Forum

Hi,

The Hermes House cookbooks are large, glossy.  Nothing gourmet about them... but I enjoy all of the pictures and step by step instructions.

Very few of these are in the EYB library.

Any plan to add them?

Can I add them to my bookshelf now (while I am trying to finish my EYB project), and then index them later?   I could also just pick and choose some favorite recipes from those cookbooks, once you offer the ability to add single recipes...

Thanks-

Dorothy

Hi Dorothy - you can request that books are added to the EYB Library by importing the ISBNs using the Import Books feature.  Unfortunately we have a huge backlog which Fiona and I are trying to clear, in between all the other tasks.  The reason we have to do them individually is that the data comes through from our data suppliers without any categories - ethnicities, book types, special diet, etc.  So we add those before we import the book.  But we are thinking that maybe we should just do a bulk import of those requested books so they are at least available in the Library, particularly as members now want to request to index books.  We will then go back and add the categories later (we hope!).

The next feature we are currently working on is Personal recipes.  This will allow you to add recipes that will only be available in your searches.  So you could add clippings, family recipes, online recipes (you will be able to add the URL so you can link directly to the recipe) and individual favorite recipes from cookbooks.  Obviously we hope that members will choose to index entire cookbooks or magazines for everyone to access, rather than personal individual recipes but we realize everyone doesn't have the time or desire to index so at least with personal recipes you can locate your favorites.

I hope that when we can add individual recipes that it will be possible to choose to keep them private or share them with everyone.  

Since you won't be listing the entire recipe on EYB, just indexing it in the same way we do recipes now, I'm not sure why you would share it with the other members.  I can see how that might work with online recipes and we can certainly consider that but clippings, family recipes and individual recipes from cookbooks are not much use to other members.  Or am I missing something?

Oh, I thought the individual recipe feature would be for full recipes, not just ingredients.  You're right, if that's the way it's going to be they won't be very useful to other people!  

One thought I have, about indexing "favorite" recipes from certain cookbooks, but not the entire cookbook, is that you could then bookmark those into favorites, especially with your comments.  There could be others that feel the same way about that specific recipe and could choose to add to their library, if wanted, or not.  I do get the complications it presents for the database as a whole.  Could you catagorize the book as "Partially indexed"?

One more question -- is there any way to add a book which lacks an ISBN number?  I have some older books which only have Library of Congress numbers, and some books published in India.

Thanks!

Not right now but we plan to add a feature that allows members to add books to the Library.  This would then let you add any book, whether it has an ISBN or not.  The reason you can't do it at the moment is that we use the ISBN to retrieve the metadata from our data suppliers - title, author, publisher, date of publication, cover image if available.  We then add the categories and add the book to the Library.  Without an ISBN it is much harder to find the info and we would have to manually add all the data.  But we think that members would be happy to add their own books - both so they can have a complete catalog of their collection, and so they can request to index their older books that may never get indexed by EYB.

Sorry Cheri, I just noticed I haven't responded to your question about partially indexed cookbooks.  Fiona and I really aren't keen on this idea.  The way EYB works is that you search your indexed books for recipes - you know what is and isn't indexed so you know which books are not in your searches.  If members can randomly index recipes then it's not as clear what is missing.  It's really worse than it not being indexed at all as you aren't sure whether what you looking for is in your search results or not.

I think for individual recipes you should add them as a personal recipes.  Of course we would love it if you could index the entire book but if you don't want to then at least this way your favorite recipes from the book are in your searches.