I bought Bookpedia a while ago, but am just starting to use it to catalog a pile of books I want to put into storage.
I've looked as hard as I could at the software, and I did a search here, but couldn't find anything, so here are a couple of questions and a feature request if it's really not there.
Is there really no field marked 'Copyright' for the copyright date. Therefore is there no automatic download of copyright date? From any of the servers?
Therefore if we need the copyright date, we have to insert it manually into a custom field? The 'release date' is the print date for a particular edition, not the copyright date (and often the edition I have isn't the one they have a picture for, since companies re-release popular books with new covers to try to fool us into buying multiple copies).
If so, how does the MLA format bibliography advertised on the Bruji homepage work? Doesn't it need the copyright date?
If I've overlooked something obvious, and my question is stupid, I apologise, and I'll be delighted, but I really looked hard.
My purpose is for bibliographies, and also to sort series of books by one author by date of writing (e.g. detective story series).
Thanks.
Copyright Info
Unfortunately Amazon nor the other databases we use carry the copyright information for the book. You would have to enter it by hand. As you suggested a custom field is a good idea for this; however a few users overwrite the release date for the copyright as they prefer the copyright date. I would suggest doing this as the copyright date is more important to you, and move the release date to a custom field. (The disadvantage of a custom field for a date is they sort as words and not dates, you could also use an unused date field that you don't plan to use like sold on, last seen, or purchased on.)
The MLA asks for the publication date, so if you change the release date to the copyright date you won't be able to use thie feature in the correct format. (Drag and drop an entry with option held to a text editor to create the MLA bibliography as regular drag and drop creates a link back to Bookpedia.)
The MLA asks for the publication date, so if you change the release date to the copyright date you won't be able to use thie feature in the correct format. (Drag and drop an entry with option held to a text editor to create the MLA bibliography as regular drag and drop creates a link back to Bookpedia.)
Copyright and other things
Thank you for that helpful reply.
I still think it would be a good idea to have a field for copyright (as well as release date), even if it always has to be filled in by hand, for two reasons:
1. As in my case, I want to sort things by the order the author wrote them in, not the order that the particular editions I happen to have were published.
2. Also, when preparing more academic stuff, it's useful to know the order in which the multiple authors of different books or articles produced their ideas, and not the order of publication of the editions you happen to have.
I realise that publication date is necessary for citations as pagination differs in different editions. I've never used this MLA style, which seems to be an American college essay writing style, but I prefer the style which gives Author and Copyright date (or first publication date in the case of older works), and then the edition details including 'release date'.
In my current case, when I am cataloguing a few hundred detective stories and the like which I want to put away in boxes, many of the editions which show up on Amazon are not the one I have anyway, so the release date doesn't match mine, even though the ISBN is the same. I had always assumed that a new cover and new printing (sometimes with a different number of pages) got a new ISBN, but now I know it's not so.
By the way, doesn't the heading 'Release' seem to be left over from a CD database. Wouldn't 'Publication' seem more natural in English?
Anyway, I understand now. So thank you.
Amazon doesn't give place of publication either, so this would have to be entered by hand also. I have always thought this information lost any usefulness sometime in the mid-20th century, before I was born, and I try to avoid styles which need this also.
I still think it would be a good idea to have a field for copyright (as well as release date), even if it always has to be filled in by hand, for two reasons:
1. As in my case, I want to sort things by the order the author wrote them in, not the order that the particular editions I happen to have were published.
2. Also, when preparing more academic stuff, it's useful to know the order in which the multiple authors of different books or articles produced their ideas, and not the order of publication of the editions you happen to have.
I realise that publication date is necessary for citations as pagination differs in different editions. I've never used this MLA style, which seems to be an American college essay writing style, but I prefer the style which gives Author and Copyright date (or first publication date in the case of older works), and then the edition details including 'release date'.
In my current case, when I am cataloguing a few hundred detective stories and the like which I want to put away in boxes, many of the editions which show up on Amazon are not the one I have anyway, so the release date doesn't match mine, even though the ISBN is the same. I had always assumed that a new cover and new printing (sometimes with a different number of pages) got a new ISBN, but now I know it's not so.
By the way, doesn't the heading 'Release' seem to be left over from a CD database. Wouldn't 'Publication' seem more natural in English?
Anyway, I understand now. So thank you.
Amazon doesn't give place of publication either, so this would have to be entered by hand also. I have always thought this information lost any usefulness sometime in the mid-20th century, before I was born, and I try to avoid styles which need this also.
Thank you for the feedback; I think you are correct that Release should read Publication. You will find the Custom fields perfect to change into copyright. Forget everything I said about dates earlier (I tend to make my posts generic so they are useful to other readers); In your case only having a year will sort correctly even if it's not a date field. The date field is important for sorting when displaying a month or day.
Copyright date
Well, thank for the reply. Actually, I opened each book and put in the copyright date manually, as you said. The iSight worked really smoothly and saved huge amounts of time. After that, putting in the dates manually didn't seem too much of a problem, and the overall time was really quick, so I was very happy.
As for 'Release' being 'Publication' - if you look in the Bookpedia Help, you can find the following: "You can create a list of books, called a 'collection', to organize your books into different categories. You might want to create collections for specific directors, for different genres, or for your favorite actor."
I think you made DVDpedia first and modified the 'Help' for Bookpedia. Or maybe most of your users collect movie books only?
As for 'Release' being 'Publication' - if you look in the Bookpedia Help, you can find the following: "You can create a list of books, called a 'collection', to organize your books into different categories. You might want to create collections for specific directors, for different genres, or for your favorite actor."
I think you made DVDpedia first and modified the 'Help' for Bookpedia. Or maybe most of your users collect movie books only?
I can't actually find that part in the Bookpedia Help - which page did you see this on? Thanks.As for 'Release' being 'Publication' - if you look in the Bookpedia Help, you can find the following: "You can create a list of books, called a 'collection', to organize your books into different categories. You might want to create collections for specific directors, for different genres, or for your favorite actor."