Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

This post is a heads up that we are going to import a large amount of data tonight from some new sources like WorldCat and Library of Congress. We would love it if you guys could keep an eye out for any issues you see and post them in this thread.

Also, we will be rolling out some new librarian tools in the next few days. I'll post more info about them as I have it.

Thanks!

maybe copyright issues?
hope this endeavor works out for the best! :D

Thanks for the heads up.

Oh dear dear dear. Such massive change, I hope they will make Goodreads better. *cross fingers* *glares at Facebook*

Eeeek! Excitement!

Patrick wrote: "This post is a heads up that we are going to import a large amount of data tonight from some new sources like WorldCat and Library of Congress. We would love it if you guys could keep an eye out for any issues you see and post them in this thread. "

I don't know if this is directly related, but I added 7 new editions of current books, all written by John Dickson Carr, and they would not combine.

I can't wait to see what the new features are!

Peter wrote: "I don't know if this is directly related, but..."

Ditto over here. I didn't add the books, I was returning to an author's page to finish what I'd started yesterday. It didn't work to combine her books either.

Yes, the combine function is down for everyone - see Feedback group.

I can't wait for the new features :D Thanks for the update.

Hey folks, I've started a script to import data from WorldCat. It should mostly touch title, author, and page number fields. If you check the librarian logs, the changes should be done as "Goodreads" as soon here:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/edits/8388

Thanks for the heads up Louise :)

Louise, I took a look, and does this mean that we'll have to update all titles to capitalize them again?

Hm the titles do look a little strange. I'll run a clean up script on those, so no need to change them for now. Thanks for the heads up, Jan.

Louise, WorldCat importing also seems to not show up as the book's source on the edit page, and it's not updating/correcting the publisher name.

I hate to reveal ignorance, but can someone explain what this is all about? Is there some new librarian capability that didn't exist before, and how does one access it?

Bob wrote: "Is there some new librarian capability that didn't exist before"

Not yet.

Patrick wrote: "This post is a heads up that we are going to import a large amount of data tonight from some new sources like WorldCat and Library of Congress. We would love it if you guys could keep an eye out fo..."

I hope this will not overwrite data from users.

Thank you for the heads up. Exciting times...

Peter wrote: "I hope this will not overwrite data from users."

Yes, I was worried about that, too.

Michael wrote: "Peter wrote: "I hope this will not overwrite data from users."

Yes, I was worried about that, too."

Not an idle worry. I have been discussing just that problem with the data imported from publishers in another thread.

oh the suspense is killing me...

OH GOD.

I don't know if it's for librarians only and thus the changes told about above, or a general change, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE the new sorting options on the editions page.

Edit: I mean look at this beauty: http://www.goodreads.com/work/edition...

It's a general change, but I didn't realize everyone could see it yet.

I did a happy dance :D

Does this mean that the new librarian stuff still has to roll out?

There will be announcements.

rivka wrote: "It's a general change, but I didn't realize everyone could see it yet."

I just saw it last night. Someone did a really good job.

That's worth at least 2 ATTABOYs. (IT in joke.)

Really, though, nice work, people.

Thanks. :) I had nothing to do with the programming (for obvious reasons), but I did make a few suggestions. And I agree, it's very cool!

By the way, there are some things on those pages that only librarians can see (like the book source info).

rivka wrote: "There will be announcements."

:)

Librarian book edits audit page = nice!

Paula wrote: "Librarian book edits audit page = nice!"

I'm glad you like it. I'm not sure what you mean, though. ;)

rivka wrote: "Paula wrote: "Librarian book edits audit page = nice!"

I'm glad you like it. I'm not sure what you mean, though. ;)"

Oops - Librarian change log - proper description

http://www.goodreads.com/book/edits/1...

You mean the source table?

That would be it I am presuming it is new since I don't remember seeing it before - I will have to work on my powers of description :)

The source table is indeed brand new. :)

rivka wrote: "The source table is indeed brand new. :)"

Just looked at it. Awesome!

Query re the source table, very awesome. But

I just modified a record changing the author from Phd William R. Durland, removing the Phd.

Also made a change in grammar in the description.

Now the table shows me as having changed the author (Correct), changing the URL - didn't and there still isn't one; and changing the language to English (didn't).

Not too crazy about being shown as having modified things I have not.

Comments?

I've reported those bugs.

Out of curiosity, why are you editing authors on the book page, instead of via their author profiles?

Actually, some of the fields like description must change by a certain percentage before we attribute you as the "source" for the field. So minor changes will not affect the source.

I will look into the language & URL concerns. Can you send me the book id?

Mayanka, can you look at following as well?

http://www.goodreads.com/book/edits/7...

It shows the description as being from B&N, where as in the edits you can see I added it (it was blank before). Actually none of the edits for this book are showing in the source data.

The description might not apply to the edition -- if the checkbox was set to use the default description it applies to the whole work, not just the edition. We will try to make that more clear on the page.

As for the other fields, anything that you edited from a long time ago would not be filled in yet, but we will soon run a script to update them.

Here's one I just changed from the default description to a new description:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/edits/2...

The source says 'Not set'. Is that the way it's supposed to be?

Also on both my examples (msg 41, and this one), I am also listed as the source for the url, which I did not touch.

Thanks for the examples. I will look into it and the URL field.

Mayanka wrote: "Actually, some of the fields like description must change by a certain percentage before we attribute you as the "source" for the field. So minor changes will not affect the source.

I will look i..."

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...

rivka wrote: "Out of curiosity, why are you editing authors on the book page, instead of via their author profiles?"

Because, a) I was looking at the book page in the first place and noted the error.
b) If the author is changed on the author page, as opposed to the book page, it is never re-indexed and so remains hanging in the sort for, in this particular situation, Ph.D. forever.
c) Eventually, I'll get all of them corrected anyway (Ph.D.) (until new ones come along)(perpetual maintenance). At that point,
d) Since there is a script the removes authors without books, eventually the "John Smith Ph.D." will be automatically removed anyway without additional librarian intervention.

RE: the Original Poster and origin topic: Has anyone else noticed that WorldCat is no longer carrying the API from Goodreads Reviews?