Unable to add item with ISBN

Eric Weir
I've had Zotero in FF for a few years. Just starting to use it.

I have a document for which I have the ISBN. When I attempt to "add the item" using it, however, Zotero tells me it "can't find record for the identifier." At this point I don't have a clue what this means. Help please.

Thanks,

Eric Weir
  • adamsmith
    what's the ISBN? It might just not be in WorldCat (where Zotero looks it up).
  • Eric Weir
    It's 0-309-14579-1. However, since posting I managed to get the data for the item. I don't remember how at this point, except that it wasn't by using the ISBN. A lot of trial-and-error for me right now.

    Thanks,

    Eric Weir
  • adamsmith
    the item is not in worldcat - that's going to happen occasionally with this function, more often with DOIs than with ISBNs.
  • ajlyon
    The Library of Congress often has better results, but it doesn't have this ISBN either. Some searching reveals that it is a PDF-only report published by the National Academies Press (http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12780), and that page has embedded COinS, so Zotero can save it correctly. For some reason, however, that page indicates a slightly different ISBN.

    The ISBN lookup is pretty good -- the problem here is that the ISBN is assigned to something that was only ever published as a PDF, so it doesn't appear in most or any library catalogs.
  • Eric Weir
    Thanks for the followup on this. Yes, it was a letter/report of NRC group to the US Department of Education that somehow got published by, or identified as published by, the National Academies Press.

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