Preparing for the BL-pocalypse: Audiobook Edition

Desperately seeking a truly audiobook-friendly cataloging site...

                    

Catch-22: When importing from a database, LT and GR only care about the ISBN. No ISBN, no import. BUT, Audible does not provide ASINs, let alone ISBN, in any of its product description and, with a few rare exceptions, Amazon provides only  ASINs.

I spent the last week whipping my BL datebase into shape. I exported it to a spreadsheet. I added all of the titles I was unable to add in the first place because the titles were not in the BL catalog. I corrected all of the titles that has been added as hard copies when I could not find the digital edition. I scanned for duplicates, removed all library loans and even removed all commas. My DB is now as ready as it is going to be (except for some missing indexing numbers for titles that I own but are no longer on the market). I have now spent all of the time I am going to spend on cleaning and repairing; from here on out, it will be new additions only. And I do feel a buying spree coming on!

My not quite pristine DB contains 1085 records, of which  990 are Audible audiobooks. When I fed my database -- indexing numbers only, since that is all the import applets on the websites look at -- to the websites to import,  Goodreads was able to add 124 titles to my library and LibraryThing, 138 titles. That is not an acceptable success rate. Ninety percent of my DB was left on the cutting room floor.

Audible does a pretty job of organizing a bookshelf for members but it has its problems -- and yes, I said pretty, pleasing to the eye but not necessarily usable. No list view. No ability to navigate to a specific page in the list. No ability to export. No ability to keep track of multiple reads, etc., etc.



For me the quest is over. The thought of adding 1000 titles manually, one title at a time, to any new database when I already have that information neatly arranged in a DB that the websites won't accept is the deciding factor. Until a website comes along that recognizes ASINs and will import 99% of what I own, I will keep my own catalog on a spreadsheet on my hard-drive. It is already up and running with over a thousand entries already in place.  It won't be as pretty but it won't be as frustrating or as time consuming as trying to make my round peg fit into the square hole.

Preparing for the BL-pocalypse: Moving the Data

Two things to understand before you start the process...

Moving a large database from  place to place is a daunting task unless most of the process can be automated. If you have a thousand or even half that number of titles to move, you want the process to automatically populate the new space without having to retype most of the information being moved. I hate re-inventing the wheel, so let me share what I have learned over the past few days. 

FIRST THING. At least on GoodReads and LibraryThing, you need to have an ISBN for each title in order to successfully import that title into your new home; ASINs don't count.  I have not looked into any other websites, because I don't know where to look--but I am happy for suggestions.

GoodReads says:

File Import Tips

All columns in our sample file are supported, but only ISBN is required.

In other words, if all you want to do is populate the library and are not trying to also move tags, comments, reviews, etc. then all you have to send them is a list of ISBNs --which is what I did.

LibraryThing says:

Universal Import does not read any data from your file other than valid ISBNs, if they're included. If you have books without ISBNs, this will not add them. If you have keyed reviews or tags into your desktop program, this will not add them.

In other words, it doesn't matter what else is in the DB, the import applet is only going to look at records that contain an ISBN and then it will populate each title in your library with information about the ISBN from another catalog. You will still have to add book by book any tags, comments, etc. See the FAQ for more precise information: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Adding_and_importing_books

Bottom-line: Just how much work is it going to take to make sure that you have an ISBN for every title in your library?

SECOND THING. If you plan on sending your entire database, beware of commas!!!   Why? Because commas are used to separate the data in the columns. However, not a really problem if you can use "Find and Replace" to change ,  to ",".