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There is a book in my "want to index" list that when I went to request, it was already tagged as indexing now. When I looked at indexing now in popularity order, I discovered the book was among nine books that are indexing now but are on zero bookshelves. Does this mean another edition is actually being indexed? Or did the member who requested to index a book simply forget and cull their library?

mjes, either supposition is a possibility! Please email me the specifics ([email protected]) and I'll be happy to investigate.

I was wondering something similar. There are books already indexed that are on only 5 shelves. But I also have books that are on over 100 shelves that are not indexed. Why would that be?

MarciK - you may own one edition of a book that is not on many Bookshelves but when added together with all editions then it reaches our indexing threshold. Or it may have been member indexed, when the popularity does not matter.

I took a look at your Bookshelf and can answer these specific examples:

Best Ever Indian Cookbook - your edition is on on 2 Bookshelves (BS) but all editions together total 124

Time Honored Norwegian Recipes - your edition is on 2 BS, the total is 10 and it was indexed by a member indexer

Jamie Oliver's Christmas Cookbook - your edition is on 7 BS but the total for all editions is 573

The Little Bahamian Cookbook - on 10 BS and indexed by a member indexer

The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook - your edition is on 9 BS but all editions together are 329 BS

Williams-Sonoma Essentials of Roasting - your edition is on 10 BS but all editions together total 190 BS

As for books you own on over 100 BS that are not yet indexed, we do try to chip away at indexing older books while also keeping on top of the many great new cookbooks being published every week. Some of the older books that are unindexed are huge (over 1,000 recipes) and more than 20 years old. We do not have unlimited resources so we have to prioritize our indexing to the books we feel will give the most benefit to the most members. Every member would like more of their Bookshelf to be indexed but you all own different books. 

You have more than 25,000 indexed recipes on your Bookshelf from the cookbooks and magazines that are indexed. So I hope you will consider the great benefit of that more than the disappointment over unindexed books you own. It is quite likely that you own books that will never be indexed (unless a member volunteers to index it) but your recipe count will increase over time as more of your books are indexed, or you buy new books that we have indexed.

Originally Posted by: MarciK

I was wondering something similar. There are books already indexed that are on only 5 shelves. . . .  Why would that be?

Speaking only for myself, when I ask to index a book I tend to choose books that I think are unlikely to get indexed by EYB. These are either (a) older books (b) of less general interest or (c) not standard cookbooks (i.e. reference, biographic, travel, small press ...). I've also noticed that some cookbooks that are indexed that are on few shelves are recently released but likely to be very popular.

Thank you everyone for the responses and clarification. I indexed one so far and hope to do more, but I'm waiting to see if things get busier at work before I commit to one.