Bruji

I've recently been adding a huge library to Bookpedia, so have noticed several things I'd like to see improved, mainly with adding online records from Amazon and others.

Online Records
I would like to be able to preview the generated list of online records to see if there's one that matches my book - there's no way at present to tell as all you get is a list of titles, many of which are often wrong if there have been several reprints. I find myself having to choose one title, and each time one is wrong I have to start all over again. When you have a long list it also makes it hard to tell which ones you've already viewed.

At present, if you choose an online record and then choose a different one, the new record does not replace prior field information even if it is different. It would be nice if there was a way to compare the fields and have an interface that asks whether you want to replace the information on a field by field basis.

If I delete the url for an online book record, it doesn't automatically delete any information it has filled in on the record, which is what I had expected it to do. I have to clear those fields manually, and if this was an incorrect record, then I have to go through the entire thing otherwise the next record I choose will not fill anything into those fields.

Can alibris be added as an additional search? I find them quite good for rare book information.

Artwork
It would be a huge help to also be able to preview artwork in online records, as I find I have to click on a record just to get an idea if one, any artwork exists, and two, whether it's the right artwork. In a long list, I may have to click on 10 or 15 entries before I find the correct one.

I'd love to see a built-in Google image search that automatically inserts your current book title to search for missing cover art. 'Download Cover Art' seems to go to Amazon and grab one image - there's not a group to choose from.

When there's no image for an entry it would be nice if there was a default book image that displayed the title nicely for when you use cover flow.

ISBN codes
ISBN codes vary, depending on the year they were generated - it would be nice if Bookpedia would automatically rewrite older ISBN codes to make them standard.

Spellchecking
This would be a great feature, especially since I'm not the best typist.

Auto-fill
It seems that nearly all the fields except the title field will give you auto-fill suggestions - could we get those for the Title field too?

I find the auto-fill wonky - even when I specifically choose which items I want retained in the list, what shows isn't always consistent - it seems to behave more on a current session-basis rather than what's been previously saved.

Release
I don't always know the month of publication, and this field insists on putting it in - couldn't we have a field that will just accept the year? If you don't enter a month it defaults to whatever the last month used was, which doesn't seem particularly accurate.

Genre
Arts & Photography seems to be the default genre for a lot of online records, even though in most cases it isn't applicable - is this strictly an Amazon issue, or is it all of them? I find I have to go back through all my entries and delete them, unless they actually happen to be an arts and photography book.

Thanks!

Improving the get more information is already on our radar and one of our top priorities.

I have written to Alibris asking if they have a search API that we can use to integrate their information, but their affiliates program is run by LinkShare and they specialize in broader link back campaigns then in searchable databases with full data records available.

Built in cover search is an interesting idea, in the meantime you can add default links to a customized cover view that will search google. Take a look at this post for DVDpedia for details. Right clicking on an image from the results brings up a contextual menu that allows you to set the image as the cover for the selected book.

When there's no image for an entry it would be nice if there was a default book image that displayed the title nicely for when you use cover flow.

A great idea.

Bookpedia prefers the 13 digit EAN code most commonly prefixed with the bookland code 978, but it does not translate an ISBN-10 if the ISBN-13 is not listed, as rarely the translation might not be accurate. However, when using the filter field in Bookpedia any ISBN searches are automatically translated (a search on the 13 digit version will match it 10 digit counterpart and vice-versa). So having a mixture of ISBN types is not a problem for Bookpedia.

A lot of the other enhancements, such as the ability to mix dates with different granularity are on our to do list.
If you like to only display the year for release this can be set in the preference panel, to keep the month information but separate those that you do not know set the unknown month to January 1st. This will sort them at the beginning of the year and will make it clear that is an unknown release and not the default that Max OS X chooses when omitted.

Thank you for the detailed feedback.