Hi, all,

I have a few books on my bookshelf that do not offer a description and I'd like to add one (from Amazon, etc.)  How do I do it?

Thanks!

From the Help Center:

You can very easily submit the correct information to our Data Correction volunteers as follows:

• Scroll to the bottom of any page on the site
• Click the Member Tools link
• Click the "Edit Book Data" link
• Enter the ISBN on the book
• Click Yes-> on the next screen to confirm this is the correct book
• On the next screen, fill out/correct the information there, leaving all correct information in place
  • there is also a text box at the top of the page in which you can make any comments for the approver to see
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Submit .
• Your submissions will need to be reviewed and approved by our Data Correction approval volunteers; this may take a few days.  The volunteers do these approvals as they can, and sometimes verifying ONE data correction is a labor-intensive process.

You can also find the 'Edit Book Data' from the 'More Options' button in the Book Details Page (which is the page that has the title, author, description, etc.)

I use the Edit More Data on the listing page.  I also look to see if there are any measurements made on the listing page.  I had a book last night to buy PBS postage before I package it up.  Guess what this paperback book's weight is listed as???  14.40 pounds!!  Really!  No way.  Glad I have my own postal scale - it weighs 1 pound.  I sent in a data correction but it's still listed at 14.40 pounds. 

Ruth

thanks!!

All the data changes get reviewed by a volunteer before being entered.  So there is often a delay before what you entered gets uploaded.  It will help the volunteers if you tell where you found the data.

I sent in a data correction but it's still listed at 14.40 pounds. 

As mentioned above (emphasis is mine): Your submissions will need to be reviewed and approved by our Data Correction approval volunteers; this may take a few days.  The volunteers do these approvals as they can, and sometimes verifying ONE data correction is a labor-intensive process.

That's why it's good to add a link to the Amazon page is the weight is similar or even mention that you weighed the book yourself. I find that whenever I  explain the reason for the edit and add links as to where I found the info, the edit is done quicker.

But it's a good reminder to also check out if the weight seems in the ballpark whenver we are submitting any other edits.

Yes, I do a lot of data edits.  In this case the only thing wrong was the weight which I did on my own postal scale.  And I know the volunteers are inundated at times.  I had no links or I would have put them there.  Considering that this is a VERY popular book right now with WL's up into the 1000's, I hope they can approve it soon.  I wasn't complaining about it, just noting it.

I also highly recommend everyone who sends out books regularly get their own postal scale.  It can pay for itself very quickly. ;D

Ruth

And not one single data approver has spoken - until now.  Currently we have several people on vacation and the numbers of edits are hanging in at about 100 even though we do try to approve throughout the day.  About two weeks ago we had almost 700 - that's not a typo - edits to check and approve. 

We're supposed to look over the entire edit and verify the information, make any corrections and additions then approve.

Phew, I'm exhausted.

I submit a lot of edits and I try to fill in and correct as much as posible when I submit. This helps cut down on the number of data edits they get.  Sometimes they get done right away and other times it takes a while.  You just have to be patient. 

Just to note that each data edit submitted by members is reviewed by an approver, and the information submitted is verified, and approvers take time out to fix the rest of the data while they have it in front of them, so even if you just correct the weight on a book, the approver will need to go in and research any blank fields still remaining on the edit to add a description, add the book dimensions, number of pages, publishing date, etc.  These can really add up time-wise to an approver's workload if these fields are left blank, and delay all the rest of the submissions waiting in line for approval.

We don't just go in and only look at the data submitted for the book.  We look at the entire data edit when doing approvals. 

We do appreciate all data submissions, as we'd like the PBS listings to be as accurate as possible,  However, we approvers are MOST THANKFUL to the members who submit thorough and complete edit submissions.  And as someone above noted, noting the sources you've used helps us out a lot when verifying and/or looking for more information.

The whole point here, for me anyway, was to get a description of the book put on there.  I know many times I've looked at member's bookshelves and the descriptions help me decide if I'd like to order more from that member to save them on shipping.  If I'm not in the browsing mood, I opt out of several titles that sound interesting but have no description for them.

PBS has stated in the past that orders are increased on a members shelf that has been updated and improved with full descriptions and images for their listings. And that's exactly the thing you pointed out, Amy, that if there are descriptions you are more likely to spend more time looking over their shelf to see if there's anything else you might be interested in. This is why we encourage people that aren't even on the data editing team to spend time making sure their own shelves are up to date, and to consider this a way to give back to PBS by working on others' shelves.

One of the ways people can help out is the current data & image editing project, called Time-Slots Project for Volunteers-part-time, occasional, once in a while.

We assign a time-slot for people to spend a couple minutes a day or week or month, whatever they can add to the project. No one ever checks up on how much time is spent by you, and there is absolutely no minumum. We don't care if you can only do one or two edits a month. That's one or two edits that wouldn't have been done otherwise if you hadn't done them and we are grateful for even the one or two. We ask that you do as complete a job as possible when you do an edit, find all the information you can. If you can't do images, then try to find a large one (at least 500px tall) and put the URL for the image in the reason for edit box on the edit page, and the approver will try to get the image and put it up for you.

I'm going to bump that topic up, so that if any of you are interested in volunteering you can find it, or you can click the link for it that I have above. We have other projects, if you are interested, simply drop me a PM and I'll tell you about them. You are always welcome, as I said, even if you only do a couple a week or month. We'd love to have you join us!

Sherry
PBS Book Data Correctors' Team Co-coordinator