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March 16, 2017 7:05 AM Subscribe
Is it possible for me to feed my entire Amazon wishlist into my city's library catalogue to see which books are in the library?
I have a long Amazon wishlist. I frequently look books up on my local library system to see if they are in the library. I would like to be able to feed the whole list into the system in some way. My library uses Spydus. Here's an example of that in North Ayrshire's library catalogue.
Would be happy to put the Amazon list into text format first if that would help. Would also be happy to move across to keeping my wishlist on Goodreads or LibraryThing if that would work any better.
I have a long Amazon wishlist. I frequently look books up on my local library system to see if they are in the library. I would like to be able to feed the whole list into the system in some way. My library uses Spydus. Here's an example of that in North Ayrshire's library catalogue.
Would be happy to put the Amazon list into text format first if that would help. Would also be happy to move across to keeping my wishlist on Goodreads or LibraryThing if that would work any better.
Best answer: Try poking around Worldcat.org, which allows you to search for items across multiple library systems' catalogs. I know it allows you to look up books individually and see which libraries they're available at, and you can tell it to expand your search to include all editions/formats. Registered users can create lists, I haven't ever used this feature but there's a WorldCat API and support for third-party developers so it seems likely that someone somewhere has already figured out how to create a list by mass importing ISBNs or something.
posted by yeahlikethat at 8:39 AM on March 16, 2017
posted by yeahlikethat at 8:39 AM on March 16, 2017
Best answer: I think I have done this in WorldCat - but you need the list of ISBNs. Does Amazon let you download those? If not, there are some bookmarklets that I have saved that can grab at least some of them.
posted by soelo at 9:05 AM on March 16, 2017
posted by soelo at 9:05 AM on March 16, 2017
Best answer: I found this option Amazon Wishlist Exporter. I have not tried it myself
posted by soelo at 9:48 AM on March 16, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by soelo at 9:48 AM on March 16, 2017 [1 favorite]
There used to be a setting for this on Goodreads. I don't see it in the mobile app but if you're at a desktop, you could poke around and look for the library link option in settings.
posted by PaulaSchultz at 3:17 PM on March 16, 2017
posted by PaulaSchultz at 3:17 PM on March 16, 2017
I poked around WorldCat and did not find and easy way to do this. Goodreads has an option for you to add a link to your local library (and/or worldcat) to each individual Book profile page, but nothing en masse that I can see.
posted by soelo at 9:37 AM on March 17, 2017
posted by soelo at 9:37 AM on March 17, 2017
Response by poster: Thank you, everyone. I haven't tried WorldCat and Goodreads yet but will do so and report back if I have any success. bluecore, thanks for your detailed answer. I looked at the Chrome extension and put a request for Spydus support, and have just heard back that they have had several other requests for it and hope to implement it in the next couple of weeks. So that may be the best solution for me.
posted by paduasoy at 5:02 PM on March 22, 2017
posted by paduasoy at 5:02 PM on March 22, 2017
Response by poster: The Chrome Library Extension has added my library following the request I put in! I'm very excited by their speedy response and support and have started to use the extension with my Amazon list.
I registered with WorldCat and you can create lists as yeahlikethat says. It doesn't look like it's possible to import existing lists, even with ISBNs. If I didn't have an existing list I *think* this would work for me in the future but it is a bit fiddly to use - I couldn't see a way of adding multiple editions easily.
The Amazon list exporter is handy, thank you soelo. It does give the ISBN of the item you have on your list (not of other editions of course) and also some other helpful information like the date the item was added and any comments you have recorded.
Haven't looked at Goodreads yet but will do.
posted by paduasoy at 12:56 PM on April 4, 2017
I registered with WorldCat and you can create lists as yeahlikethat says. It doesn't look like it's possible to import existing lists, even with ISBNs. If I didn't have an existing list I *think* this would work for me in the future but it is a bit fiddly to use - I couldn't see a way of adding multiple editions easily.
The Amazon list exporter is handy, thank you soelo. It does give the ISBN of the item you have on your list (not of other editions of course) and also some other helpful information like the date the item was added and any comments you have recorded.
Haven't looked at Goodreads yet but will do.
posted by paduasoy at 12:56 PM on April 4, 2017
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On the library end, they don't usually offer API access to outside applications, so it's difficult to do multiple automated searches.
On the Amazon end, the ISBN is frequently used for searching, but different editions have different ISBNs. So you might be happy reading the library edition or the paperback or the large print, but the book on your Amazon Wishlist is only one edition with one ISBN.
There is a Chrome browser extension that allows you to see if a specific book (not an entire wishlist) on Amazon is in your library, but Spydus/ North Ayrshire doesn't appear to be supported.
posted by bluecore at 7:34 AM on March 16, 2017 [2 favorites]