Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
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Additions to Librarian Manual
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NOT A BOOK
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The one thing that I think is missing is a warning to separate out a to-be-NABed item from any other items it has been combined with (either by deletion or by using the combine page).
rivka wrote: "Other than a couple minor word changes, that's pretty close to perfect! :)Thank you!
"The one thing that I think is missing is a warning to separate out a to-be-NABed item from any other items it has been combined with (either by deletion or by using the combine page)."
Oh, I knew I was forgetting something!
Mod
It looks good to me, cannot think of any thing else to add.Any chance the link to that section of the help manual could be add to the NOT A BOOK profile also
It looks great, Cait.* books withdrawn from publishing if enough information was ever provided to make a book record a useful resource
These are books? If it was never published and isn't going to be published?
Lisa wrote: "It looks great, Cait.* books withdrawn from publishing if enough information was ever provided to make a book record a useful resource
These are books? If it was never published and isn't going to be published?"
I can't find the reference now, but there were a couple of books a while back which had received lots of pre-publication hype and then were withdrawn by the publisher just before release because of legal issues around plagiarism or being untrue "nonfiction" memoirs. People were searching for those books on GR and finding them because their ISBNs were still assigned; it seems more useful to put the publisher's withdrawal statement in the book description than to have the book not show up or show up with only "not a book" to explain it.
Do other librarians agree?
Cait, Okay, I guess. I can also see putting them as NOT A BOOK (although then it's true the author is not searchable) and making the same note that it's a never published book. But okay. Usually the ones I come across are years old, so I've have no concerns about marking them NAB, but with newer books I agree leaving them as books could be useful.
Just curious, but what are "F&C Sheets"?
Mod
mlady_rebecca wrote: "Just curious, but what are "F&C Sheets"?"According to the not-a-book thread from a ways back, they're an incomplete binding stage. (What they're doing being distributed to readers is, I suppose, a different question!)
F&Cs should never be distributed to readers. They are material sales reps use to show picture books to bookstore buyers. They are equivalents of galleys of non-picture books. Do we really want to list those as real books? I guess if we list ARCs though then these can also be listed but seriously, they really aren't bound in any way. They're loose pages. Is that really a book? They're page proofs that are folded in half.
Mod
Too bad no one told Amazon that. ;)
What does "audio productions" mean exactly? Are radio shows on CD (I'm thinking of the ones not based on books) books or not? I've seen them marked NOT A BOOK before.
Mod
I see that we should NAB "prepacks". And this: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13... is listed as a prepack. But I don't see how this differs from volumn 1 - 7. It has quite a few reviews. Should it remain Not a Book?
Mod
Can we update this section of the manual so that below the list of items which are not books it says:Note that any of these items packaged with a book count as a book, if the specific book edition with which they are packaged is not otherwise sold separately.
instead of:
Note that any of these items packaged with a book count as a book, if the book with which they are packaged does not have a separate entry available.
This change is from this discussion, in order to clarify that if a book is available separately then the separate book should be entered into the catalog and should replace any bundled items.
Can we add something that says that before you NAB an item see if you can figure out what book they thought they were rating - combine it with that listing - copy the isbn - delete the item so that the reviews merge - add the isbn back and then NAB? There have been many cases where reviews - pretty extensive reviews have been shuttled off to NAB land. Here is an example of 93 reviews of various editions of what clearly seems to be books (in this case the bible) that need to be combined with their reviewed edition.http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29...
*edit - after clicking the other editions I see that the NAB was not separated - so it is not as bad as I thought it was. But I have come across many of these - where the review of a book has been detatched from the intended book.
Melody wrote: "Can we add something that says that before you NAB an item see if you can figure out what book they thought they were rating - combine it with that listing - copy the isbn - delete the item so that..."That's what I was trying to get at with this part:
1. If the item has been shelved by any users, attempt to determine whether these users (or at least some of them) intended to shelve an actual book. If this can be determined, shift their reviews onto the actual book like so....Is there a better way to highlight this aspect?
It seems to be mainly (though not solely) one librarian. Maybe I should just message her. (I just missed that part of your description - and I guess she did too.)
It's an easy thing to forget -- I know I've done it a few times myself! A reminder message would probably be a good idea.
I have a question - what about reviews being published as eBooks, but really are just reviews? There are four of these and one actual book when I searched for Still Life with Bread Crumbs.
Mod
Can someone with more experience take a look at the Roz Streeten books: https://www.goodreads.com/author/list...? I think they're all coloring books, but some have had their title (not author) changed to "not a book" and others have not been NAB-ed in any way. I'm actually in favor of having coloring books in the system, but since they're listed here as "not books", they should all be treated equally.Thanks!
What about single issues of a comic book? I've seen a few knocking around that look really out of place (not graphic novels or collections)
Mod
No report those to GR support if you think these are inappropriate
John wrote: "Does nabing also include inappropriate groups such as:..."
I don't think a librarian, even a super, could not-a-book a group even if they wanted to (any more than they can delete accounts, rating, or reviews). at one time in addition to emailing goodreads support there was a thread in feedback group where they were listing spam groups.
Mod
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Just as not all books have ISBNs, not all ISBNs are associated with books. When an item which is not a book is imported via ISBN into Goodreads, it does no good to delete it: the item will only be reimported as long as it remains on the feeder site. (Often these are book-related items which are assigned ISBNs by book publishers so that they can be tracked through their book systems.)
These items should be transferred to the author NOT A BOOK. This can be done by editing the individual book record and replacing the existing primary author with the author NOT A BOOK, or, if all of the items on an author's list are not books, the author can be edited and merged entirely into NOT A BOOK.
In the case of items currently credited to an author who is a member of the Goodreads Author program, proceed extremely carefully and contact the author for clarification if there is any question regarding the status of an item as a book, particularly in the case of calendars, workbooks, or blank books with additional content.
These items are not books:
* multi-packs of the same book
*** dumpbin, dump bin, dumpb, dumpbi, dumpbn, dbin, d/bin
*** mixed bin, mixed copy, copy bin, mxd
*** prepak, ppk, stockpack, stock pack
*** header
*** shrinkwrap, shrink wrap, s/wrap, swrap
*** x12, x24, x36, x48, 12c, 24c, 36c, 48c, 12cc, 24cc, 36cc, 48cc, 60cc
*** awbc
* promo materials (displays, etc.)
*** counterpack, counter pack, cpack, c/pack, counter display
*** floor display, floordisplay, floor disp, fd, f/d
*** 18fl, 24fl, 27fl, 36fl (fl = floor display)
*** mxfl
*** easel
*** clip strip
* movies (DVD or VHS)
* television episodes
* theatrical production recordings
* music (esp soundtracks) (but not bound sheet music)
* stationary
* calendars (unless containing additional content)
* diaries and blank books (unless containing additional content)
* posters
* coloring books (except those for reference or which tell a story)
* unbound maps (as opposed to bound maps in an atlas)
* board games
* tshirts
* toys
* stuffed animals/dolls
* bookmarks
* stickers
* decks of cards (including Tarot)
* puzzles (as opposed to puzzle books)
* plaques (inspirational, or otherwise)
* "all book by an author" or "all books in a series" where no published collection of these works exists
* video games
* podcasts discussing books
* untitled books where no verifiable publication information about the book exists (often these are titled "Untitled #3" and represent placeholder ISBNs)
The ones with numbers 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.
Note that any of these items packaged with a book count as a book, if the book with which they are packaged does not have a separate entry available.
These items are books:
* repacks
* F&C Sheets
* bound sheet music, scores, librettos, etc.
* atlases
* reference books (including books on CD-ROM)
* book group discussion guides
* workbooks
* calendars or something-a-day books with additional content
* "blank" books with additional text or collectible artwork
* advanced reader copies (ARCs)
* boxed sets (sold as a boxed set with one ISBN)
* multiple distinct volumes (sold together as a set with one ISBN)
* fanfiction which is self-published in book format
* forthcoming books with only partial information
* books withdrawn from publishing if enough information was ever provided to make a book record a useful resource
* periodicals and bound comic books with ISBNs
* periodicals without ISBNs but substantially similar to books (eg, perfectbound literary magazines)
* single-issue magazines and comic books on an individual and unencouraged basis, although they should be typed as "periodical" in the work: media type field
* short stories published online (the format should be "ebook")
* audio productions, not recordings of theatrical productions (the format should be "audiobook")
* podcasts of books
When shifting an item onto NOT A BOOK (this is usually referred to as "NABbing" the item, NAB standing for NOT A BOOK), follow this process:
1. If the item has been shelved by any users, attempt to determine whether these users (or at least some of them) intended to shelve an actual book. If this can be determined, shift their reviews onto the actual book like so:
a. Copy down the ISBN of the not-a-book.
b. Follow the instructions for merging two identical editions to merge the not-a-book into the actual book.
c. Search for the ISBN of the not-a-book.
d. The not-a-book record has been recreated in the GR database with no users shelving it; all of the users were transferred to the actual book in step (b).
If the item has not been shelved by any users, it should still be separated from any other editions via the combine page or separate tool. (Deleting and reimporting an item will result in an item uncombined with any books.)
2. If moving only one item: Edit the record of the item to change the following fields:
* Any secondary authors should be removed from the book record.
* The primary author should be changed to NOT A BOOK.
* The media type for the work should be changed to "not a book".
* Optionally, the title should have "NOT A BOOK" added to the beginning of the title.
* Optionally, if there is a description of the item, it should have a librarian's note added to the beginning of the description: Librarian's note: This item is not a book and should not be rated on Goodreads.
3. If all of the items remaining on an author's list of books are not books, the author can be merged into the NOT A BOOK author profile. If the author has associated fans, quotes, quizzes, or other author information and it can be determined that this is an incorrect profile for an actual author, the individual items should be NABbed according to step (2) and the author merged into the profile of the actual author in order to preserve the fans and other author information.
* Any secondary authors should be removed from all books' records
* The author profile should be edited and the name replaced with NOT A BOOK. When prompted, be sure to merge into NOT A BOOK's profile.
* If working in bulk, it is not necessary to edit each individual (not-a-)book record to edit the title or other fields.