Odd results in Published Date

shentar · 09-09-2013, 06:03 AM

I was attempting to get original date of publication into the Published Date field so I ticked the box in "Configured Download" to get this from worldcat.org.

Unfortunately this gave some very strange results. While many of the dates look correct I am pretty sure no star wars books were published in 1920, and absolutely certain nothing associated with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series was around in September 1100.

For a more practical example, "Robert Jordan - The Eye of the World" is reported as published Jan 2005. Worldcat has this as 1990. I'm not sure whether this is a bug in calibre or bad data reporting from worldcat, or indeed if I need to add additional configuration options (should there be a worldcat.org entry in my metadata sources?).

Any suggestions?

kovidgoyal · 09-09-2013, 09:20 AM

The way that works is the isbn for the book is queried in the worldcat database for all "related books" which means other editions paperback/hardback and so on and then the date of the first edition (the earliest date is chosen). Unfortunately, worldcat has lots of bogus data when it comes tofinding related books, so there is no bulletproof automatic way to do it. You just have to review the results manually.

shentar · 09-09-2013, 10:48 AM

OK, thanks again for the prompt reply. It is nice to know that I've not made a mistake and that the programme is working correctly. Just a shame worldcat is so messed up and that there isn't a reliable source for this sort of data.

09-09-2013, 06:03 AM	#1
shentar Member Posts: 22 Karma: 510 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: kindle	Odd results in Published Date I was attempting to get original date of publication into the Published Date field so I ticked the box in "Configured Download" to get this from worldcat.org. Unfortunately this gave some very strange results. While many of the dates look correct I am pretty sure no star wars books were published in 1920, and absolutely certain nothing associated with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series was around in September 1100. For a more practical example, "Robert Jordan - The Eye of the World" is reported as published Jan 2005. Worldcat has this as 1990. I'm not sure whether this is a bug in calibre or bad data reporting from worldcat, or indeed if I need to add additional configuration options (should there be a worldcat.org entry in my metadata sources?). Any suggestions?

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09-09-2013, 09:20 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,251 Karma: 27110894 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	The way that works is the isbn for the book is queried in the worldcat database for all "related books" which means other editions paperback/hardback and so on and then the date of the first edition (the earliest date is chosen). Unfortunately, worldcat has lots of bogus data when it comes tofinding related books, so there is no bulletproof automatic way to do it. You just have to review the results manually.

09-09-2013, 10:48 AM	#3
shentar Member Posts: 22 Karma: 510 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: kindle	OK, thanks again for the prompt reply. It is nice to know that I've not made a mistake and that the programme is working correctly. Just a shame worldcat is so messed up and that there isn't a reliable source for this sort of data.

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