[Koha] AmazonContent-- Hit and Miss?

[Max Crowe]

Thanks for everyone's help on this issue, although I'm still struggling to
figure out what's actually happening.  To respond to questions and
suggestions:

1) I am entering the ISBN without any hyphens or spaces.

2) We are talking about books for which the ISBN shouldn't have been
reissued.

Let's take the book "Chasing Harry Winston" by Lauren Weisberger, for
example.  Below is the MARC record in our catalog:

LDR 01080cam a22002894a 4500
001 2008006696
003 DLC
005 20080807154700.0
008 080214s2008 nyu 000 1 eng
010 _a 2008006696
020 _a9780743290111 :
  _c$25.95
020 _a0743290119 :
  _c$25.95
035 _a(NjBwBT)bt2008012287
040 _aDLC
  _cDLC
  _dDLC
  _dNjBwBT
043 _an-us-ny
069 _a09912362
082 14 _aFIC
  _214
090 _aF WEI
100 1 _aWeisberger, Lauren,
  _d1977-
245 10 _aChasing Harry Winston /
  _cLauren Weisberger.
260 _aNew York :
  _bSimon & Schuster,
  _cc2008.
300 _a280 p. ;
  _c25 cm.
520 _aMaking a pact that they will change the things that most challenge
them within a year's time, Manhattan friends Emmy, Leigh, and Adriana shed
their downtrodden identities in order to pursue the high life.
852 1 _hF WEI
  _p34710000092498
  _808132008
  _9P25.95usd
935 _a08122008
999 _c11785
  _d11785
952 _w2008-08-20
  _p34710000092498
  _r2008-08-20
  _40
  _00
  _6F_WEI
  _911817
  _bNDPL
  _10
  _oF WEI
  _d2008-08-20
  _8FIC
  _70
  _c5
  _2ddc
  _yBOOK
  _aNDPL

Which does not retrieve an Amazon image or review.  Of course, Amazon has
all this info.  You can see it all at the page:

http://www.amazon.com/Chasing-Harry-Winston-Lauren-Weisberger/dp/0743290119/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219350647&sr=8-1

And if you look at the revelent portion of the page--

Product Details
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 27, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0743290119
ISBN-13: 978-0743290111
Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches

--you can see that Amazon has the same ISBN numbers that I do!  This is a
book that came out in late May-- so I can't imagine what's going on here.
 Why are some of my items correctly interfacing with Amazon, while others
aren't?  I've honestly been pouring over MARC records trying to figure out
the "magic" difference between books that retrieve hits on Amazon, and books
that don't.   But I'm stumped-- what am I missing?

And are other libraries having similar issues, here?  Or is it just me?

Max
On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 7:09 PM, Joe Atzberger <ohiocore at gmail.com> wrote:

> The Amazon images are retrieved by ISBN, so you might want to check your
> ISBNs against the hits you get at Amazon.  With older items, the likelihood
> of having been issued and reissued under multiple ISBNs is rather high.
>
> I'll leave the question of where to catalog ISBNs for others to address.
>
> --joe
>
> On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 5:23 PM, Max Crowe <newdurhamlibrary at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Hi:
>>
>> I'm a Library Director at a small library in New Hampshire.  We just
>> started using Koha (3.00.00.107), and we're using the AmazonContent
>> function to have our catalog pick up book covers and reviews from Amazon.
>> It works, but I can't help but notice that the hit rate for the interface is
>> rather low-- there's a large number of items in our collection for which we
>> aren't getting any book covers or reviews.  This would be expected,
>> certainly, for some of the older and more esoteric things in our
>> collection.  But I'm finding that even as I catalog new items-- Love the One
>> You're With by Emily Griffin, for example-- they also aren't getting any
>> hits from Amazon.  (And, if you search Amazon, you can easily find the book
>> cover and reviews.)
>>
>> Are any other libraries using this function?  If so, what sort of hit/miss
>> ratio are you getting?  Is there some field I should be using when
>> cataloging to ensure this function works better?
>>
>> Max Crowe,
>> Library Director
>> New Durham Public Library
>>
>
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