Wikipedia talk:Book sources/Archive 3

Archive 1

Archive 2

Archive 3

Archive 4

LibraryThing

The link to LibraryThing doesn't seem to work. All I get is this empty search page. --91.67.132.42 (talk) 15:21, 7 January 2012 (UTC)

Update Seattle Library link

Please check the following URLs to the Seattle Public Library replacing "MAGICNUMBER" with an ISBN number.

• https://catalog.spl.org/ipac20/ipac.jsp?term=MAGICNUMBER&index=ISBNEX old
• http://seattle.bibliocommons.com/search?custom_query=identifier%3A%289780809053971%29 new

I want to be sure that this replacement will work. Thank you in advance. – Allen4names 22:08, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

I believe this is now fixed. --Robert.Allen (talk) 19:26, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Thank you. – Allen4names 07:25, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

Incorrect statement

This article currently states: "The standard Amazon link shows up correctly only if an ISBN-10 number is used." I have not found this to be the case. For instance, the following ISBN pairs give the same result:

• ISBN 978-0-262-13275-6
• ISBN 0-262-13275-3

So do these:

• ISBN 978-1-85273-109-0
• ISBN 1-85273-109-5

I believe the statement is inaccurate and should be removed. It was added more than a year ago with this edit by an IP. As written it is certainly not accurate. There may be occasional ISBN-13s for which it is true, but the same could probably be said about all the sites which are searched from this page. Also, it may also be true that occasional ISBN-10s do not work, when the ISBN-13 will work. I think we should just delete it. --Robert.Allen (talk) 19:49, 22 March 2012 (UTC)

Yes, Amazon have been working correctly with 13 digit numbers for some years. Rich Farmbrough, 12:16, 10 May 2012 (UTC).

Newbie: How to add another library system?

How does one add another big U.S. city library system to this search scheme? I'm Wikipedia-savvy and library-savvy, but I don't want to try editing something this special without more knowledge. I'm well-connected with the folks at our Allegheny County Library Association system here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, and I'd like to see them in this list. We also have quite a few colleges and universities that might belong here. Lou Sander (talk) 12:28, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

The University of Texas library catalog is http://catalog.lib.utexas.edu/

The University of Texas library catalog is: http://catalog.lib.utexas.edu/

The given link is to the main University of Texas site, not the library. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.190.133.143 (talk) 02:24, 3 May 2012 (UTC)

Possible error/lack of functionality

Howdy. I'm using the ISBN parameter in a cite book template and the link that is produced goes this page with a message of "The given ISBN does not appear to be valid; check for errors copying from the original source." The ISBN I'm using can be seen here. I have verified that the ISBN I'm using matches the one in the book. The target page for the generated link for WorldCat lists the book. It is the 2nd entry. Seeing this makes me think that the ISBN is at least somewhat valid. Is getting the red error text on this page fixable?--Rockfang (talk) 19:35, 9 May 2012 (UTC)

The correct ISNBs for this book appear to be

• ISBN 978-0-403-09753-1
• ISBN 0-403-09753-3

There is an increasing problem with folk just cutting off the "978" and hoping for a valid 10 digit ISBN. 10 times out of 11 it will be wrong. Rich Farmbrough, 12:23, 10 May 2012 (UTC).

Amazon busted?

Seems that the ISBN link to Amazon is giving a 404. For example, ISBN 9780824836344 provides this link to Amazon, which is a 404. --jpgordon^{::==( o )} 02:31, 21 May 2012 (UTC)

Not seeing that problem. Something local for you, or transient?LeadSongDog come howl! 04:26, 21 May 2012 (UTC)

Not transient;I noticed it a few days ago. Happens on all my browsers. Oh, interesting. It only happens if I'm logged in. --jpgordon^{::==( o )} 04:53, 21 May 2012 (UTC)

Bad JS. No biscuit. --jpgordon^{::==( o )} 04:55, 21 May 2012 (UTC)

The above link is indeed giving a 404. The correct link is http://www.amazon.com/s?search-alias=stripbooks&field-isbn=9780824836344 which is ok. --Nakohdo (talk) 12:19, 27 September 2012 (UTC)

"Key national libraries"

At a workshop yesterday, it was pointed out to me that the seven (now six) entries here cover three national libraries and three union catalogues - COPAC (UK academic), Canada, and KVK (European). Any idea for a better section title? Andrew Gray (talk) 09:51, 12 July 2012 (UTC)

Oxford University OLIS

I discovered on Monday that the OLIS link no longer resolves - it directs to the SOLO landing page for the new catalogue system. (Unfortunately, I was demonstrating it in a workshop at Oxford at the time! A hasty retreat...)

I've done a bit of testing and think this will work:

http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&srt=rank&ct=search&mode=Basic&dum=true&tb=t&indx=1&vl(1UIStartWith0)=contains&vl(freeText0)=MAGICNUMBER&fn=search

but it's pretty crude - it's a full-text search on the ISBN string, which of course will fail if the 13 is used to search for something with the 10 recorded, or vice versa. Anyone more familiar with Primo? Andrew Gray (talk) 08:54, 10 October 2012 (UTC)

Auburn University link

The link for searching Auburn University's library catalog is broken. I have no idea how to fix it, but the current online catalog search page is here. —Kierkkadon ^{talk/contribs} 14:54, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

I think I fixed it - could you please try again? GoingBatty (talk) 18:08, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

Excellent, thanks. —Kierkkadon ^{talk/contribs} 18:51, 7 February 2013 (UTC)

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Not moved. — ΛΧΣ²¹ 21:45, 3 March 2013 (UTC)

---

Wikipedia:Book sources → Help:Book sources – Because it is a help page. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 01:16, 24 February 2013 (UTC)

• Oppose: This is not a help page. Per Wikipedia:Project namespace, the Wikipedia namespace consists of pages with information or discussion about Wikipedia. By itself, it provides information per Wikipedia:Project namespace, specifically listing links to book sources. This is also primarily used as the template for the search results for Special:BookSources. As stated, "If you arrived at this page by clicking an ISBN number link in a Wikipedia page, then the links below (those labeled "find this book") search for the specific book using that ISBN number." Zzyzx11 (talk) 04:16, 24 February 2013 (UTC)

• It helps readers, therefore it should be in help namespace rather than project namespace. -- Alan Liefting (talk - contribs) 04:35, 24 February 2013 (UTC)

  It helps readers, but not using Wikipedia, which a help page is suppose to do. I do not see any advantage about moving it. Furthemore, I do not know how it will affect Special:BookSources, and if it will actually break with a redirect without testing it first. Zzyzx11 (talk) 04:44, 24 February 2013 (UTC)

  For technical information, I checked both mw:Manual:ISBN and meta:Help:ISBN links and they seem to indicate that this currently has to remain in the project namespace for Special:BookSources to work properly. We can change the results page at MediaWiki:Booksources, but it automatically defaults to the project namespace. As long as the magic words and variables pass through the redirect to the help namespace without any error, it should work in theory. But again, I do not see any significant advantage of moving the page to the help namespace, especially if I do not know yet for certain if it will introduce bugs. Zzyzx11 (talk) 05:44, 24 February 2013 (UTC)

• Oppose This is not a help page, loosely defined as "a page of readable text which explains how something is done"; it's a list of links which have little use on the bare page - try clicking any one of the "Find this book" links and see what happens. At best, you'll be offered a search input form - at worst, something like a 404 Page Not Found or 500 Internal Server Error depending on the server software. These links only become useful when fed suitable input, which is what Special:BookSources does. Compare Template:GeoTemplate which is the skeleton for coordinates links - useless unless fed a latitude and longitude at the very least, which is what {{coord}} and its subtemplates do. Therefore, if this page doesn't belong at Wikipedia:Book sources, the only logical place is Template: space (that's assuming that Special:BookSources will carry on working if the page is moved). --Redrose64 (talk) 11:26, 24 February 2013 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Busted and broken links

Just randomly clicking on a dozen book source links and half are 404 or dead sites. And then for something useful like Amazon links we bury them at the bottom of the list. The Amazon reviews and descriptions and sometimes previews are completely free. Most of the library websites are not even 1% as useful (not like you going to fly to another country to check out the actual book). Not sure why we are so in favor of non-commercial sites that we just link to junk. For any given book, Amazon almost always has the book with a pageful of useful information (Author description, Bookcover, book description, statistics like number of pages, reviews, related books, etc.) For example, look at ISBN 1-85273-109-5 found earlier in the talk page. How many links provide any useful information for this book? Most libraries don't have this book so the links are completely useless. --MarsRover (talk) 03:18, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

Wikipedia Library banner

Hi! I'm trying to collect our library resources under a common banner. How would you feel about putting this template at the top of the page?

Best, Ocaasi ^{t | c} 18:20, 9 April 2013 (UTC)

I see no one commented so I'm going to go ahead and be bold and add it. Comments welcome. Cheers, Ocaasi ^{t | c} 18:59, 12 April 2013 (UTC)

New book source suggestion

I would like to suggest Lybrary.com as a new (e)book source. We have an ISBN search interface that looks like this http://www.lybrary.com/advanced_search_result.php?isbn= (accepts 10 or 13 digit ISBNs). Example http://www.lybrary.com/advanced_search_result.php?isbn=9780957641013

We are an independent ebook retailer and carry ebooks across the board from fiction to non-fiction with specialization in magic (as in sleight-of-hand, illusions), games, juggling and gambling.

Not done: I don't think that this would go down too well with other editors, because lybrary.com is a commercial site, and we don't usually link to commercial sites from articles. (See our guidelines on external links for the details.) We tolerate the Amazon link because they provide a limited amount of the full text of their books, which is very useful for verifying citations etc. And we have some links to price-comparison sites for people who are actually looking to buy the books. Anything more than that is probably too much, in my opinion. This is just my intuition, though - if you want a second opinion, I recommend starting a new discussion at the village pump. Best — Mr. Stradivarius ^{♪ talk ♪} 15:13, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

Book source

Where a link to new book source is added for it to appear in the Special:BookSources? Where can I find a complete list of all sources? — Bill william compton^Talk 05:27, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

Both questions: Right on the project page associated with this talkpage.

If you want to add something, then propose the link here, or make an edit-protected request if you think it will be non-objected to. Then an admin can add it to the project page. –Quiddity (talk) 05:40, 26 June 2013 (UTC)

Edit request on 15 August 2013

Can Macquarie University Library please be added to the list of Australian libraries. The URL for the catalogue is:

http://voyager.mq.edu.au/vwebv/search?searchArg1=MAGICNUMBER&argType1=all&searchCode1=ISBN&combine2=and&searchArg2=&argType2=any&searchCode2=GKEY&year=2011-2013&fromYear=&toYear=&location=all&type=all&language=all&content=all&media=all&carrier=all&recCount=50&searchType=2&page.search.search.button=Search 564dude (talk) 23:50, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

Question: Is it necessary for the query string to be so long? I reckon that it can be cut right down to

http://voyager.mq.edu.au/vwebv/search?searchArg1=MAGICNUMBER&searchCode1=ISBN&searchType=2

without loss of functionality; example. --Redrose64 (talk) 13:18, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

I'm happy for the shorter version of the URL to be used. 564dude (talk) 01:09, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

Done --Redrose64 (talk) 09:15, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

Australia

The list for Australia has an obscure order. Clearly the national services come first, and then the State Libraries; but after that, the order is pretty confused, but there is a small degree of geographical ordering. For the section above, I knew that Macquarie University Library was in Sydney so I found an existing entry for Sydney, and placed the new one adjacent to that, in alphabetic order. It seems to me that the list can be improved by carefully sorting all the entries. Other than the purely alphabetic (which will move the State Libraries down significantly), two suggestions occur to me:

1. leave those down to State Library of Western Australia alone, sort the rest alphabetically
2. divide them into eight groups - one for national services and ACT, six for the states, and one for NT; within each group, put the State Library first, the rest alphabetic

Opinions? --Redrose64 (talk) 09:15, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

That seems sensible to me. I'd also suggest deleting Wesley College, Melbourne and Geelong Public Library given that these are small libraries with a limited catchment (as far as I know, all university libraries in Australia are open to the public, and they can obtain external borrowing rights in many of them). Nick-D (talk) 10:02, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

Some uni libraries will ask for a paid membership from the public to just wander in and look at the books, although I doubt that many would actually enforce that. I concur with Nick-D about the Wesley College library - I'm sure it's quite good for a K-12 school but probably not someone we want to encourage adults to walk into and have a look.

I note that Trove aggregates many Australian library catalogues, such as in this example. Do we really need to include some of the more minor local libraries if this is available? Lankiveil ^{(speak to me)} 11:17, 24 August 2013 (UTC).

Edit request on September 2, 2013

Could we change the link to Worldcat from http to https? Its secure server: https://www.worldcat.org/ works perfectly fine. Since now Wikipedia forces users to use HTTPS, I would suggest we change external links to use HTTPS protocol whenever possible. --Chmarkine (talk) 20:24, 2 September 2013 (UTC)

I think a protocol-relative link would be better - //www.worldcat.org/. Wikipedia only forces https upon those who don't know how to switch back. --Redrose64 (talk) 21:24, 2 September 2013 (UTC)

I agree!--Chmarkine (talk) 21:29, 2 September 2013 (UTC)

OK, Done --Redrose64 (talk) 21:54, 2 September 2013 (UTC)

Google Books

Google books now needs a space between isbn: and the isbn or = instead of :. - - MrBill3 (talk) 22:06, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

Please give an example of a non-working URL, and the Wikipedia page where you found it. --Redrose64 (talk) 22:31, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

I am not having the problem now. I just rechecked all the ISBN links on the page I was working on Naturopathy and they now are all working fine. Thanks for the quick response. - - MrBill3 (talk) 23:53, 3 September 2013 (UTC)

Edit request: update to University of Sussex

The current University of Sussex link no longer works.

Currently:

• Find this book on the University of Sussex library catalogue

Suggested replacement

• Find this book on the University of Sussex library catalogue

Foxdown1 (talk) 12:41, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

 Fixed --Redrose64 (talk) 19:46, 25 September 2013 (UTC)

Edit request on 31 October 2013

Add the San Diego Public Library? (It's a different library system than San Diego County Library.) Search for an ISBN with

http://sddp.ent.sirsi.net/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=&qu="MAGICNUMBER"

Flyingspuds (talk) 23:41, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

Done — Mr. Stradivarius ^{♪ talk ♪} 04:41, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

I removed one of the two qu= because a query string consists of one or more parameters separated by ampersands; each parameter consists of a name=value pair, and each name should be unique within the query string. --Redrose64 (talk) 14:13, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

Oops, that looks like a copy-paste error on my part... thanks for fixing it. — Mr. Stradivarius ^{♪ talk ♪} 14:48, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

Adding St. Louis Public Library

Is it possible to add the St. Louis Public Library to the list of Missouri Libraries? This is different from the St. Louis County Library.

http://slpl.sdp.sirsi.net/client/en_US/catalog/results?qu=&qu="MAGICNUMBER"

Thank you.Ljoneill13 (talk) 20:47, 19 November 2013 (UTC) ljoneill13

@Ljoneill13: Done, though not quite that way. LeadSongDog come howl! 17:06, 22 November 2013 (UTC)

Thanks LeadSongDog. It seems though that the link always resolves to the title Daniel Webster. I've tried a few ISBNs and they keep resulting in the Daniel Webster details page. But if I click on Search again (now from within the catalog) it does reexecute the search correctly. Any suggestions?

Thanks again for adding us!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ljoneill13 (talk • contribs) 19:08, 25 November 2013 (UTC)

I think that the URL is dynamic, and contains a session ID which changes from visit to visit. I'm pretty sure that it's the ent:$002f$002fSD_ILS$002f239$002fSD_ILS:239781 because trying the site's "Advanced Search" facility for ISBN 9780451523556 I get the URL http://slpl.sdp.sirsi.net/client/en_US/catalog/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$002f$002fSD_ILS$002f337$002fSD_ILS:337185/one?qu=9780451523556 which apart from the ISBN, differs only in that respect. If this is an encoded session ID, we cannot include the library since there is no way that we can predetermine a valid session ID. What we need is a URL where the only variable is the ISBN - the remainder must remain static between visits. --Redrose64 (talk) 19:51, 25 November 2013 (UTC)

Sorry about that.

I believe the url should be this. Sorry about the error earlier:

http://slpl.sdp.sirsi.net/client/catalog/search/results?qu="MAGICNUMBER"

Thanks!

Ljoneill13 (talk) 20:32, 25 November 2013 (UTC)ljoneill13

OK, done --Redrose64 (talk) 20:50, 25 November 2013 (UTC)

Special Wikipedia page

Shouldn't this belong more appropriately on a MediaWiki message considering it's located inside a special page? Most MediaWiki messages form part of the Special pages documentation and assorted text. I mean, there are elements of MediaWiki coding on this very Wikipedia page that makes me wary of changing it, and MediaWiki system messages are, well, system messages restricted to admins. TeleComNasSprVen (talk • contribs) 19:31, 17 December 2013 (UTC)

If it were in MediaWiki space it could only be edited by administrators, just like any fully-protected page. For a long time it was full-prot in the normal manner, but a reduction to semi-prot six weeks ago does not seem to have opened the door to bad edits; indeed, this edit is about the only actual fix that was necessary after a mistaken edit. --Redrose64 (talk) 20:18, 17 December 2013 (UTC)

It appears from mw:Manual:ISBN that it's not possible to place it outside project space. MediaWiki:Booksources could change it to another project space page but not another namespace. I don't know whether Wikipedia:Book sources could be coded to transclude a MediaWiki page instead of containing the book sources directly, but I don't see a good reason. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:39, 17 December 2013 (UTC)

I should probably say a word here about why I reduced the protection to semi. This page requires quite a bit of maintenance, for example when any of the public libraries listed change the format of their URLs. Also, when answering a protected request above, I noticed some overlinking and some discrepencies in formatting in some of the entries, particularly for the US libraries inside the collapse boxes. I figured that as many of these things hadn't been fixed while the page was full-protected, perhaps semi-protection would allow for necessary maintenance to take place while still keeping out bad edits. For now, I think this approach has been borne out by the number of dead links that have been tagged; however, if we start to see an influx of bad edits then I'm not against reinstating full protection. — Mr. Stradivarius ^{♪ talk ♪} 02:38, 18 December 2013 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 28 February 2014, adding “Deutsche Nationalbibliothek” in Wikipedia:Book Sources

Hello,

it would be kind to add the “Deutsche Nationalbibliothek” (German National Library) in Wikipedia:BookSources#Germany. The search string ( c&p from German Wikipedia) is:

https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?referrer=Wikipedia&method=enhancedSearch&index=num&term=MAGICNUMBER&operator=and

--Dosenfant (talk) 17:33, 28 February 2014 (UTC)

Not done: According to the page's protection level and your user rights, you should currently be able to edit the page yourself. If you still seem to be unable to, please reopen the request with further details. I don't see any protection on the page. Are you asking for help for another reason (like being uncomfortable with template syntax) or did you accidentally use the wrong template or something else? — {{U|Technical 13}} ^{(t • e • c)} 00:18, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

@Technical 13: the page is semi-protected, and has been for four months now. Dosenfant (talk · contribs) is not yet autoconfirmed, and so is unable to edit the page. --Redrose64 (talk) 23:17, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

• Ahh... The edit request was for Wikipedia:BookSources specifically. Since they specified that in the request template, that page is not protected, and redirect pages now render text, I didn't even consider the possibility that their request was misplaced Rose. I've fixed the template call, and if it is still here tomorrow, I'll take care of it. — {{U|Technical 13}} ^{(t • e • c)} 23:34, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

Both Wikipedia:BookSources and Wikipedia:Book Sources are redirects to the true page, Wikipedia:Book sources. When an edit request is apparently for a redirect, the desired page is often the redirect's target. Newbies often don't appreciate the subtleties of case-sensitivity and spacing. --Redrose64 (talk) 23:53, 1 March 2014 (UTC)

Not done: According to the page's protection level and your user rights, you should currently be able to edit the page yourself. If you still seem to be unable to, please reopen the request with further details. I actually still don't understand exactly what you want changed Dosenfant, and I apologize for the misunderstanding and delay... That said, your account is now more than four days old and you have well over the ten minimum required edits to make this change yourself. Again, I apologize, and if you should still need assistance I would be happy to help you but will need a little more detail because I have no idea where you might want that added. Thanks for your interest in contributing to the English Wikipedia. — {{U|Technical 13}} ^{(t • e • c)} 02:20, 4 March 2014 (UTC)

 Added DNB. User LeadSongDog added the DNB entry to Wikipedia:BookSources#Germany on 21:09, 28 February 2014. At that time I havn't had the user rights to do this myself. I apologize that I didn't close this thread immediately. --Richard (talk) 09:12, 5 March 2014 (UTC)

HELP QUESTION - Where to make suggestion for Special:BookSources page?

Moved from Help talk:ISBN § * HELP QUESTION - Where to make suggestion for Special:BookSources page?

 – Redrose64 (talk) 10:24, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

I'e been mainly correcting commas and splitting overly-long paragraphs for a few years on Wikipedia, not doing any "real editing", but.. now I find I have a "real editing question.. Where would I make a suggestion (if feasible) to add a feature for the Special:BookSources ISBN page to automatically go to one of it's external links (Amazon, WorldCat, etc), based on a user-preference? Perhaps have an option for such "ISBN wikilinks" to show a pop-up option to go instead to the Special:BookSources page (or do so if control/alt-clicked if that's possible with JS), like is done with the "Add to book" option that is put activated by the Book Creator? Where does someone make such suggestions for the "infrastructure pages" of WP? Thanks, Jimw338 (talk) 20:12, 13 December 2013 (UTC)

If you look right at the bottom, under "See also", it shows four bullets. The second is "Wikipedia talk:Book sources - For questions and discussion about this page." so that's where the page itself is discussed.

However, new user preferences would require a change to the MediaWiki software, which is not something that we can do directly: you would need to file a feature request at Bugzilla. That's not really for the non-technical person though, and replies can take a long time to arrive. A good place to ask technical questions is WP:VPT where others usually answer within an hour or two, and can often advise on whether something can be done from our end or if it's a task to send to Bugzilla. --Redrose64 (talk) 23:35, 13 December 2013 (UTC)

I agree with the gist of comments by Georgejdorner (the Non-functional section above) and Jimw338. I too have been a frequent Wikipedia consumer for several years and, more recently, a fledgling editor, and I have always found the Special:BookSources page confusing and not helpful. I inevitably jump over to Google Books to find info about a referenced volume. I certainly mean no offense to the folks who have developed Special:BookSources. For individuals who want a wealth of information and dozens of sources for a text, I see the value. However, that description likely applies to less than 5% (my guesstimate) of Wikipedia customers. The rest of us simply want to click once and discover basic information about a book. In some instances while editing I have dutifully included the ISBN magic link, but I also add a reference to the Google Books page, although I fear that other editors will disapprove of this practice. (No evidence of such at this time, just a hunch). - Mark D Worthen PsyD 07:43, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

@Markworthen: Special:BookSources is, for the most part, a list of external links. What happens when you click those links is outside our control. Are there any specific ones that are consistently giving trouble? If so, we can look at fixing or removing them. Are the descriptions on our page misleading - we can amend if we have details. Or is it that the page layout is not ideal? Suggestions to change it are welcome. --Redrose64 (talk) 12:07, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

I suggest analyzing the page from a usability perspective. Mark D Worthen PsyD 17:14, 12 April 2014 (UTC)

Specific suggestion:

• Move "For assistance, see Help:ISBN" to the very first paragraph, so that it is the third sentence of that paragraph.
• Move the "Online text" section up, so that it is above the world map.
• Eliminate the heading, "Online text", and replace it with the following text (without a heading):

Quick Result: Find this book on Google Books or find this book on Amazon.com (or .ca, .cn, .de, .fr, .it, .jp, .uk). Google Books and Amazon.com are particularly helpful if you want to verify citations in Wikipedia articles, because they usually enable you to search an online version of the book for specific words or phrases, or you can browse through the book (although for copyright reasons the entire book is usually not available). Important: Google Books and Amazon.com provide valuable information about a book, but they might not give you the specifics you need. Consult the resources below for other ways to locate the info you need. You might want to start with the map below: Click on your region to jump to country-specific databases, search engines, and guides. Click on any "Find this book" link to discover information about the book for which you searched (when you entered its ISBN number in the search box above).

Keep everything else on the page the same. --Mark D Worthen PsyD 08:29, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

I moved the thread to the appropriate page so that others may discuss it. --Redrose64 (talk) 10:24, 14 April 2014 (UTC)

Corrected search url for Richland County Public Library

The search URL for the Richland County Public Library has changed.

Currently Wikipedia:Book_sources points to: http://myrcpl.ipac.sirsidynix.net/ipac20/ipac.jsp?menu=search&aspect=basic_search&index=ISBNEX&term=MAGICNUMBER

It has been changed again to: http://catalog.richlandlibrary.com/polaris/view.aspx?isbn=MAGICNUMBER

Please update the code to the following:

South Carolina

• Find this book in the Richland County, South Carolina Public Library (Columbia, South Carolina) system catalog

Jwilliek (talk) 14:42, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Done --Redrose64 (talk) 17:14, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Jwilliek (talk) 12:27, 19 May 2014 (UTC)

Internet Book Database

Concerns regarding 'Internet Book Database' current functioning state and usefulness as a Wikipedia Book_source(MAGICNUMBER) link: It seems like this site is either no longer maintained or has very little current content. (7 days ago and just now, with similar results) I searched for various books by title and ISBN, obscure, mainstream, fiction, non-fiction, titles from Oprah's book club, etc, most queries returned a hit but provided useless data as results. Data provided usually included, but not always: popularity (stars), rank, series, a user review, and affiliate-links to various places to purchase the book. Data one would expect to find that is missing: title! (when searched by ISBN), author, publisher, year published, number of pages, media format, editors, subject matter. Even the items linked to from the "whats popular this week" widget are void of content. Internet Book Database is not a bibliographic data provider (anymore, or perhaps never was?). As far as I can tell 'Internet Book Database' simply attempts to drive traffic to affiliate sites and is of no use to Wikipedia users as a link in the Special_Pages:Book_sources. Am I wrong? Did I catch them at a bad moment? Is there some site news I'm not aware of? I suggest removing it. Feel free to ignore or delete this if I'm missing something obvious / it's just not done that way. Msonni (talk) 06:07, 19 May 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 2 July 2014 to change the safaribooksonline search url.

Please change

• Find this book at O'Reilly Safari Books Online

to

• Find this book at O'Reilly Safari Books Online

because... the first link results in a "Page not found" error on the Safari Books Online website when looking for an ISBN that is not in their library. Using the updated link with the query string parameter will result in a search results page, the intended destination of the link. For example try going to http://my.safaribooksonline.com/0394470362 vs. http://my.safaribooksonline.com/search?q=0394470362, since that book is not found, the new link would resolve to a search results page with zero results, which I think is more appropriate than a 404ish page. An example of a book that is in their library will work both ways: http://my.safaribooksonline.com/9782212134179 and http://my.safaribooksonline.com/search?q=9782212134179, although the first page goes directly to the book's page instead of showing the search results. Crisnoble (talk) 17:50, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

Done Thanks!  NQ  talk 20:45, 2 July 2014 (UTC)

correct Burnaby link

The "find this book" link for "Burnaby Public Library" should be like:

http://burnaby.bibliocommons.com/search?custom_query=identifier%3A(ISBN_NUMBER)&suppress=true&custom_edit=false

Where "ISBN_NUMBER" is replaced by the ISBN number. ;)

208.91.115.12 (talk) 20:10, 14 August 2014 (UTC)

I'm about to correct this, but I'm wondering if there's a preference for the old or new catalogues of the libraries. As far as I can tell, the information on the two are still identical, and I'm not aware of any plans to completely phase out the old Horizon catalogs. I know this is the case for Vancouver Public Library as well. Does anyone have an answer for this? vortexcube (talk) 00:00, 6 November 2015 (UTC)

Edit request, 6.7.8 Estonia

6.7.8 Estonia

should be now

Find this book / http://www.ester.ee/search*est/i?SEARCH=MAGICNUMBER / on Ester, the catalogue of ELNET's / http://www.elnet.ee / libraries

Please remove Tallinn and Tartu lines.

Kaljukask (talk) 07:36, 28 August 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 24 March 2015

Hi. I'm a librarian from the University of Alberta, in Canada. I've had a request to add our library to this list of links. The code to add in the "Colleges and Universities" section for Canada is:

• Find this book in the University of Alberta Libraries catalogue

Thanks.

Redlib (talk) 21:19, 24 March 2015 (UTC)

Done Stickee (talk) 00:10, 25 March 2015 (UTC)

Portugal links update

links to pordata.org aren't working and should point to http://porbase.bnportugal.pt/

Magpt (talk) 16:40, 31 March 2015 (UTC)

Not done: I can't find any links to pordata.org in the article... Kharkiv07^Talk 20:42, 31 March 2015 (UTC)

Please add a Spanish-language Amazon site

In the section "Online text", the "Find this book on Amazon.com" entry, please add a link to a Spanish-language Amazon site within the parentheses.

I am currently fixing broken ISBNs. After a fix, I always verify through the "Book sources" page. Many ISBN errors relate to Spanish-language publications. Adding a link to a Spanish-language Amazon site would greatly assist my efforts.

Moreover, Spanish is so widely spoken that it deserves this link. Knife-in-the-drawer (talk) 04:16, 23 May 2015 (UTC)

This is the English Wikipedia, not the Spanish Wikipedia. If your intention is to verify that an ISBN is correct, consider looking at the entries for Spanish libraries; there are several listed under Wikipedia:Book sources#Spain. --Redrose64 (talk) 12:19, 23 May 2015 (UTC)

@Redrose64:Yet the current "Find this book on Amazon.com" entry includes .cn, .de, .fr, .it, .jp. There are more Spanish speakers in the world than all of those languages except .cn. I know about the entries for Spanish libraries, but I still think that a Spanish-language Amazon site should be added to the "Book sources" page. Knife-in-the-drawer (talk) 05:13, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

What is the base URL, and what are the query string parameters? Of the seven country-specific links that we have presently, only four (.ca .cn .fr .it) have a common format. Two (.jp and .uk) have a base URL that includes .co where the others don't; one (.de) uses the field-keywords= parameter where the others use field-isbn=; and one (.jp) doesn't have the search-alias=stripbooks parameter. --Redrose64 (talk) 10:57, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

Hi, @Redrose64:. Here's the most thorough (i.e. most parameters) example that I could find for you...and it works. :-)

http://www.amazon.es/s/ref=sr_adv_b?search-alias=stripbooks&unfiltered=1&__mk_es_ES=%C5M%C5Z%D5%D1&field-keywords=the+player+of+games+%7C+El+jugador&field-author=iain+m.+banks&field-title=&field-isbn=&field-publisher=&node=&field-feature_browse-bin=&field-binding_browse-bin=&field-dateop=&field-datemod=&field-dateyear=&sort=&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.x=62&Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.y=12

Knife-in-the-drawer (talk) 06:07, 28 May 2015 (UTC)

From that, it appears that the base URL is http://www.amazon.es/s/ref=sr_adv_b (which is a bit more complicated than any of the others) and the parameter search-alias=stripbooks is the same as one of those used in most of the others. The field-isbn= is also shown in most of the others, but you've not given it a value here; I assume that filling this with MAGICNUMBER will work. Some of your parameters, e.g. field-author=iain+m.+banks, are clearly irrelevant to most books, such as all of those not written by Iain M. Banks. I don't know what the other parameters are for: the blank ones can almost certainly be omitted, but what might the following be? unfiltered=1 __mk_es_ES=%C5M%C5Z%D5%D1 Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.x=62 Adv-Srch-Books-Submit.y=12 --Redrose64 (talk) 09:49, 28 May 2015 (UTC)

So we strip it down, try an actual ISBN, and presto:

http://www.amazon.es/s/ref=sr_adv_b?search-alias=stripbooks&field-isbn=9788866311836

It works...but will it pass the @Redrose64: test? :-) Knife-in-the-drawer (talk) 11:48, 28 May 2015 (UTC)

OK, I added that. --Redrose64 (talk) 13:45, 28 May 2015 (UTC)

Update Calgary Public Library link

Please check the following URLs to the Calgary Public Library replacing "MAGICNUMBER" with an ISBN number.

   https://catalogue.calgarypubliclibrary.com/uhtbin/cgisirsi/HXXeiU5H5H/CENT/217030043/5/0?srchfield1=020^^^^isbn&searchdata1=MAGICNUMBER old
   http://calgary.bibliocommons.com/search?custom_query=identifier%3A%289780143170099%29 new

I want to be sure that this replacement will work. Thank you in advance. 205.206.19.101 (talk) 01:22, 4 June 2015 (UTC)

Done --ElHef (Meep?) 13:35, 2 July 2015 (UTC)

Edit request McMaster University

Please change the current link for McMaster University:

http://morris.mcmaster.ca/ipac20/ipac.jsp?index=ISBN&term=xxxxxxxxxx

to:

https://catalogue.mcmaster.ca/catalogue/Search/Results?lookfor=ISBNGOESHERE&type=ISN&submit=Find

replacing ISBNGOESHERE with the ISBN value.

dswikia (talk) 16:17, 12 June 2015 (UTC)

Done --ElHef (Meep?) 15:27, 2 July 2015 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 27 June 2015

Please Add Find Book on ebcwebstore.com under Individual Book Seller Category. It is one of the Largest Law Book store online. Please Add India as It will be easy for people searching ISBN & Books from India. Priyadarshivishal23 (talk) 10:22, 27 June 2015 (UTC)

Not done for now: I'm inclined to deny this outright since it seems to be far more a bookseller than a search tool, but I'm having trouble really getting a good feel for the website since it renders horribly in my browser. Please provide a demonstration URL/link of how it could be used to search by ISBN and explain how the website can be used other than just as a bookstore. Thanks, --ElHef (Meep?) 15:36, 2 July 2015 (UTC)

I see that a net total of two links have been added after many edits by Priyadarshivishal23 (talk · contribs) and subsequent cleanup by Mean as custard (talk · contribs) JohnBlackburne (talk · contribs) and Ebyabe (talk · contribs). Despite the actions of the latter three, the new links do nothing useful - to conform with the purpose of this page, they should pass the ISBN through as a search term, but they do not. The British Council link is merely a front page, and whilst the National Library of India link does go to screen headed "ISBN Number", the user is still expected to key in the number themselves. --Redrose64 (talk) 16:04, 3 July 2015 (UTC)

Yes, on looking at them neither works as necessary for the page. The British Council site does generate a URL we can use:

http://www.library.britishcouncil.org.in/cgi-bin/koha/opac-search.pl?q=MAGICNUMBER&idx=nb

but I tried it with half a dozen popular and India related titles and got no results. Unless I was very unlucky it's either not working or the libraries are rather small.--JohnBlackburne^words_deeds 17:00, 3 July 2015 (UTC)

I was able to get the above British Council link to work with ISBN #0471927376 (went into the site, found a book they had, and reverse engineered). No idea as to the size or quality of the library, though. ‑ElHef (Meep?) 18:40, 3 July 2015 (UTC)

Australasia and Oceania

The section heading of Australasia and Oceania should be changed to Oceania. Australasia is part of Oceania and all the other headings are for continents. 203.109.161.2 (talk) 03:22, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

Not done: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{edit semi-protected}} template. But there's nothing from outside Aus & NZ,perhaps it should be Australasia. Discuss. Bazj (talk) 13:03, 12 July 2015 (UTC)

• Surely, since all the other headings are arranged by continent, there is no reason to make an exception for Oceania even though there are only libraries listed for Australasia? Australia is only a subset of Oceania. There should be consistency with something of this nature. 203.109.161.2 (talk) 06:00, 16 July 2015 (UTC)

The problem is there is no clear definition of Oceania

"Opinions of what constitutes Oceania range from its three subregions of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia to, more broadly, the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago.
The term is often used more specifically to denote a continent comprising Australia and proximate islands or biogeographically as a synonym for either the Australasian ecozone (Wallacea and Australasia) or the Pacific ecozone (Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia apart either from New Zealand or from mainland New Guinea)"

- Arjayay (talk) 08:21, 16 July 2015 (UTC)

This part of the quote "The term is often used more specifically to denote a continent comprising Australia and proximate islands..." and usage on Wikipedia and elsewhere means that Oceania rather than Australasia should be the heading. Surely consistency is important for Wikipedia? 203.109.161.2 (talk) 08:53, 16 July 2015 (UTC)

First consensus, only then use answered=no. (I set it to answered=yes for now) --Jeremyb (talk) 06:02, 20 July 2015 (UTC)

University of Pisa new catalog url

The University of Pisa, Italy catalog url should be http://aleph-sba.unipi.it/F/?func=find-b&find_code=ISBN&request=YOUR_ISBN_CODE 131.114.239.243 (talk) 08:30, 29 September 2015 (UTC)

Done -- Sam Sailor ^Talk! 10:09, 30 September 2015 (UTC)

@Sam Sailor: This edit won't work. It doesn't have MAGICNUMBER which is how we feed an ISBN into the external site. --Redrose64 (talk) 10:58, 30 September 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for correcting that, Redrose64. Best, -- Sam Sailor ^Talk! 11:03, 30 September 2015 (UTC)

I didn't. Have done now though. --Redrose64 (talk) 19:35, 30 September 2015 (UTC)

Update Saskatchewan Information and Library Services Consortium Link

The new catalog search is at http://search.sasklibraries.ca/ The system was updated with new software on September 29, 2015 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.167.166.39 (talk) 01:34, 11 October 2015 (UTC)

Done The link has been updated. Blainster (talk) 02:11, 12 October 2015 (UTC)

Bol.com

The search function for bol.com does not work, but I dunno how to correct it. Can anybody help? Andries (talk) 16:48, 15 November 2015 (UTC)

Works fine now. No more help is needed. Andries (talk) 23:50, 15 November 2015 (UTC)

Library of Congress link is obsolete

E.g. the example's Special:BookSources/0-14-020652-3#United States has Find this book on the United States Library of Congress catalog, but Pwebrecon.cgi redirects to legacy.html which displays

You have requested access to the legacy interface for the LC Online Catalog, which was retired on December 1, 2015.
You will be automatically redirected to the current interface within 60 seconds.
To convert legacy canned search queries (i.e. contains "/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi") for use with the current interface, please consult the LC Online Catalog canned search links help page.

The redirection doesn't fill in the form with the ISBN.

The replacement is something like
catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchCode=STNO&searchArg=ISBN_NUMBER&searchType=1&recCount=25, I'm not sure about what the old URL's HIST=1 parameter did.

(The sample ISBN 0-14-020652-3 in Help:ISBN doesn't work at the Library of Congress, nor does ISBN 0-306-81067-0 in Kind of Blue, but I think I was just unlucky with those ISBNs.)

-- Skierpage (talk) 03:27, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

Partially implemented?? I wuz Bold and fixed both the Library of Congress links, e.g. ISBN 1-84-317523-1, can an expert verify my edit? Thanks! -- Skierpage (talk) 03:50, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

I changed the search code from STNO to ISBL to narrow the search to just ISBNs but otherwise your changes look (and work) right. Here are some examples:

• ISBN 0-312-85564-8
• ISBN 978-0-312-85564-2
• ISBN 1-84-317523-1
• ISBN 978-1-84317-523-0

Notice it finds the record even when an ISBN-13 is used but is not in the result record (but it does not highlight the search hit then). Thanks! Uzume (talk) 03:10, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 4 January 2016

Please change these two urls:

• Find this book in the Texas A&M University General Libraries library catalog
• Find this book in the Texas A&M University Medical Sciences Library library catalog

to

https://libcat.tamu.edu/vwebv/search?searchArg1=MAGICNUMBER&argType1=all&searchCode1=ISBN&combine2=and&searchArg2=&argType2=all&searchCode2=GKEY&combine3=and&searchArg3=&argType3=all&searchCode3=GKEY&year=&fromYear=&toYear=&location=all&place=all&type=all&medium=all&language=all&recCount=50&searchType=2&page.search.search.button=Search Find this book] in the Texas A&M University General Libraries library catalog https://chiron.tamu.edu/vwebv/search?searchArg1=MAGICNUMBER&argType1=all&searchCode1=ISBN&combine2=and&searchArg2=&argType2=all&searchCode2=GKEY&combine3=and&searchArg3=&argType3=all&searchCode3=GKEY&year=&fromYear=&toYear=&location=all&place=all&type=all&medium=all&language=all&recCount=50&searchType=2&page.search.search.button=Search Find this book] in the Texas A&M University Medical Sciences Library library catalog

respectively. Correcting urls to the current syntax

128.194.86.30 (talk) 21:05, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

• Done Thank you. --Majora (talk) 02:24, 9 January 2016 (UTC)

Proposed usability change

I've been doing some work on cleaning up this page, but it still strikes me as being on the overwhelming side for readers. I've had a go at a redesign to make it a little less daunting: see proposal here. Anyone have any objections or other thoughts? Nikkimaria (talk) 22:10, 24 February 2016 (UTC)

I'm not really sure what the mockup is showing. Are you proposing hiding some sections by default, with a "show" button? While I'd prefer that myself, there are many who dislike such layouts, especially on wp:Accessibility grounds. I suspect that for screen readers this page is pretty much unusable already, but an opinion from an actual user would be helpful. LeadSongDog come howl! 14:55, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

Yes - it's using a mobile-friendly collapse which should minimize any potential issues on that front. Nikkimaria (talk) 19:27, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

I've gone ahead and implemented this - any feedback welcome. Nikkimaria (talk) 02:28, 4 March 2016 (UTC)

Shelfari shut down

Shelfari shut down months ago so it really should be removed as a book source. SL93 (talk) 22:50, 26 March 2017 (UTC)

Georgia - PINES statewide public library catalog

Please add a link under Georgia (US) for the PINES Statewide Public Library Catalog. The link should be:

http://gapines.org/eg/opac/results?contains=contains&_special=1&detail_record_view=0&qtype=identifier%7Cisbn&query=MAGICNUMBER&locg=1

Tmccanna (talk) 14:45, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

Why not just http://gapines.org? Rivertorch^FIRE_WATER 16:26, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

Pinging @Tmccanna: for response. JTP ^{(talk • contribs)} 18:57, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

The links on this page are all configured to pass through an ISBN (MAGICNUMBER) in the format their online catalogs will accept, so this one is tooTmccanna (talk) 19:16, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

Example:

Georgia

• Find this book in the PINES Statewide Public Library catalog

Tmccanna (talk) 19:21, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

 Done, thanks for your suggestion. Altamel (talk) 05:03, 23 May 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 19 September 2017

Yikes something went wrong! The text of my edit request seems to have vanished

I had it all nice and clicked "preview" and all looked good so I clicked "save". But it disappeared. I will have to re-figure out what changes were needed and re-submit my change request. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tatielane (talk • contribs) 14:51, 20 September 2017 (UTC)

Tatielane (talk) 07:49, 20 September 2017 (UTC)

Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format. DRAGON BOOSTER ★ 10:49, 20 September 2017 (UTC)

This is ridiculous, it did it again. It was a lot easier when I could just edit the links myself rather than having to navigate the perils of a "submit request" page. Tatielane (talk) 15:18, 20 September 2017 (UTC)

Cranfield University new URL links

Europe > UK > Universities > Cranfield University has a new discovery interface and the URLs need to be updated.

FROM

• Find this book at Cranfield University

TO

• Find this book on the Cranfield University library catalogue

Tatielane (talk) 15:07, 20 September 2017 (UTC)

Done SparklingPessimist ^{Scream at me!} 15:41, 20 September 2017 (UTC)