magic wand new item adding doesn't work or works with errors

lerock
been trying to add some books by isbn identifiers, it either takes forever and ends up in error, or it adds some books with ??? signs instead of czech alphabet letters (which has never happened to me before). it's pretty much unsuable for me now, because I won't go and correct titles and author ?? signs for each bibliography, it will take me ages. plase do something about it.
  • adamsmith
    I'm not sure that's fixable. ISBN numbers don't have a central registry and Open WorldCat, on which Zotero relies, is not great for Eastern Europe and has notorious issues with non-ascii characters...

    Library catalogs are often a good/better alternative for adding books
  • AdeleEff
    edited December 20, 2021
    I am finding the same problem, adding ISBN from books on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc. Very often, the ISBN is not recognized, Magic Wand returns "Lookup Failed". Example: https://www.amazon.com/Psychiatrized-Waking-After-Decade-Medicine/dp/B099BXJWLT

    Could not add the book by URL via https://www.zotero.org/save, either.

    (The new Google Books has a helpful "create citation" function, example https://www.google.com/books/edition/_/5NiNzgEACAAJ?hl=en.)
  • adamsmith
    Same answer as above. E.g. the book you link to is ebook/audiobook only and independently published, so unlikely to be in library catalogs
  • AdeleEff
    However, Google can generate a citation from the existing information. This would be a good feature for Zotero, manual entry of item information being very time-consuming and frustrating.
  • dstillman
    edited December 21, 2021
    Zotero can obviously generate citations once there's an item with data in your library. We're explaining that there's no data available for that ISBN from the main sources of ISBN metadata, which is necessary for the Add Item by Identifier function.

    You can still save the item from Google Books, the same way you save from any webpage to Zotero. There's certainly no need for manual entry.
  • AdeleEff
    Zotero cannot scrape a Web page? I thought that's how https://www.zotero.org/save worked.

    The major booksellers and Amazon all have field formats for books.
  • dstillman
    edited December 21, 2021
    Of course Zotero can save from a webpage — that's the main point of the Add Items to Zotero page I linked to above, which explains the primary workflow for saving from Zotero: using the Zotero Connector to save to Zotero from your web browser. As I say, you can just save from the Google Books page you linked to above. I'm not sure why you seem to think that's not an option?

    This thread is about adding by ISBN using Add Item by Identifier or the /save page. That's a totally separate process from saving from a webpage. It relies on a number of databases that provide metadata for a given ISBN, and the book you listed above isn't available in those databases. The data available on Google Books is totally irrelevant in that case, because Zotero can't use that data in an automated fashion.

    Again, if you want to save the book above, just save from Google Books or Amazon. If you're copying ISBNs from supported webpages into Zotero, you're using Zotero wrong.
  • dstillman
    Could not add the book by URL via https://www.zotero.org/save, either
    @crabpaws: As for this, adding by URL to /save will work on most sites (e.g., most publisher sites or random webpages), but sites like Amazon and Google will intermittently block that. (E.g., the Amazon page worked for me a few minutes ago, and then returned generic data now.) That's unfortunately out of our control.
  • AdeleEff
    No, https://www.zotero.org/save did NOT derive a Zotero entry from the Amazon page or the Google page. I used Google Books's "create citation" function to download a Bibtex file.

    I was attempting a workaround when Add Item by Identifier didn't work.
  • dstillman
    You don't seem to actually be reading my responses. No one is suggesting using /save for saving from Amazon or Google.

    Once again, to save the book above, you just load the Amazon or Google page in your browser and click the Save to Zotero button, as you would any other webpage.
  • AdeleEff
    I'm using Safari. Awaiting the stable Zotero plug-in.
  • dstillman
    OK, but just know that that's not the standard Zotero experience. /save isn't a replacement for saving from the Zotero Connector — fewer sites will work, and Amazon and Google in particular are likely to block those saving attempts (which come from Zotero servers in the Amazon cloud, not your computer).

    If you're committed to using Safari, I would recommend using the Zotero beta to get the Safari connector.
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