ISBN -13 and the scan function in the app

Sorry if this has been asked many times before. When I use the Librarything app to scan a bunch of books, it reads the EAN number that these days is the same as the ISBN-13. It searches with this 13 digit number to find the correct book. Then it most often saves the entry with the ISBN-10. Negating part of the reason to scan to begin with as I then have to enter the ISBN 13 manually later. Is there a way to make the app save the ISBN-13 if there is one? Saving the ISBN-13 is more usable if you are to use it later on as the use of ISBN-13 is more prevalent and yield better search results other places.

Changing an ISBN 10 to 13 only requires adding in the 978 and fixing the final digit, so I usually do it.

>2 MarthaJeanne: Sure, but why does it save it to an outdated format in the first place, requiring manual input to fix? To fix one takes little time. Now multiply that time for each book I have planned to enter (thousands of books)

To be fair as I proceed with my cataloguing, it saves ISBN13 more often than ISBN10 now

I suspect that what source you use makes a difference.

>5 MarthaJeanne: Yes, definitely. Probably not so much what source, but when it catalogued the book. Newish books are extremely unlikely to come with 10-digit ISBN.

FWIW, I've never noticed any of my ebooks coming with 10-digit ISBN since they are all new enough that 13-digit has already become a standard.

>4 Fundin: You can see the ISBN that will be imported when you look at the search results. Search itself will find both 10 and 13 digit equivalents.

>6 SandraArdnas: I am not able to see which isbn type that will be imported when I use the scan function in the app. My frustration is those cases when both are listed and it still chooses ISBN10. Special cudos to the books without a barcode and the ISBN10 hidden on page four of the books. There was one by Charles Bukowski I almost despaired of finding one at all. The Martian Chronicles Ray Bradbury I have was published in 1954 and my edition printed in 1962 and does not have one at all as everything published before about 1970 does not have one. Being a librarian in the 50ies must have been a hoot

>7 Fundin: Back then there was no internet, so they didn't need ISBNs. The librarians typed up catalogue cards on typewriters. Or else ordered a set of cards along with the book. As a page, I was responsible for getting the whole day's sign out cards in alphabetical order after we had counted and recorded the numbers of book borrowed by adult/juvenile, fiction/nonfiction.

I remember teachers frustrated that we couldn't say how many such and such books they had borrowed, because we would have had to go through the whole day's pile by hand. The sort was by author, and that was it.

I used to work in a travel bookstore that did not have a computer. Each title had a card stuffed in the last copy. When sold the card was removed and we phoned in an order to restock the store

>8 MarthaJeanne:

Back then there was no internet, so they didn't need ISBNs.

ISBNs predate common usage of the internet.

It's doing it again. I scan barcodes of 'Little Clothbound Classics'. The barcode yields isbn-13 numbers that the app searches for. What pops up in my library is isbn-10.. Incredibly annoying. Have tried adding other sources and give them precedence but I see no change. Incredibly annoying for books that are only a few years old

>11 Fundin: When I view your catalogue, the last 9 you added from that series all have 13-digit ISBN. Where are you seeing 10-digit?

Edit: In case you edited them yourself afterwards, what source did you use? FWIW, I didn't find it in any library source I tried, only on Amazon UK and US, and those were both with 10-digit record

>12 SandraArdnas: Edited myself after. I only leave ISBN-10 when the books themselves only came with ISBN to begin with like some of 'Verdens hellige skrifter' that I added now. And in order to find the correct ISBN-13 I could have looked on the books, but it was easier to just have a light google search of the 10 and find the 13. I know they are the same except for a preceding 978 (in most cases, there are books that start with 979) and a different check number for the final digit. But all the same it blows my mind that I get ISBN-10 for new books. I know Amazon have the ISBN-13 on their pages, although with an annoying dash in the middle. I imagine that they have put it there to stop people from data trawling their pages

For instance

https://www.librarything.com/work/21590371/book/269433367

https://www.amazon.com/Territory-of-Light/dp/0241620244

On their pages they show both

Product details
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Classics (February 23, 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0241620244
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0241620243
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.61 x 0.71 x 6.61 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #1,580,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Customer Reviews: 4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 356 ratings

When I manually search for 9780241620243 on LibraryThing's webpages the book pops up with ISBN-13 from overcat, I have that as my preferred on the app as well. But when I search by scanning the barcode that is the same as the ISBN-13 in the app I only get the amazon result. Somehow the app seems locked into the amazon results and (in my view) erroneously picks up the ISBN-10 even though amazon have the correct information somewhere and never shows the Overcat result in the app. I do not know if Amazon include the ISBN-13 in the searchable catalogue available to us however, so I do not know if it is LibraryThing picking the wrong info or Amazon only supplying the wrong info. I see no reason why it should ever use the ISBN-10 when ISBN-13 is available. That might just be me not seing a larger picture somehow, but it makes the barcode scanner in the app less usable if I constantly have to correct the resulting info

Just tried with the book 9781534412804

When I enter this manually in the search bar of the app I get many options and I can pick one (But the search results do not show the proposed isbn to be used so I do not know which option each search result will opt for), when I scan it with the barcode scanner I only get the amazon result with the ISBN-10

>13 Fundin: You do not need to Google to find the ISBN 13. It is on the book details page.

>13 Fundin: Thank you, I see that now. But if it has both, why does it show the ISBN-10 in my lists? Is there an option to prefer to show the ISBN-13 if it has both?

>13 Fundin: For some reason Amazon offers 10-digit ISBN when you import its data for 9780241620243. It shows both ISBNs on the page you linked, but its data when importing is 10-digit. Try it trough 'add books' when on site, rather than the app and you can see it will import 10-digit ISBN. Overcat has one result and it comes with 13-digit, so that is what will be imported.

I believe you can change sources used and in what order under 'account' in the app. If Overcat is the first in the list already and it skipped to Amazon when Overcat result is available, it sounds buggy behavior to me. If it happens again, I'd post in Bug Collectors with details of your setup and examples.

>15 Fundin: The column itself in the catalogue shows only the one imported. Book details always shows both, no matter which one was imported. No automatic switching available I'm afraid.

>17 SandraArdnas: Automatic switching would have to give 3 choices: What I have entered, always 10, always 13.

While for books with ISBN-13 on them, I prefer it (and edit my entries accordingly), on those older books which only display ISBN-10, I prefer that, and would hate to have it changed. So for me, I would prefer to keep editing new entries as needed.

When I joined LT, ISBN-13 was brand new. Well over half the books I have entered were published before then. I have even entered books this year that were only issued with ISBN-10. Every now and again one shows up around here.