Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

I've tried searching the forums, but couldn't find anything on the topic. I've seen both practices in use, so I figured I'd ask.

In the format field of a non-english book, should we use the English drop-down option, or write in the appropriate German term for the format?
For example, if I have a German edition of a manga, should the format be set to the drop-down option "paperback" or should I write "Taschenbuch" or "Broschiert" in the format field?

The manual says to use the drop-down options whenever possible, but doesn't elaborate if this applies for non-english editions as well. The e-mail you receive when you're approved as a librarian says you should keep all data in the language of the book.

I'd just like to make sure which is the accepted practice before I go and change a bunch of books. :)

I believe paperback is the preferred choice.

I always use the drop-down options: I guess when the site will be fully translated in languages other than English those options will be translated and converted as well.

That's what I got in the e-mail which granted me Librarian status:

"Please keep all existing data (book titles, author names, etc.) in the language you find it. If you want to review a book that's in another language, our catalog likely has it, so try searching for it by title or ISBN - but please don't change existing titles to other languages.

If you are manually adding a new edition that we did not previously have in the database, all data must be entered in the same language as the edition in question. If it is an English language edition, all data must be in English. If it is a Spanish language edition, enter the data in Spanish."

However, I always use the drop-down option for my German books just to keep it consistent. After all, this an information which should be accessible for everyone - and all Germans around here understand English anyway.

I treat it like the rule for descriptions: it should either be in the language of the book or in English. We get a lot of things imported from the non-U.S. Amazons with their binding terms in the records, but I only correct this if, for example, I find a Spanish book imported from amazon.de with its binding described in German.

Well, looks like the english drop-down version is never considered wrong. Thanks for the input, everyone. :)

I guess I'll use the drop-down choices when I enter books manually and only change existing ones to make them consistent across a series.

Cait wrote: "I treat it like the rule for descriptions: it should either be in the language of the book or in English."

Agree entirely.