Adding Books Automatically

Introduction

The Add Books Automatically screen is the fastest way to add books to your database. It enables you to connect to our central database and download detailed information to your own collection. You can search by author, title or by ISBN then add the books directly to your collection, or to your wish list. Click the links below to learn more about the various options available to you in the Add Books Automatically screen.

Contents

• Searching by Author/Title
• Searching by ISBN
• Searching by LoC/LCCN
• Add to Collection/Wish List


• Queue Mode


• Settings
• Regions
• Search Settings

Searching by Author/Title

To search for a book:

• Type the author and/or title into the appropriate field.





• Click Search Now on the right, or press enter on your keyboard to start the search.


• Book Collector will search our database for appropriate matches.




• Double click on one of the search results to see a detailed preview on the right.


• Use the columns and preview to select the correct book from the search results, then click Add Selected.

Tips

Books released in different regions (USA, Europe, Asia etc.) often have minor differences, for example, the covers in Europe usually differ to those in the USA, that's why it's important to select a regional match when adding your books; it ensures you get the most accurate information in your database.

When searching by title you will usually see lots of results for just one book, each result is for a different publication. To find an exact regional match we recommend searching by ISBN but you can also find exact matches with a title search. Here are some tips to help locate accurate, regional matches.

• To get the best results, ensure your regions are set correctly.
• Check the columns, they provide useful information about the result provided such as the format, release year and publisher.
• Use the preview on the right to check the cover image matches your book, if you'd prefer a different cover, right click on the result from the search queue and click 'Find Cover Image'.
• Still can't find an exact match? Try searching by ISBN.

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Searching by ISBN

Adding books by performing an ISBN search is not only easy, it also has its advantages:

• It instantly returns only *one* result, the exact edition that you own.
• This one result is automatically shown in the Preview Panel, no double-click needed.
• Better chance of finding your edition, because for ISBN searches the Collectorz.com search engine performs what we call "Automatic On Demand Library Lookups". Which basically means that if our own database does not recognize your ISBN, it asks other libraries.

You can search by manually typing the ISBN into the ISBN field. Like how that works? Then consider speeding it up with one of our inexpensive barcode scanners.

Click here to learn more about using a scanner with our software.

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Searching by LoC/LCCN

If you know the Library of Congress catalog number for your book, you can use it when adding books. It's important to follow the Library of Congress guidelines when using this field. Click here to learn more about how to use the numbers effectively.

Add to Collection or Wish List

Book Collector includes Collection Status filters, making it easy for you to manage both the books you own, as well as the books you want. When adding books, you can choose whether to add them to your Collection or to your Wish List.

At the bottom left of the Add Books Automatically screen you should see options to Add to:

• Collection
• Wish List

You can learn more about managing your Wish List on our website. Click here for more information.

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Queue Mode

Queue mode allows you to add books in batches. You can add multiple titles and/or ISBNs to the search queue then search for them. Queue mode is the most efficient way to add books to your database. Combined with a barcode scanner, it makes light work of even the largest collections.

To enable queue mode, click the 'Show Queue' button.

With the Search Queue visible you can start queueing books.

• Type the author/title or ISBN into the appropriate search field then click Add to Queue.
• Once you've added your books, click Search All.
• When the search is complete, click on a title in the queue to view the results.

You now have three options for adding your books:

• Add Anyway: This will add the selected book to your database without any additional information, using only your title/ISBN information. This is useful if no results are found in our database. You can add the book title to your database then add more information manually.


• Add Selected/Checked: This will add the book you've selected to your database. First, click the book in the Search Queue, select a result by clicking on it or checking the box next to it then click 'Add Selected'.


• Add All: This option will remain grey until you click a result from the Search Queue, then select a book from the Search Results. You can use the check box next to the book then move to the next book in the queue. Once you've selected a result for each book you can click Add All to add the books to your collection.

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Settings

You can find the settings in the top right corner of the Add Automatically screen. From here you can set your regions, check the connection and view the main Settings screen.

• Check Connection
• Change Settings
• Regions

Check Connection

The Check Connection icon allows you to test if you have a working connection to our database. If you aren't getting any results from our database, click this icon to check if you have a valid connection. If there is a connection problem you will be notified of it here. If you are unable to Connect to our database please contact us via our Support Form.

Search Settings

Click the Settings icon in the top right corner to access the Settings screen. The settings screen allows you to control the functionality of the Add Automatically screen as well as controlling what information is (or is not) downloaded.

Main:

The 'Proxy Settings' are only required if you connect to the internet via a Proxy. The remaining options are self explanatory.

Regions:

Book Collector allows you to search various regions to help provide more accurate results. Different national libraries will be searched, depending on which region you select.

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