Add-books changes

I've made some changes to Add books:

1. When you add a book, the new book pulses a little.
2. When you add something by ISBN or EAN/UPC, and it gets one result, it goes ahead and adds the book to your library.

Both are intended to make LT easier to use with a barcode scanner, auto-entering and offering more of a visual clue that something happened. Let me know what you think!

Tim

Whoops. That was me. Testing out a feature using Christopher's account.

Now, if someone could tell me how to turn BINCs (Borders numbers) into ISBNs, I'd be very happy. You can take the code and chop off some digits:

Barcode: 5106509009
Minus three digits to get the BINC: 5106509
Search Borders using that number as a keyword (here)

But how do you tell when you have a BINC? I can't be chopping three digits off all valid ISBNs that don't work and trying them as a BINC.

Tim, will we ever get back the ability to preview data before adding a book? When a search returns a list of possibilities, we used to be able to click the triangle next to the title to make sure we added the correct edition. That disappeared some time ago. As a result, I'm manually adding more books, or adding and then editing a lot of data. It's a pain, quite frankly.

Okay. Let me look at it.

I would like the option to choose among methods. For some widely published books, an instant add works well. Sometimes, I have to shop around amazon.com, .uk and .de to get the correct edition, so a preview mode works better.

I would also like to import MARC data from a library to an existing Amazon download. Is this possible?

Sometimes, I have to shop around amazon.com, .uk and .de to get the correct edition, so a preview mode works better.

But, by definition an ISBN/UPC/EAN is a single edition, right?

import MARC data from a library to an existing Amazon download

Yeah. I've thought of that. The trick is, libraries are slower. I might consider a "update and overwrite" button on the edit field. But it would have to completey redo the data.

Very early on, it used Amazon and the LC together, but it was complex and somewhat chimeric. Also, slower.

Sometimes in the past, when we could click for more data, I would find one from the ISBN but it wouldn't be MY book and I would check some more sources before adding the closest one. So, I'm not sure I like automatic add. Could it be an option?

Tim, your reply above showed up while I was writing my message. Sometimes the ISBN is reused or carries over into a slightly revised version or the edition runs thru a gazillion printings and the one that comes up is not the one in my hand.

Your wish is my command, Lilith. All back, including some that don't end up in the record yet, like "formatted contents." It was a strange error that it got "lost." Apologies for that.

I'd prefer NOT to have automatic-add, at all, for the reasons already mentioned.

Failing that, I'd be OK with having it be optional.

Thank you, Tim! If I haven't said it before, I'll say it now: one of the things I like so much about this site is how quick you are to fix things, when you can.

My concern is this: Discussion self-selects. You guys are the most dedicated LTers; you care about data more than other users. The feature adds value in most circumstances.

How about if it were an option, but checked? More opinions needed...

I would like it at least as an option; I plan to use a tablet PC for scanning in most of my books (once I get the wireless network working for me), so clicking means switching from :Cuecat to stylus instead of just clicking as you can do with other computers.

Coming over from another thread . . .

I've been thinking this afternoon, I'd be happy with self-add on a unique result (the worst is that I'd have to delete it afterwards).

Tim: no 'pulsing' titles or self-adding evident here at the moment.

But, by definition an ISBN/UPC/EAN is a single edition, right? Not necessarily, my last purchase Le Beau Ton de Marot is a US/UK co-publication - different publishers same ISBN.

BINCs: There's a tool here that appears to do it http://www.chipersoft.com/products/bce.php (only for Mac though so I can't test it). Also it's pretty unlikley that a BINC will be a valid ISBN - different check-digit, so you could validate the ISBN-10 and check for a BINC if it's invalid. (We've already talked about flagging invalid ISBNs at scan time.)

The autoadding and pulsing seen to be working well. Unfortunately, now barcode scanning brings up no results!

What level of sanity checking are people aiming to do? If you just want to be sure that the title isn't completely wrong, then having it added automatically and occasionally having to then remove it should work. A little retraining vs. today, but not any harder. If checking all the publication details, the triangle is a indeed easier than opening the newly added book's edit page.

If an option is too much clutter, I suppose it could do it automatically for the Amazons and not for real libraries. Doesn't that similarly segment the users?

darklyndsea: I did a bunch with a tablet PC and a CueCat. I also added one of those little USB number pads. This was for books with ISBN but no barcode, a timeframe for a lot of our library. I think it was possible to confirm the CueCat's choice with Keypad Enter as well as a stylus tap. (Or maybe I just wished it were.)

Darklyndsea: Unfortunately, now barcode scanning brings up no results!

What do you mean? Give me an example of something that fails?

I've changed it to an "advanced option."

I tried scanning 10 or 15 books in a row, including The Kite Runner, and they all failed to bring up any results. I made sure I was scanning the EANs, and the ISBNs brought up the right results.

Give me one EAN you used. I'll make sure it'll work.

978100040400400 is what appears in the text box, but the EAN reads 9781594480003.

Ah, okay. LibraryThing has no control over what appears in the text box. That's your scanner doing it's thing, acting as a keyboard and typing in something very wrong. I agree that 978100040400400 won't work. You can see it's not used anywhere by Googling it. I'm guessing there's some sort of problem with the device, or some setting that's not set right on the scanner or the scanner software.

Well that's not good. I guess the PS/2 to USB adapter doesn't work after all.

I wonder if the number can be translated back into an EAN. It doesn't look it to me.

See the blog, however.

See blog (here) for Borders codes announcement.

Thanks for the automatic add. I use the cuecat to add books with bar codes. Will I need to check the option to skip confirmation every time I go to the add books page? It doesn't seem to stick if I go into my library and come back to the add books page.
Thanks

Yeah. Right now it's not sticking. In part, this is because the advanced options doesn't stay open either.

To make it stick I'd need to have the advanced options be a toggle. I'm undecided, but will see if this rises up as an issue with others. It probably will.

Well, I'd prefer it, if the automatic add sticks after I've checked it. Not that it is much work to re-check it when I come back to the add books page, but I'd like it better if I didn't have to do that.

I just noticed it doesn't add automatically when I scan with the cuecat but only when I type the isbn by hand.

Give me an example ISBN from the CueCat? Is it not pressing return? Is your CueCat modified? (It works if it's unmodified.)

I have a modified cuecat. here is an example

I scan this number
9780679407812 52750 and it gives me the book results from amazon that I have to click to add.

If I type in the isbn 0679407812 and press enter it gets added automatically

Okay, but what does it type in when you scan it? Surely not 9780679407812 52750. It probably gives 9780679407812.

Sorry if this isn't clear, but the auto-adding is now an option. When I use 9780679407812 and the checkbox checked, it works.

Okay, but what does it type in when you scan it? Surely not 9780679407812 52750. Exactly that, you will get both parts of a two part bar-code. In my experience it's extremely hard to scan just one part; in practice amazon, LoC, etc. just ignore the lst five digits.

I've never seen that. If it's doing that I can change it. Let me know.

I would love to have an automatic add. I have yet to scan in an ISBN that turned up duplicates, although I suppose they can occur. With the present procedure, it takes two hands to add books while I would prefer to use just one :).

Message 31
Yes the numbers I gave you I copied and pasted from the window where the scan shows up. All those numbers :-)

I cover up those 5 digits on the barcode using a finger or a post-it. That way, my scanner (Flic, not CueCat) works perfectly. What are those last 5 digits anyway?

Does anyone know what that second part is, and what are it's rules? Is it always five digits?

Automatic add is now available. Click "advanced options" within Add books.

It seems like I read somewhere that the extra 5 digits are a one digit currency code and 4 digit suggested retail price. A quick look at a book makes that look correct.

Back when I was running Eschaton Books, we had a little program that generated barcodes, and the second part was for price info which always came out a "5" plus the four-digit price (i.e. 1250 for $12.50 ... I don't know what it would have done with a cover price over a hundred bucks!).

Just searching round for a reference but from memory the 'extra data' can be either 2 or 5 digits (don't remember seeing a 2 digit one though) and can contain various types of info of which 5+price is one - but not the only one. It is not a part of the ISBN though!

. . . ISBN-13 for dummies says: As requested by some retailers, a supplemental 5-digit add-on symbol
may be used to encode cover prices.

0 = GBP, 3 = AUD, 4 = NZD, 5 = USD, 6 = CAD.

I'll go into the code and remove those.

See here. We're selling CueCats, as of this morning.

I tried the BINC adder on some new books from Borders UK. It doesn't work at all as far as I can see. I had great difficulty getting it not to search on my currently selected library i.e. to get a Borders error message instead of an e.g Amazon one.

(On the rare occasions when I did get the BINC search to work the Borders database that LT is scraping the data from doesn't seem to include UK BINCs - no great surprise there.)

Wondering if picking more then one book at a time would be possible. Like in a series. Or if you picked a book you could go back to your search without typing in your search again. Thanks