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I just signed up yesterday and I am just disappointed.  I've entered 25 books so far and only a few are indexed.  It seems the same trouble I have in getting people in the world interested in really healthy food more or less extends to this website.  Certainly not the fault of the creators of this site but nevertheless still a disappointment. It just boggles my mind: I guess that raw food and vegan cookbooks are still not popular - for instance "Artisan Vegan Cheese" has only four book owners on this entire site. Well now that I've whined I feel better.

Hi Davilyn,  I note that you have almost 50% of your bookshelf indexed.  Wow!  I doubt that there would be many members that could boast that strike rate.  I only have about 40% indexed and that's not counting the 20% of my entire collection that EYB has never heard of!

I hope that you enjoy a great and useful site

cheers

James

I also think you indexed rate is quite good. One half of my books are not even in EYB, because they are not in English - out of those I have listed in EYB about 45% are indexed so far -even so I find EYB is a great for finding the recipes I want. 

The good thing about EYB is that books get indexed all the time. If you look in the library you will find the books below in the recent 25 indexed books:

The Sprouted Kitchen: A Tastier Take on Whole Foods

A Vegan Taste of Central America

A Vegan Taste of France

2 of these books are indexed by an EYB member. So if one of your favorite books dont get indexed by EYB , you could do it yourself.

Another good thing about EYB is that you can "take a look" at the recipes in books you are interested in to see if they have recipes that interest you (great if you buy books online)

Have you noticed that you can add blogs and magazines to you bookshelf? That way you will have access  to more recipes.

There are 6454 vegan / 18414 vegetarian online recipes in the library. You can add online recipes individually to you own book shelf.

Everyone's notes are interesting and valid, but unfortunately, not really applicable to me.  I don't want to buy any more cookbooks - I have too many already - I just wanted access to all the recipes in the books I do have.

The reason I joined EYB was because I am a single, older woman running a veganic organic farm by herself.  No helpers.  I work a minimum of 14 hours a day, everyday. So you can see why I would want "quick" access to my recipes.

Although I am going to try to index "Artisan Vegan Cheese" - it probably is going to be a mistake on my part - I don't know how I am going to fit it in to my already more than full days.

This is a superb site; and fills many wonderful purposes.  I was disappointed only because my bubble burst because my most important books I use all the time are not indexed.

Davilyn, I'm glad you clarified your situation.  From your first post, I'd have guessed you were a young, starting-out cook.

Given your situation and work schedule, I'd hold off even thinking about indexing your Artisan Vegan Cheese book until deeper in the winter, when the chores ease up (even if only ever so slightly). 

You might want to spread the word about EYB to any online or real-world networks of vegan colleagues; ten or twenty new members can significantly up the holdings of those specialized cookbooks, and speed the day when they're indexed.

My chuckle for the day - thank you :}.  I, in fact, grow most everything I eat (there are some things like cashews or rice that I can't grow here). And everything I eat is made from scratch.  From growing and grinding my own grain to dehydrating and canning, to making vegan butter.  I have every electric appliance on this planet which without these technical wonders I would be reduced to tears at meal times.  Most everything is cooked in solar ovens, thermal pots, dutch ovens using coals or brick bread ovens.  Food growing and food making is absolutely glorious!

I did, in fact, start indexing today.  I am doing it while eating lunch - making the great sacrifice of not watching "Deep Space Nine" until I finish.

The only thing that makes me frown is that all ingredients are not listed in ingredients.  This would be the most useful feature to me as I could search for produce/herbs I currently have growing.  I am adding them to EYB comments (keeping it short) although then I can't do a search for those ingredients. I am going to do my best to make this work for me with what the site has to offer.

Reading the directions on indexing I came away with the idea that you could not put all the individual spices or lemon juice in the ingredient list unless they were of a specific proportion.  Is this not correct?  When I tried to add individual spices it would not let me do that.  I only found that out after I indexed a recipe and realized I made a mistake - when I went back to the recipe the ingredients were gone. The directions were also unclear about submitting.  Do I index (using "save and next") and then when I finish the entire book I use "submit book"?

You should definitely put all spices (except black pepper and garlic) in the ingredient list - I don't know why you couldn't. Lemons (and black pepper and garlic, and other "store-cupboard ingredients") should only be added if they are a main ingredient. 

You were right about the submitting - save and next to go the next recipe, submit when the book is finished. I'm sure you will get the hang of it soon enough :-)

Davilyn - as Wester says, you definitely should add every spice to the ingredients list. The only exceptions are basic salt and pepper. If you went back to a recipe you had entered and found the ingredients had gone then you cannot have clicked Save and Next. Our Data Manager Deborah is always available to answer indexing questions - her email is [email protected]. Also the Indexing Manual is very comprehensive and should cover most things.

I've checked the recipes you've indexed so far and have added the two new ingredients you requested.  Normally this is done at the end of the indexing process - but if there is a particular ingredient you know is going to appear throughout the book, then you can mail Deborah to request that it is added. 

With over 19,000 ingredients (almost 1,000 of these are herbs and spices) in our database we are getting fewer requests for new ingredients - but if there's one out there we don't have we're keen to add it!

When you're indexing spices, start with the words "whole" or "ground" -- many of the spices are listed that way in the ingredient list!  

Thanks robm, though be aware our database is not 100% consistent on this.  When we have the time (hah!) we are going to do a clean-up of inconsistencies. For example we have "blade mace" for the whole spice but just "mace" for the ground variety.

Davilyn - as an avid EYB fan who has indexed a dozen or so favorites from my shelves that just weren't popular enough to have been indexed already ... tell ALL your friends!!! Also be aware that the ingredient list "concept" has changed over time as EYB has matured. Today it is still "tomatoes" or "apples" because (I think!) when EYB first started out, they didn't think they wanted to put in 400 varieties of tomatoes. Which was probably a wise decision, and anyway now they have 10000s of recipes that call for "tomatoes" that can't realistically be reindexed. This used to bother me tremendously when I first started indexing, but over time I've become more content with this. I'm going to check the book anyway for specific suggestions (and when I index, I always put add comments like "see recipe for suggested types of tomatoes").  Now, the ingredient list is sometimes incredibly specific, since the concept has matured and more and more "obscure" ingredients have been added. I always struggle with spices ... "whole"? "ground"? "fresh?" etc, but they are actually mostly all in there ... somewhere. I recommend that you email Deborah for pointers on specific ingredients if needed.

I read Davilyn's disappointment with finding so few of her books indexed.

I have just finished tidying up my list; of 335 books, 289 are in the EYB library; many of the rest are foreign language or purely local - Headcorn Village Cookery Book, anyone? The 289 include 133 indexed, 4 index soon, 156 unindexed (I know this does not make 289 but that's what the figures gave. A significant number of the unindexed have 20 or less owners.

I think the EYB team do a pretty good job; there is always the option to self index a favourite book, but above all we need to spread awareness of the site and get more cooks on board - especially here in the UK.

I wonder if Jane could give approx membership - USA, UK, Australia etc?

Hi Ray,

Just so you know, the numbers don't quite add up because the "Indexed Soon" books also get counted under "Unindexed." This is because technically they are not indexed yet, even though they are getting worked on. 

And you are most certainly right, spreading the word about EYB is very important for expanding the site and getting more books indexed, so please tell all your friends & family who love to cook about EYB!