Summary: Goodreads is trying to move away from using Amazon as its backend for metadata. Apparently this means it has to go through and have someone re-enter data on a lot of books who take their source from Amazon. Something like a rescue operation is underway.
Goodreads is seeking new metadata source, leaving Amazon for...well, something. "Rescue" operation underway...
BLOT: (25 Jan 2012 - 10:27:22 PM)
Goodreads is seeking new metadata source, leaving Amazon for...well, something. "Rescue" operation underway...
Got an email tonight from Goodreads. The main important juicy bits are:
As you may have noticed, Goodreads is transitioning to new sources of data for its book records. For years, we've used Amazon's data, and while they have always had certain restrictions and requirements, those terms have gotten harder and harder to adhere to. We have been working diligently to find a new, independent source of data. Amazon has given us until January 30 to stop using their data, and we have to meet this deadline.
You can read more [presumably you have to be signed in, and possibly you need to be a Goodreads Librarian, but maybe not] at a topic dedicated to it. If you are up to for doing some of the "rescue" work, and can do some of it, then the following link is where you go to see which of your books [again, see above requirements] needs fixing, with there being another if you want to take a stab at ALL the books:
http://www.goodreads.com/rescue_books/at_risk
I only had one show up on that list: Robert Aickman's
I have no idea what changes at Amazon prompted this, by the way, and maybe it is tied into the general move away from Amazon that several in the book industry are starting to bandy about [though the deadline suggests a more active withdrawal on Amazon's behalf]. I'm curious if a source like Open Library might be the option, though I have not yet looked into how it transports metadata. Or maybe we need an open-source equivalent to WorldCat, except instead of of catalog data it focuses on good metadata. That might be reinventing the wheel, though. Will investigate.
OTHER BLOTS THIS MONTH: January 2012
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