Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Hi, looking for some clarification. A user who I won't name regularly posts this on his requests:

THE ASIN FIELD MUST BE GIVEN THE ISBN-10 NUMBER AS WELL. GOODREADS POLICY REQUIRES A BOOK’S ISBN-10 TO GO IN THE ASIN FIELD; NOT ADDING IT IS A VIOLATION OF GOODREADS SITE POLICY

Is this really a violation of policy? If we add a new paperback, hardback, ebook etc with just an ISBN13 do we then have to faff about getting the ISBN 10 and then editing that into the ASIN field, Every. Single. Time? I confess I've never done that, do I need to wear the Dunce's hat?

You're safe from wearing the Dunce's hat, though I'm sure you'd really rock if you chose to wear it.

Librarian manual: https://help[dot]goodreads[dot]com/s/...

Specifically (emphasis mine):

Please be sure that the 10-digit ISBN is added to the ISBN field and the 13-digit ISBN is added to the ISBN13 field. It is best if you can list both the 10 and 13-digit numbers, as it will aid in future searches for the book. If only one is listed on the book itself, you can use the ISBN Converter [link inserted here]* to retrieve whichever ISBN is missing.

Note the weasel words "It is best if..." and "you can use the ISBN Converter..." Since the Manual's wording doesn't use "You must" or words to that effect, technically it's not a violation if you don't include the ISBN10. However, it is a useful thing to do since the Amazon bot frequently seems to ignore the word "useful" when randomly plugging in ASINs. IMHO, of course.

And of course, there is no ISBN10 available for the 979s. (Just tossing that out there to keep my Captain Obvious status up to date.)

*Amusingly enough, the system won't allow a link to the help site, including the Librarian Manual:

For the safety of our members, links to other sites are not allowed in comments. Please edit your comment and try again.

Thanks Dobby

Haha, Yeah I'd look great in the hat. You interpreted the manual exactly the same way I did but I thought I'd better be sure.

Further down that manual page under ASIN it says:

"On Goodreads, ASINs are assigned to all books that appear in the database... For physical books, in many cases the ASIN and the ISBN10 will be the same."

The words "all books" might suggest that the ASIN field must have the ISBN10 entered if an ASIN is not available or am I overthinking it?

I started adding it after doing several requests. I would go back into the book to add my source to the log and 9 times out of 100 it would kick back what I typed with the message about not being able to change the ISBN once it's set. Since I hadn't even touched those bloody boxes, it took me a minute to figure out that after a few seconds the system had added the ASIN. To cut down on the frustrations, it was just quicker to add them at the same time as the others.
I really wish we had a box on the create screen for our sources.

It also helps if you add the ISBN10 immediately to the ASIN spot as sometimes the system will create a new record with the ISBN10 on it's own in the ASIN spot and put one of those fake system-generated ASINs on the record with the ISBNs.