plates rather than a true "second edition", which would have involved some textual changes.

So hope it's okay to stick with "Reprinted ... ". We book collectors care about these minor differences.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Then note it in your personal notes or review field, not in the book entry. If it's just a reprint of the 1940 edition, not a true second edition, then it should have the 1940 pub date.

[John]

Thanks. I'm being a bit dense about this.

Is the "personal notes" field the field that is called "private notes (shown only to you)"?

And what is the "review" field? Is that the one called "what do you think"?

[[deleted user]]

The review field is where you can publicly comment on the book.

[vicki_girl]

John wrote: "Thanks. I'm being a bit dense about this.

Is the "personal notes" field the field that is called "private notes (shown only to you)"?

And what is the "review" field? Is that the one called "what do you think"?"

Yes and Yes.