Forum

I've recently bought a few books from The Book People, who for those who don't know sell heavily discounted books from some UK publishers. It seems that for some of the books they sell they've arrange to get special editions printed, which as a result have different ISBNs that the usual editions that can be purchased elsewhere.

I've tried to import these, but of course they weren't found - although all three are in the Library under their usual ISBNs - and since I believe from other posts you primarily get your data from Amazon, I don't think you'll be able to get the information for these editions easily. Is there a way in which we could tell you that we have a book that is in the Library but is under a different ISBN?

The books I'm trying to add are:

• Forever Summer by Nigella Lawson - 978-0-701-18861-0 (Hardback) - usual ISBN: 9780701173814


• The Hairy Dieters Eat For Life by Si King and Dave Myers - 978-1-407-24505-8 (Paperback) - usual ISBN: 9780297870470


• Leiths How to Cook - 978-1-84949-356-7 (Hardback) - usual ISBN: 9781849493192

We aren't yet able to add books that are not listed on Amazon.  We have to add all the data for the book manually so it is very time-consuming.  However, we will do this if the book is something you want to index - you would need to send us title, sub-title, author, publisher, publication date, format, # of pages and cover image (scan or photo).  We do hope in the future to add a feature that will allow members to add the data for their own books, in the same way members can add their own recipes.

Is there any particular reason for the 3 books you mention that you couldn't add the book we have listed to your Bookshelf?  I can understand there would be a problem if we hadn't got any edition of the books you own listed, but for these 3, they are listed and 2 are indexed.

I can (and will) add the editions that are already listed to my bookshelf, but I wanted to see if there was a way to add them under the ISBNs I have first. Given that when someone imports via ISBN they will use the number printed on the book, it seems sensible to be able to add these new ISBNs as aliases of the originals - as is done for multiple editions of other books already in the Library - in order to help those who try to add those books in the future.

Perhaps a feature could be added where users can either add or suggest a new ISBN for an existing entry?