Dear LibraryThing
What is with you? I joined like a year or so ago because someone mentioned your usefulness and how much fun it was keep an online record of my personal library. So I joined, it sucked sooo. Now this is not the first time we have talked nor will it probably be the last since I have now found some use for your widget thingy but let’s get this straight…
YOU SUCK ASS!
You suck in so many ways it would require an Oracle database server farm of cross indexing and a full time staff to list it out for you. You tell people you are not really a social network website since LibraryThing was created by librarians for their use blah blah “beige colored” blah.
I don’t buy any of that shit. I have never had a professional librarian tell me to take a hike to the local bookstore when I attempt to find a book. Something you do often. Let me show you what I am talking about here…
Exhibit A:
So I am on your site I find an author and then I find a book by that author listed on your site and I click on it’s page. So on that page what do I see…
Wow, sounds simple don’t it? So the button implies if I push it your site will “automatically” add this exact book I just found on your site to my library listed on your site.
DOES THAT HAPPEN? No, don’t change the subject or tell me how much work this was!
I SAID, DOES THAT HAPPEN?
No, it does not happen. Here’s what happens…
So the stupid button (Which does not say MANUALLY SEARCH FOR THIS BOOK) did not add the book automatically to my library listing it simply sent me to a “search page” to find the book on Amazon.com, by default, so I can click the latest version for sale and you can then show the book is in my library and oh gee, you can buy that book at Amazon.com.
Look at that! It’s a motherfucking crappy commercial!
Joy! So why do I have to search for this book on Amazon.com, or any other place for that matter, when I just found it on a page on your own freaking website? What good is me having to search and pull that information yet again from Amazon.com or any other database when someone has done that already and pulled the information or someone added the book manually onto your website because it is not sold through Amazon.com?
You don’t get a dime from that being the case do you? Come on fess up.
You know what I think? I think you probably had this fabulous affiliate deal going with them which is probably not working so well for you now that Amazon is taking that all away.
I don’t really care, just fix this mess please. Make the button do a direct link and simply add the book I found and it’s information on your site to my account and stop making me do it for you.
I won’t care who or how you make a buck linking to some other bookstore or whatever but I will not pay for the privilege of me manually listing books for you to commercially link off your site when I reach 200 got it?
You know what’s worse? I read eBooks and I have had to manually list so many books it sucks ass. You know what’s even worse than that? Everyone who spots my manually created pages will push that button and still have to go through the same series of hoops I did to list it on their library.
You suck so bad!
PS… On the manual entry page it might be nice to tell people not to include dashes in the ISBN number. Maybe just a little *no dashes* below the box. You know, librarians should be helpful like that.
Tags: LibraryThing, Web Design
Maggie wrote,
As a long-time LT user, I’ve noticed the button is a little wonky…
But you don’t have to add it from Amazon if you don’t want to. It’s just a database you can use to make adding easier so you don’t have to input ISBN’s. You can add it from the Library of Congress or any other places. I use Amazon, Library of Congress, and my local library: Berkeley Public Library. Amazon and Library of Congress are the defaults because that’s what most people use. You can’t add any ebooks from Amazon (unless it’s available from Kindle), so you can add it with “Other ways to add: add the book manually” at the bottom of the page. You live in the U.S. and there are a ton of English sources you can add from if you’re dislike Amazon:
Abilene Library Consortium
Academy of Natural Sciences
ACCESS Pennsylvania
Alameda County Library
Alameda Free Library
Albion College
American Museum of Natural History
Angelo State University
Arizona State University
Art Center College of Design
Asbury College and Theological Seminary
Assumption College
Auburn University
Aurora Public Library (Colorado)
Aurora Public Library (Illinois)
Austin Peay State University
Averett University
Ball State University
Bangor Public Library
Bard College
Bedford Public Library
Bellarmine University
Berkeley County (SC) Library System
Berkeley Public Library
Bethel College
Beverly Hills Public Library
Boston Athenaeum
Boston University
Boulder-Louisville-Broomfield Libraries
Brighton (MI) Area Public Schools
Broward County Library
Bryan College
Bryn Mawr-Haverford-Swarthmore
Bucknell University
Burlington Libraries Information Consortium
Cal Poly – Pomona
Cal State University, Bakersfield
Cal State University, Fullerton
Cal State University, Hayward
Cal State University, Long Beach
Cal State University, Northridge
Cal State University, Sacramento
Cal State University, San Diego
Cal State University, San Francisco
Cal State University, San Jose
Cal State University, San Luis Obispo
Cal State University, San Marcos
Calexico Unified School District
California University of Pennsylvania
Caltech
Calvin College
Camden County Library System
Canisius College
Canton Public Library
Carleton College
Carnegie Mellon University
Carrollton Public Library
Carver County Library
Cecil County Public Library
Center for Research Libraries
Central Arkansas Library System
Central Library Consortium
Chester County – Phoenixville Library System
Chesterfield County Public Library
Chowan College
Chula Vista Public Library
Church of God Theological Seminary – Lee University
Cincinnati Law Library
City of Mission Viejo Library
City University of New York
Clark University
CLASS – Cooperative Library Association Shared System
Clayton College
COALA
Cobb County Library
Colgate University
College of New Jersey
College of William and Mary
Colorado State University
Colorado Unified Catalog (Prospector)
Columbia (CLIO)
Columbia University Law School
Columbus State University
Connecticut State University
Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI)
Coppell Public Library
Cornell University
Cornerstone College
Covina Public Library
Creighton University
Culinary Institute of America
CW MARS Central
CW MARS West
Daemen College
Dallas Theological Seminary
Daniel Webster College
Dartmouth College
De Anza College
Decatur (Texas) Public Library
Denver Public Library
Denver Public Schools
Detroit Public Library
Diablo Valley College
District of Columbia Public Library
Douglas County (Colorado) Libraries
Dowling College
Drexel University
Duke University
Dundee University
East Chicago Public Library
East Orange Public Library
Eastern Cluster of Lutheran Seminaries
Eastern Kentucky University
Eastern Michigan University
Edgewood College
Elmira College
Enoch Pratt Free Library
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Library
Fayetteville State University
Fenway Libraries Online
Ferris State University
Flagstaff City Library
Florida A&M University
Florida Atlantic University
Florida Gulf Coast University
Florida International University
Florida Northwest Regional Library System
Florida State University
Folger Shakespeare Library
Foothill College
Fordham University
Fort Collins Public Library
Fort Myers Public Library
Four County Library System
Franklin and Marshall College
Franklin Pierce Law Center
Frick Art Reference Library
Gainesville College
Geneva College
George Fox University and Seminary
George Mason University
Georgetown University
Georgia Southwestern State University
Georgia State University
Georgia Tech University
Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary
Gonzaga University
Grambling State University
Grand Valley State University
Grapevine Public Library
Grinnell College
Grosse Point Public Library
Hamilton College
Hammond Public Library
Harris County Public Library
Hartwick College
Hatfield Library Consortium – Willamette U.
Hawaii State Archives
Hayward Public Library
Hernando County Public Library
Hubbard Public Library
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Idaho State University
* ILCSO (Illinois Libraries)
Iliff School of Theology
Indiana State University Consortium
Indiana University
InRhode Library Catalog
Iowa State University
Jacksonville State University
James Madison University
Jenkins Law Library
Johns Hopkins University
Kapiolani Community College
Kaubisch Memorial Public Library
Keene State College
Kennesaw State University
Knox County Public Library
Lancaster Bible College and Graduate School
Lehigh University
Lewis and Clark College
Lexington Theological Seminary
Library of Congress
LIBROS Consortium
Lincoln Public Library
Linda Hall Library
Livermore Public Library
Lodi Public Library
Los Angeles County Law Library
Los Angeles County Public Library
Los Gatos Public Library
Los Medanos College
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University Law Center
Louisiana Tech
Loyola University at New Orleans
Luther College
Luther Seminary
Luzerne County Library System
Macon State College
Maine Info Net
Mansfield University
Marin Academic Library Consortium
Marin County Public Library
MARINet
Marion Public Library
MARMOT Consortium
Marquette University
Maryland Interlibrary Consortium
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts School of Law
McAllen Memorial Library
McNeese State University
Mentor Public Library
Merrimack Valley Library Consortium
Metro Boston Library Network
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Michigan State University
Middlebury College
Midland College
Midway College
Milbank Memorial Library (Teachers College Columbia University)
Milwaukee Public Library
MINERVA (Maine)
Minneapolis Public Library
Mission College
Montana Shared Library Catalog
Montana State University
Monterey County Free Libraries
Moore College of Art and Design
MORE Online Catalog (Wisconsin)
Morehead State University
Mount Saint Mary College
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Mountain Library Network
Mountain View Public Library
Mountaineers Library
Murray State University
Museum of Modern Art
National Agricultural Library
National Library of Medicine, NIH
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New College of Florida
New England Library Consortium
New Jersey Institute of Technology
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New York Botanical Garden
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New York University
Newton Public Library
North Carolina State University
North of Boston Library Exchange
Northeastern University
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Northern Waters Library Service
Northwestern Regional Library (North Carolina)
Northwestern University
Oakland University
Ohio State University
OhioLINK
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Old Dominion University
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Orem Public Library
Pacific University
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Pennsylvania State University
Pepperdine University
Pepperdine University School of Law
Philadelphia Biblical University
Pike’s Peak Library District
Pinal County Library District
Pioneer Library System (New York)
Pleasanton Public Library (California)
Polk County Library Cooperative
Portland State University
Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton University
Purdue University
Quinnipiac University
Radford University
Rice University
Rochester Institute of Technology
Rutgers University
Sacramento Public Library
Salt Lake City Public Library
San Francisco Public Library
San Francisco State University
San Jose Public – State Library
San Leandro Community Library
Santa Clara City Library
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Santa Cruz Libraries
Seattle Pacific University
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Seattle University
SELCO Regional Catalog (Minnesota)
Seton Hall University Law Library
Simmons College
Slippery Rock University
Smithsonian Institution Research Information System
South Dakota Library Network
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Southeastern Public Library System (Oklahoma)
Southern Tier Library System
Southern University Law Center
St. Catherine’s College
St. Mary’s University
St. Paul Public Library
State Library of Florida
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State University of New York, Albany
State University of West Georgia
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
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Texas A and M
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Yeshiva University College of Law
LibraryThing is not perfect, but as someone who’s used LT, Goodreads, Shelfari, and aNobii, I think LT is the best. I’ve pretty much stopped using the other sites and just keep my list on LT. And adding with Amazon as a source isn’t really unique to LT. Goodreads, Shelfari and aNobii all use Amazon as a source, and they don’t even have the other add options that LibraryThing has. On the add page underneath “Amazon” and “Library of Congress” it says “Or choose from 690 other sources around the world.” Really, you just have to know to look before you burst out in anger.
Link | July 24th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
Not only did I look as you can see I took screen shots.
This is like every other bullshit excuse I have ever seen about LibraryThing and it’s incredibly dumb interface.
Why am I or anyone else having to plug in the same database information already found on the site?
I don’t care about what databases I can select from.
I found the damn book on LibraryThing already I just want to add it to my page.
It should be automatic because the information is already there! I am not creating anything I just want to link to an existing record of information.
None of these stupid database selections or constant idiotic forced manual entries makes any sense. Nor do the excuses.
Link | July 24th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Maggie wrote,
The manual entries are for books, like ebooks, that can’t be found in any other sources. The only reason you have to add from a source instead of right from the page is because there are different editions and different versions for each book. The information’s already there on LT, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to have the same version of the book that someone else has. If you find it difficult, you can write a letter to LT. I’ve done it before and they are nicest people.
“I found the damn book on LibraryThing already I just want to add it to my page.
It should be automatic because the information is already there! I am not creating anything I just want to link to an existing record of information.”
If you try any other book-listing websites (Shelfari, Goodreads, anobii), it’s basically the same. You can’t directly add. There are different versions to one book and a direct add just doesn’t work. Except at other sites, you don’t even have the option of looking up a book that’s not available from Amazon on other databases, and sometimes you don’t even have the manual add option.
I don’t know if what I’m saying is coming out right, but basically a direct add doesn’t work because if you just add something, the site doesn’t know what version you have, doesn’t know whether it’s a trade paperback, mass market paperback, hardback, or etc. It doesn’t know what to put in the “publisher” or “ISBN” field and doesn’t know what cover to assign the book (because different versions have different ISBN’s and covers and sometimes different publishers).
Like I said, if you’re upset that you can’t just one-click add, you can write to them about it and they’ll help you. Or just go to the batch add section and enter a list of ISBN’s. It’ll add them all to your library without you having to search up a source and add each one yourself. There are lots of options. You just have to click around.
Link | July 24th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Maggie wrote,
I’ve thought of a different way of explaining it. Maybe this clarifies it a bit better:
Basically, when you add from a database like Amazon or Library of Congress, all the information like the cover, the title, author, ISBN, publisher, publication year, and what language it’s in is already entered. If your version is out of print and different from the one found on Amazon, you can add it from elsewhere, and if you can’t find it elsewhere, you can add that version yourself manually.
LibraryThing doesn’t have separate pages for different versions of a book. It just has one page for a single “work” that is a combination of all the different versions of that book. You can’t just one-click add that book because when you add that “work,” there are several versions and the site doesn’t know which one to add for you.
So I don’t know, just try batch uploading a list of ISBN’s if that sounds easier to you.
Link | July 24th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Sarah wrote,
Having to manually enter your ebooks is a pain in the ass, and have had to do it loads. Goodreads is a little has more of a social network vibe going on, but is a hell of a lot easier. Often I find some kids person has already entered the book too!!!!
Link | July 24th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
Maggie… WHY?
The book is already on the website. It has a page has already been created on LibraryThing. You are not making any sense.
As I already stated a dozen times.
Why do I need to do anything more?
Why do I need to go to any other database and search for anything else?
What is the point?
The button we are talking about above that says ADD TO YOUR LIBRARY is on a page that has THE BOOK I want to add to my library and it’s information I want and it’s already on LibraryThing.
So why do I need to worry about edition I am not trying to buy or sell anything.
If that’s the whole reason is there could be different editions to the book…
What does it matter? Reviews will still be the same and they all read the exact same.
The “option” should be to add the book through a search, not be the default time wasting activity in this case. The “default” should be to push the button and it “automatically” adds the book whatever edition is most common to your library. Mostly because THAT IS WHAT THE BUTTON SAYS IT DOES.
If LibraryThing is all about worrying about editions while forcing it’s users to recreate the wheel every time then they need to be paying me for my research and efforts.
Link | July 24th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
I agree Sarah but people make Goodreads out to be the less serious and the party girl who does not know better while the actual user experience LibraryThing is just seriously lazy programming, clunky interfaces and clueless labels that don’t do what they say they do and an ugly duckling to boot.
Link | July 24th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
Maggie wrote,
“Maggie… WHY?
The book is already on the website. It has a page has already been created on LibraryThing. You are not making any sense.”
OK, last try at this, since I seem to be very bad at explaining.
The book has a page (every book does), but that’s the “work” page. There are usually several different versions to the same “work” so if you want to just click and add, it doesn’t know which version to add. LibraryThing is always rolling out new features (almost on a bi-weekly basis), so if you suggest it in their forums, they’ll probably look into the one-click option for you.
I don’t know, maybe it’s because I love the site so much that I dislike it when someone else is blasting it. But yeah, after you get used to it, it’s usually not so hard.
“I agree Sarah but people make Goodreads out to be so less serious and the party girl who does not know better when it’s really LibraryThing is really just seriously clunky and clueless and an ugly duckling to boot.”
There are goods and bads to every site.
LibraryThing is good for OCD people. I kid. But it’s perfect for people who want to have control over their collections and are particular about editions, covers, etc. Of course, people who just want to list use it too. The great thing about LT is it has a lot of features that other sites don’t even come close to, and it’s the only site that’s available to international users that speak other languages than English.
Goodreads is more of a social networking site. It’s like a facebook or myspace for readers. Authors can publish their blog entries on there, and lots of people comment on reviews and each other’s profile pages. It’s good if networking is what you’re after.
Shelfari is for people who are very visual. If you don’t like LibraryThing’s beige design, and you like the site to be pretty, Shelfari is great for that. It’s all about graphics and it’s big on book covers. But the site also loads slowly, at least for me. Probably because of the graphics.
Anobii is the most inconvenient site of them all. Every time you add a new work, it doesn’t automatically add. It pretty much just says “Your suggestion for a new work has been noted and we’ll email you when we’ve added the work to our site.” So it takes a day or two to even add the book. This isn’t great for me, since I have so many ebooks.
Link | July 24th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
Maggie that is not control.
Control is having the options to make various changes as an option not a requirement.
The only control I see is how the designer has us jumping through hoops to do something that should be the simplest thing to do on the whole website.
Not having a clue how to provide a link to an existing database record already on the website… that is bad design.
Telling people to not label buttons that do not do what they say they do, is duh, something they should already know not to do.
Anyway, if they wanted an award for frustrating design of a website they got my vote.
Link | July 24th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Jules Jones wrote,
Teddy, the button used to do exactly what you’re asking for. Then Tim removed that functionality, because it was leading to badly corrupted data. (I’m not sufficiently with it at the moment to go digging for the conversation about this.) It has been a bone of contention ever since. I can see both sides of the argument — I have a lot of not-on-Amazon books (notably Folio Society editions) which I would much prefer to add by copying someone else’s data rather than typing it all myself, but I have also seen the work-level data that’s been screwed up by someone copying a vaguely similar title and then editing the title but not the rest of the data.
Link | July 25th, 2009 at 2:30 am
TeddyPig wrote,
Well then they need a wiki style version control system or something. Not what they have which is equally dumb and fruitless.
Users fuck shit up if you let them. I get that. If your system can’t handle that then restrict it or something.
Their “make you search to add the same book system” and dependency on outside sources is equally silly and confusing. Having to constantly plug data into the system somewhere else when I see the book I want to add into my list right there exactly as I want to add it is beyond stupid.
There should be a happy medium and currently all the user gets is a confusing compromise.
Link | July 25th, 2009 at 2:41 am
MB (Leah) wrote,
Teddy– I had the same experience as you way back. I signed up with LT first but got frustrated with that damn button that never worked. As you, I also have lots of ebooks, mostly ebooks, which means that I need to go to many different epub sites for the info. Having to go all over the place to find and then enter in data when it’s right there is such a PITA and a huge waste of time.
Then I found Goodreads and what do you know, I find a book that has been entered and I just click “add to my books.” Voila! One button adding.
And if I have a different version, like NOT the Kindle version of an ebook, then I do enter the info manually and merge it with the Kindle or PB version so it’s easy for others.
I know that Goodreads has a rep of being the service for less “serious” people, but I’m just an average reader who wants to keep track of my books and who doesn’t want to enter in every single piece of info every time.
User friendly is key for me. I just find Goodreads to be so easy to use.
Link | July 25th, 2009 at 6:13 am
TeddyPig wrote,
And if I have a different version, like NOT the Kindle version of an ebook, then I do enter the info manually and merge it with the Kindle or PB version so it’s easy for others.
Yeah but then you can be like me and start thinking is the Kindle really any different then the typical PB? Really? How so? Does it matter?
Is there a difference between pdf or mobi?
Now there’s a whole world of riches LibraryThing is not addressing what file format eBook did you buy! They could make that the excuse next.
LibraryThing: We are NOT user friendly and we will make you pointlessly search for your specific ebook file format out of love for librarians and a strong need to sell Koolaid.
Link | July 25th, 2009 at 7:24 am
Jules Jones wrote,
LibraryThing is very user-friendly for the sort of users who find that sort of thing user-friendly. The attention to different editions of a single work is why I find it the right cataloguing system for me. That it doesn’t work for you does not mean that it is user-hostile for everyone, and I say that even though right now I’m in the midst of a mass cataloguing run involving some rather rare books and would find a “copy *this* copy exactly” button exceedingly useful.
I’d like that button’s original functionality back, I really would. I find it thoroughly annoying that taking it away made it so much more work to catalogue small press books, particularly ebooks. But re-implementing it would break other stuff that I find useful, stuff that I could not get on GoodReads. And suggesting that I’m drinking the KoolAid because I’m looking for from a cataloguing system is not identical to what you’re looking for is pretty damned insulting.
Link | July 25th, 2009 at 8:22 am
TeddyPig wrote,
Jules,
As I said from the very beginning I find the leaving buttons laying around not doing the function they are intended for and the lack of direction shown in the data entry page and the confusing round about way you have to do anything on that site pretty damn annoying and rude so I guess we are even.
I strongly suspect people are not just using Goodreads because it has those social functions. I suspect it is because it makes sense and LibraryThing despite all the background explanations and histrionics and database drama does not make sense.
Link | July 25th, 2009 at 8:52 am
MB (Leah) wrote,
Yeah but then you can be like me and start thinking is the Kindle really any different then the typical PB? Really? How so? Does it matter?
Well, I am anal enough that I do want the correct version of an ebook in that sense. Between PB editions, I could care less. I have audio versions of books that sometimes I just add the PB version because I’m lazy.
But I think a lot of people might check out where to get ebooks and I don’t want people thinking that Amazon Kindle is the only version of an ebook since many ebook readers don’t have a Kindle. I like to have the link to the original epub. I just do that more as a help to others who might want to buy the book.
And I could care less about the formats available. When I enter a book I only say ebook.
But what is nice about Goodreads is that all of that stuff is available to do. If you want to get really anal about it. I pick and choose my anality in this. LOL
Link | July 25th, 2009 at 9:05 am
TeddyPig wrote,
But I think a lot of people might check out where to get ebooks and I don’t want people thinking that Amazon Kindle is the only version of an ebook since many ebook readers don’t have a Kindle. I like to have the link to the original epub.
Now that is smart and helpful. I agree with that idea, if it makes common sense I can go for it. I generally try to send people to both the publisher and to Fictionwise because of the Fictionwise specials and they keep a backup copy for you unlike some ePubs.
Link | July 25th, 2009 at 9:08 am
Tim wrote,
Hey. This is the LibraryThing guy. I thought I’d chip in $.02.
First, you’re right. It should work the way you describe it—or anyway close to it. Ideally, if you added a work, it would give you some sort of quick edition opinion, or maybe edition and source. And if you were on a specific book, it would add exactly that book, presumably from the same original source as the book you were on.
The problem is, however, not a big conspiracy to get Amazon money—we are the only site to have options OTHER than Amazon!—but an upshot of how LibraryThing conceives of data.
Unlike some other sites, we don’t have a single database of authoritative data. Those sites have one record for every book, so it’s easy to “add” a book—just duplicate the pointer. The same design makes it impossible to edit your book because, well, it’s not your book—everyone shares the data. And they don’t have multiple data sources because while a book may be in some theoretical sense one thing, every library in the world has a slightly different record—making Amazon’s ~10 million records upwards of a billion. The distinction is also important because, as recently happened to Delicious Library’s mobile version, if Amazon revokes its license, well, goodbye.
LibraryThing, by contrast, focuses closely on the idea of your data, and of getting that right. You can change everything. And you can load your data from 690 sites, not just Amazon. Library data is much better data and, unlike Amazon data, has no licensing strings attached.
The upshot of this, unfortunately, is that our data model makes it hard to add someone else’s book. We allowed that for a while, but members were making changes to their books that other people didn’t want to inherit. (For example, some members add an edition, then change the ISBN number, which makes it a sort of hydra, with cover and publishing information at odds.) Ideally, we’d store the original data alongside the changes, but, right now, we don’t. It’s a hell of a lot of data.
Your blog post, while no fun, puts the case quite well. We need to work on it. For what it’s worth, a major overhaul of these data structures are our next big project.
Link | July 25th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
TeddyPig wrote,
The upshot of this, unfortunately, is that our data model makes it hard to add someone else’s book. We allowed that for a while, but members were making changes to their books that other people didn’t want to inherit. (For example, some members add an edition, then change the ISBN number, which makes it a sort of hydra, with cover and publishing information at odds.)
So you had problems with data corruption due to changes made “after” a auto selection.
What you are currently doing is not a compromise in that case because you are forcing everyone to search an off site database in order to add a book or manually enter it all themselves to create any book in their library.
By making people literally search the web for that book again you are “assuming” they did not find the exact book they wanted already on your site.
How about only having them do all that if the book or a specific edition of the book they want is not on the site? Make only those people jump through that confusing hoop.
What is wrong with me just accepting an existing book or edition that I find on your site with the agreement not to change it and you lock that original record I auto selected?
Or what is wrong with copying that exact record and giving me my own version when I select it?
That is what I am basically doing with that outside data source right, making yet another copy of that record for my own use?
Link | July 26th, 2009 at 4:25 am
Mariana wrote,
I’m with Lisabea re: Goodreads. I’ve had no issues with it so far and I have about 1100 books in my library. One of the great things is if multiple versions exist, you can switch from the one you have to the one you want (without having to delete/re-add).
Link | July 27th, 2009 at 3:49 pm