ISBN not being recognized

dstillman Zotero Team
This discussion was created from comments split from: Add item by ISBN often failing.
  • udaya
    I am also facing the problem of isbn not being recognized. this is a book from india, in the malayalam language. ISBN no. 9788193562888
    zotero searches for isbn and says failed. interestingly my iPhone's camera QR code scan recognizes the details.
    I am trying to catalogue my personal collection using Zotero. is there a way to get this isbn read by Zotero?
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/comment/468845/#Comment_468845
    interestingly my iPhone's camera QR code scan recognizes the details
    Not sure what you mean by that. A QR code could take you to a webpage, but that has nothing to do with bibliographic data. The Zotero iOS app can read an ISBN barcode, but that wouldn't produce any results for the same reason pasting in the ISBN doesn't.
  • udaya
    Thanks.
    I get the bibliographical info on the book when I scan the qr code at the back of the book, next to the isbn bar code. I get an option on going to the web page or copying this info. I understand this does not help with zotero. Zotero can recognise the isbn no of this Indian book but does not produce any biblio information or add it to the library. It just says Failed.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    I still don't know what you mean by "get the bibliographical info on the book".

    In any case, there's no data for Zotero to retrieve for this ISBN.
  • richard.masters
    Hi @udaya

    I don't want to step on @dstillman 's toes, but as I understand it, Zotero uses Worldcat as the source for bibliographic data.

    if you search for that ISBN on worldcat.org directly you'll see that it does not recognise it.

    I don't know if there are additional bibliographic datasets which Zotero uses, or perhaps could use, to fill any gaps in Worldcat's coverage.
  • dstillman Zotero Team
    edited November 15, 2024
    It's explained in the thread I linked to. We use WorldCat and various other sources. As I say there, you can just search in Google and get a pretty good idea when something isn't in any major databases.
  • richard.masters
    Apologies, I didn't notice the link.
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