Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Searching for a book to add to my shelf and ran across these.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28...

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28...

Would these need to be deleted or do we leave them?

Not sure if I should post this stuff for someone or ignore it.


TIA

Deleting won't help; they'll just return, zombie-like. ;)

Instead (assuming they have no reviews actually intended for a book), check that they are not combined with anything else (use the "separate" function on the combine editions page, if necessary), and label them as "Not a Book" and change the author to that as well.

I did those two so you can see what I mean. :)

Okay, thanks Rivka. Learning slowly but surely.
*grin*

Usually the best way. :)

So, just clarifying, on posters, change the author to "Not a Book" as well?

And another thought I've had, but not acted on: I was thinking about the idea of combining "not books" that appear under a single author into one "combination." For example, there are posters and notecard sets under several authors, could I combine them to "clean up" that author's list of works?

Sallyb, Yes, Anything that isn't a book or a book on CD, etc. books, please put NOT A BOOK in front of the title and in the author field.

Re combining "not books," just intuitively I like that idea myself but I'll leave the official response up to the official librarians.

Sallyb, if you change the author to NOT A BOOK (as well as adding it to the title) there's no need to combine since the book will be listed under the generic not a book author rather than the original author. In fact, it's better not to combine them in this case because if you miss one they get cross-combined across authors which is a little harder to find and cleanup.

In fact, it's better not to combine them in this case because if you miss one they get cross-combined across authors which is a little harder to find and cleanup.

Michael, Very good point. You've changed my mind.

So, I know the answer to this exists somewhere, forgive me. ;) What about a "Not a Book: poster" that has 60 ratings, and they are all obviously for the book, not the poster?

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29...

This one has 23 ratings:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31...

This one 17 ratings:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30...

Is it worth my time?

In those cases, combine them with the correct book, then delete the poster to transfer the ratings onto the book.

You might consider re-adding the poster and its ISBN back into the system and tagging it as not a book from the start to prevent it from reloading from Amazon and then having more people mistakenly add it, starting the cycle over again.

Are dumpbins also Not Books?

see: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...

Anything else that should bet "Not a Book"ed like posters do?

Thanks

Dumpbins are not books.

Any opinions on sticker books?

I would say that sticker books that also contain text (like the ones that are made for kids to put stickers in key spots while reading along) are real books; those that lack any text whatsoever are a stickier question.

Things that are not books include:

dumpbins
posters
floor displays
calendars
counterpacks
plush toys/dolls
decks of cards
bookmarks

Many of these have multiple spelling and abbreviation variants, but they start to become very recognizable after awhile.

Of course, there are other things that are also not books, such as rocks, kittens, clouds, fire hydrants, and tofu, but I thought I'd stick with the ones most likely to be found in the Amazon GoodReads database.

I thought I'd expand on my previous post. Here are some phases/terms to look for which usually indicate things that are not books:

* dumpbin, dump bin, dumpb, dumpbi, dumpbn, dbin, d/bin
* counterpack, counter pack, cpack, c/pack, counter display
* floor display, floordisplay, floor disp, fd, f/d
* mixed bin, mixed copy, copy bin, mxd
* prepak, ppk, stockpack, stock pack
* header
* calendar
* poster
* shrinkwrap, shrink wrap, s/wrap, swrap
* x12, x24, x36, x48, 12c, 24c, 36c, 48c, 12cc, 24cc, 36cc, 48cc, 60cc
* 18fl, 24fl, 27fl, 36fl (fl = floor display)

The last two lists indicate #'s of copies, e.g., 24c indicates a 24 copy item...thus these are usually display or stock items of that # of books and not the correct ISBN for the actual individual books themselves. These are the most common numbers, but others also abound. Also, stray numbers in a title (as numerical digits rather than spelled out), even without the x, c, or cc, will often indicate copy number as well.

A single year in a title (e.g., 2008) often indicates a calendar.

Presence of one of these terms does not automatically indicate that the item is not a book, but in most cases you should be suspicious.

I came across a floor display yesterday but don't have the ability to transfer reviews, etc. Should I post those here? Or assume that the super librarians are pulling those things up via search and deleting them as they have time?

Kristen, There are so very many non-books here at Goodreads (thousands!!) so please don't assume something you caught will be caught by the super librarians or anyone else. So, yes, you can post in the book issues thread or here.

Thanks, Michael, for that list of Not Books. I've been wondering, and now I know!

Sallyb, you're welcome. I took me quite awhile to start to figure some of these out, they're certainly not always obvious.

Another one I just found:

"mxfl" = mixed floor display

Thanks for that list, Michael. I've seen a bunch of "flr dsply" and "prepk" type things that I figured where NOT A BOOK, but I wasn't sure.

Yikes! What about maps??? I've changed maps to NOT A BOOK!!!1

Yes; maps too. There are thousands & thousands of non-book items with ISBNs that Amazon sells. Unfortunately. I tend to concentrate on the non-books that I think will be most likely to be mistaken by Goodrads members as books and therefore the most likely to get ratings & reviews. There are too many to get to all the non-books. Think of all of the calendars generated every single year!

I can't remember...what is the consensus on sheet music and the like? Book? Not book?

Did we ever reach consensus on that? Personally, I'm torn -- especially if there are lyrics.

I say not a book, but that's just me. But I have put NOT A BOOK in front of them because I thought we had decided that. So Rivka & All please decide. (I might have to go back and do MORE edits!!!)

I guess I lean toward leaving it as a book. Although it's not something that is "read" in the traditional fashion, there doesn't seem to be any reason that music collected in book form wouldn't count as a book. I mean, photographic books are still considered books, so why not music, even without lyrics?

Most of the other non-books seem fairly straightforward, but since music may actually be bound just like any other soft cover...

I agree. Sorry, Lisa. ;)

That's fine. Actually, I thought sheet music is often not in book form. The "sheet music" I have as books are books. Often sheet music (that I'm used to) is a single piece.

But, I'll go back (I don't promise when) and see if I can find the ones I marked NOT A BOOK. It shouldn't be too hard as I left "sheet music" as part of the title and edition type.

I'm glad it's been settled, and that makes less work here at GR too.

P.S. And if anyone comes across any, please change back. Thanks!


EDIT AGAIN: I'm not finding any and I know that I've done about a dozen. So, I apologize; I will keep looking. But, if you run across them, please make the change. Think most were John Williams/maybe 10 of 12??? Thank you.

What about a blank journal for the buyer to write in?

I don't consider a blank journal a book...it's just a fancy pad of paper.

I entirely agree.

I would say that a journal is just a notebook. But that does bring me to ask about sticker books. I'm afraid I have to confess to not even questioning that and changing them to not a book. But what do you guys say? I probably have only actually changed a couple of them.

Lisa, I've changed some sheet music to NOT A BOOK too. So I'll be looking with you.

I think I said this before, but IMO, the sticker books depend. If they are just stickers, then being bound is irrelevant -- it's just packaging. ;) But some sticker books are story books for kids, where the kids are supposed to put the stickers in strategic spots. I'd say those are books.

Is there a way to tell the difference?

Sometimes you get blank journals with interspersed anecdotes by the author, though, and I've been leaving those as books on the idea that there might be enough original text in there to interest a collector, especially from humor authors....

Lasairfiona, sometimes not unless you are familiar with the specific example.

Cait, that's a good point.

Maybe this list of what's not a book should be a sticky at the top of the group?

Good idea. Retitled, moved to P&P, and stickied.

I found one that says R/P. My gut instinct is that it's not a book, but I thought I'd check first. For now I've combined it with the other titles. Here's a link:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26...

WorldCat and GoogleBooks both think it's a regular book. I just deleted the extraneous "R/P."

Recycled Paper?

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/80...

I can't figure out if this is a real book or not.

I think not. None of the bookstores knows the book, nor do WorldCat and GoogleBooks; the only sites that have it are Amazon and those who get their info from Amazon -- and this one, which implies that it's a 6-pack of books.

Okay, I changed it to "Not a book." Thanks!

This "author" looks like a bunch of perpetual calendars that are a quote-a-day. Do they stay in the database? If so, should I change the author to the publisher's name instead of "perpetual"?

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

JG,

If they have ISBNs they have to stay in the database.

If they're straight calendars and don't have a lot of text/book-like qualities, the author should be changed to NOT A BOOK.

They actually seem to me to be more like books than plain calendars; they have real content for each day. Some of them have other primary authors than Perpetual, too.

I vote for not changing them to Not A Book.

Yes, That's why I said IF they don't have a lot of text/book-like qualities. I've left most perpetual calendars alone because they sometimes (but not always) do. However, having other authors doesn't mean much. Most straight calendars have "authors" and those I change to NOT A BOOK with no qualms.

True. I looked at several item descriptions as the primary evidence.