Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Hi everyone. I'm having great trouble putting together my book list, mainly due to the ISBN's. First I search by my books ISBN e.g. 0330323113 Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams. But even though it lists about 10 books, none of them are the one I'm looking for. So, I add new book but that won't allow me to as 'the ISBN must be unique'.

Help! i don't want to have this problem for most of my collection . .

Thanks

It appeared as the only result when I searched for that ISBN...

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17...

Here you have ;)

It's ok . .wrked out what I did wrong. i searched with for the ISBN with hyphens in it 0-330-32311-3. Acts as a break in the search terms.

Doh!

Sorry for troubling everyone

The problem I am having is adding an eBook edition when someone's already added the pBook version and I cannot ad din the ISBN number(s). Can this be fixed? This (IMHO) is a serious bug.

If you want to add an eBook edition that has the same ISBN as a paper edition you have to add it without the ISBN and include a note stating the reason for the extra edition.

Where do I put the note?

JSWolf,

Put it in the book description field.

Is there a way to validate ISBN numbers? I just added an eBook that I cannot add the ISBN numbers because someone incorrectly used the eBook ISBN numbers for the paperback version. I did leave a note in the note field stating what the correct ISBN numbers are for the eBook and pBook.

How long does it usually take for the notes to be looked at so the book(s) can be fixed?

JSWolf, The notes are for librarians to see so that they know to not do certain edits if they happen to come across that book in edit mode. The notes are not systematically looked at. If you need help with a change, asking for it in this group in the best way.

Also, your note: Did you leave it in the book description field? If so, I think that's all that's necessary.

How do you know that the eBook ISBN are incorrectly used for the paper? Very few publishers are using separate ISBNs for eBooks and instead are reporting the ISBN of the paper version the eBook is based on, meaning that both the electronic and paper books have the same ISBN.

I agree with Not-The-Michael. Most likely it not only is the correct ISBN for the paperback, but that edition was released first.

This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For wrote: "How do you know that the eBook ISBN are incorrectly used for the paper? Very few publishers are using separate ISBNs for eBooks and instead are reporting the ISBN of the paper version the eBook is ..."

I know because I looked at the publisher's website. Simon & Schuster use different ISBN for the pBook and the eBook. So I did make 100% sure that the ISBN was incorrect for the pBook. Some eBooks do use the pBook's ISBN. In those cases, I'll just leave it blank. But in cases such as this, I do want it fixed.