Newbie Help

I am trying to enter books and would like to add all the books for a particular author rather than adding them one by one. Can I do this?

Currently, no, there is no support for adding all the books by a particular author or in a particular series at once.

However, you can create a spreadsheet with the titles, author name, and other required information, and import it. I really don't know how importing works - I do know that it still goes through the add books page and selects from a source, but you don't have to manually search each book yourself on the add books page.

I thought of this but then I was thinking that this would be double work. I have 9 floor to ceiling(ten foot ceilings) bookcases full of books that I have collected over the years and I am going to be forever cataloging them. But this is something I have wanted to do for a very long time. I do have a scanner But.........

The last time I attempted this project I was retrieving books and scanning them and I tore my rotator cuff and ended up having two surgeries on my shoulder. So this project is just a little more than daunting for me.

i would suggest trying this: create a wishlist on Amazon and add the works that you want to bulk add. once you get that list created, go to Universal Import and do the "Grab from Webpage" thing.

this may end up being no quicker than adding them individually on LT, but it's worth a try at least. i'd maybe do a test run of 10 books the regular LT way, timing it of course, and then a test run of 10 books the Universal Import way and see which is better.

good luck!

eta: or you could see if someone in your area has a CueCat that you could rent/borrow. that seems to be much easier than scanning.

Why, do you have a deadline to get all these books catalogued? :) Take your time, and do a few a day until they are done. If you try to do them all at once you’ll also get thoroughly bored with the task.

Unfortunately, a lot of books take a lot of time to catalogue (especially if you want to be exact), even for people who catalogue books for a living! I had a long long list of books I read, and even though I had the editions for most of time, it still took me months to enter the data into my LT account.

I really do not have a deadline just really want to get them done, I keep buying duplicates due to the cover changes on some books or forgetting I own the book, arghhhhhhhhhh. But I do like your suggestion thanks so much!!

Thanks for the suggestion. I have a CueCat but I am looking for a short cut to cataloging all of my books. I also have a software from http://www.collectorz.com/book/ that I am going to use and I am going to get my daughter to help, after all it is her inheritance ;-)

I had my books catalogued using the collectorz.com software before I dsicovered Library thing and I was able to import my books that had ISBNs from that database. The resulting data still needed checking and altering but that's something I've been doing on and off for some time now. Having a record for each book (even when it's not completely accurate) really helps, and they will all be right in the end...

If you want an accurate catalog there is no shortcut for searching for each one and then correcting the info. The libraries tend to be more accurate than Amazonia, but even the best libraries have occasional mistakes, there are always alternate editions, or multiple ISBNs may be in a single record, and you end up with the wrong one in your record.

If you want both ISBNs and covers to be accurate you have to use member-loaded covers and not Amazon covers. Chosing an Amazon cover changes your ISBN to match the cover, and later can change the cover if Amazon changes the cover for that ISBN.

you say you have a CueCat. for books with ISBNs scan all the barcodes into a file. on the add book page go to import books and enter the file name. once LT has downloaded the file it will load the books. this can take some time but you don't need to be on line for it.

"Here's a little secret. You *can* click on multiple titles {on the Add Books page}. Sure, after the first click all the others grey out, but you can still click on them, and they will each be added. You can click until the results screen comes up.

So --

Search on AUTHOR NAME.
Click, scroll, click, scroll, click, etc., until all the ones you want from that first screen are clicked and/or the results screen has gone through."

{From member lquilter - http://www.librarything.com/topic/75111#1553156 }

>11 countrylife:

well, you learn something new everyday! thanks countrylife.

11> The only thing is, that works best if you're on dialup. On broadband, it usually disappears too fast to click more than one, maybe two (I tried it after lquilter suggested it).

>13 jjmcgaffey:

FINALLY, something good happens from having dial-up! thank god. ;)

LOL