Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

I looked at the previous discussions about adding magazines to the database, but I did not manage to find a sharp answer, so I am starting a new thread.

In Italy we have a "magazine" (a periodic publication with an ISSN number) called "Urania". Each issue of the magazine is a SF book: to give you an idea, Douglas Adams's Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy series was first published there; moreover, since most issues are translations of English works, they would fit anyway in the Goodreads database.

My question is: does Urania qualify "to be like a book"?

Huh. Interesting case! I would say yes, that's book-like. It sounds like a set of book club editions, basically. Odd that they have ISSNs, but I suppose if they're sold by subscription that does make sense too.

I would agree that these are books.

Monographic series fall into the U.S. ISSN Center's definition of serial. It's somewhat unusual for novels to be published this way, but it's pretty common in academic nonfiction. Nowadays individual issues (if they are monographs) will often carry an ISBN as well as the ISSN.

I'd also suggest that the title of the periodical should be considered a series title.

If this "magazine" is publishing full-length translations of novels, the title of the magazine should absolutely NOT be listed as a series title.

The last thing we need is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy being listed as book #23 (or whatever) in the Urania series, combined with whatever other random SF books they've translated. In this case Urania is the publisher and/or imprint, not a series.

This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For wrote: "If this "magazine" is publishing full-length translations of novels, the title of the magazine should absolutely NOT be listed as a series title.

The last thing we need is The Hitchhiker's Guide t..."

Oh, yeah, sorry! I was forgetting that GoodReads is not set up to deal with series information that relates to individual editions. (In a library setting, this is exactly one of the ways that we would distinguish the edition. That's what I was thinking of.)

ETA: Still, I would argue that Urania is not a publisher. Urania is a title--it HAS a publisher.

the publisher of Urania is Mondadori (which is a "real" publisher, with ISBN code 978-88-04, but sells also magazines: for example, Chi is a gossip magazine I won't read and I won't even dream to add here anyway).

FWIW, H2G2 was published in issue 843 of Urania: if you want to see the cover, it is shown at http://bepi1949.altervista.org/images... .

I can live without adding the Urania books I have read - if there is no consensus, I'll avoid to list them.

It sounds like there's agreement that these are books, but that Urania is not a series (the Urania issue number could be put in the edition or description fields).

I'm new to this community still, but my instinct would be to agree with Cait. The Urania issue number could go to either edition or description. I might be slightly in favor of edition field.

I would put it in the edition field.

What about National Geographic Special Editions (bound more like a large-format pb than their usual magazines but no ISBN number) and atlases (again, no ISBN number?) No author on either.

Here is a link on the description of Urania Magazines if it will help.