When you post a book without an isbn #, does the system issue a one time #? If so, when you tag a book with that # and it gets sent to someone, does that empty tag just stay there forever? I/ve seen some books with over a dozen postings that have the short # listed that you get when you post that way.

When you post a book without an isbn #, does the system issue a one time #?

Yes

If so, when you tag a book with that # and it gets sent to someone, does that empty tag just stay there forever?

Yes, it seems to.

I/ve seen some books with over a dozen postings that have the short # listed that you get when you post that way.

Well, technically, people are not supposed to post a book to the "short" ISBN (besides the initial book that was issued that ISBN). But, some poeple do it, especially if the short ISBN already has a nice cover picture and a description. I don't think it hurts anything to re-use them, I just don't think that PBS really wants you to.

The problem seems to be with people that come in and see a book that is not in the system, and end up Wish Listing a short ISBN. That is pretty much guaranteed to not get them the book.

Quite a few of the short numbers are for books where the HB and the PB have the same ISBN.   It makes sense that those ones get reposted and reused.  But some are books that are never going to be posted again.  Or for vintage books that almost never get posted.

If you order a book that has a short "ISBN", and then later repost it from your bookshelf "hold" list, you'll be reusing the same number.  And I agree, not a good idea to wishlist short # books.  It can be a long wait.

I just found a book on someone's WL with one of those 5 digit ISBN.  There's 6 people in line for this book and 23 copies posted with the same cover under an actual ISBN and same binding.  I tagged it.

I wish PBS would just go through and purge them from the database every so often-not the ones where a book is actually posted into the system. But all the ones with none-available. They could send out a  mass email saying they are going to  do it so people can look for those books in the system.  Most of the time when I see them WL like that-they are readily available under various ISBNs and bindings.

Mary L,

I suspect one of the reasons why they don't remove the old listings is because it would totally mess up the Transaction Archive, if you have ever requested or received one of these. Or if you have some on a Reminder List, Or Books I've Read, etc.

I was wishing they would remove them too, but then when I started thinking about it, I realized they probably can't.

Yeah you are probably right.  Plus it doesn't effect me in anyway if someone wants to waste WL space wishing for one of those.  Unless of course I have one of the 200 copies of the available that looks exactly the same. 

It's just one of those little annoying things.

My question is why do these short ISBNs show up on the author page list when the real one does not?  That is when I get frustrated. 

I do try and change author's names to be the same whenever I notice it.  But some are already the same, just not indexing.

Someone has started tagging the short numbers.  At least this brings attention to them when I'm browsing.

Emily,

I've noticed the same thing many times. I also fix it if I see a difference in it, but there are many, many books that don't show up for some reason. I've learned pretty quickly that if I wanted to find all the editions of a book, I need to search for it by title rather than look under the authors page list. It is annoying, though.

I've been tagging the short PBS numbers-maybe it's mine you've seen. Although it wouldn't suprise me if someone else is doing it as well. 

I'm sending a book to someone this week who has one of those 5 digit ones on their WL.  I looked and there's 20+ copies of it in the same binding in the system. I was tempted to PM but I didn't.  There's 6 people in line for the book that will probably never be posted.

I think when I first joined, I'd see a title I wanted and would wish list every copy of that title available.  Later (when my WL started getting full) I realized I'd wish listed some short ISBNs.  By that time in most cases I'd received a copy of the book already.  So I figure a lot of people who wish list those short ISBNs probably have a real ISBN WLed too, or have already received the book long ago.

Most annoying are short ISBN's for books that haven't even been released yet.  An impatient member gave it a number and now dozens of other members think they are on the real wishlist   I've seen a handfull of these.