Strategy Guides and Books and Barcodes and Item Numbers

[tripredacus]

Currently the Style Guide has this to say about barcodes:

UPCs are used across the U.S., Canada, and a few other countries. They're twelve digits long. Enter the numbers only, without spaces or dashes.
EANs are used in Europe and South America and are thirteen digits long. Enter the numbers only, no spaces or dashes.
ISBN codes are normally used on books and other products. These can be 10 or 13 digits long. If an item does not have a UPC, then enter the ISBN code, with dashes.
Some products (like Electronic Arts games) may have both an ISBN and a UPC code. In those cases, only use the UPC code.

This thread is to discuss how we should be entering information specifically regarding books as they do not always fit into these rules.
Let's take this as an example.
Star Trek Starfleet Command Volume II: Empires At War - BradyGames Official Strategy Guide
http://vgcollect.com/item/75311

DB Entry currently has the ISBN-13 (9780744000221) in the Barcode field.
Actual item has an ISBN-10 which is 074400022X.
And it also has a barcode which is 752073000226.
This book was sold in US, Canada and UK.

Second example.
Star Wars: Dark Forces - Official Player's Guide
http://vgcollect.com/item/63005
DB entry currently has the ISBN-10 (1-57280-022-4) in the Item Number field.
Actual item has an ISBN-13 which is 9781572800229.
This book was sold in US and Canada.

Based on our current guide, this is how these should be done.
Star Trek: UPC in barcode field, Item Number field blank, ISBN-10 and ISBN-13 put into Description field.
Star Wars:

The Style Guide does not take ISBN numbers into account when it comes to books. In a situation where a UPC does not exist, such as the Star Wars book, one of the ISBN numbers should be used in its place, and the other should be put into the description. However, it must be determined (where in the case of a book) which ISBN is the one we favor having in the Barcode field.

In both cases, the Item Number field should remain empty.

This is my interpretation on how to currently handle this, but I am posting it here to open it up for discussion.

[desocietas]

This has been a big focus for gf78, I know. I think ISBNs are fine, but I'm not always happy about them being in the barcode field because there is often a barcode as well for books.

But I agree that we need some sort of standardization for the guides.

[SilverBow]

Here are some true facts for your consideration.

After 15,000+ edits, I only started receiving multiple rejections within the last week or so.

Because I have over 1,000 strategy guides in my collection, I think I know a little about this subject. At least all the data is complete and correct for my guides. Please have a look: http://vgcollect.com/SilverBow/strategyguide. It has "elegance", which is a term used by us former system programmers.

A VGCollect Big Mistake: The incorrect use of the term “barcode” which is just an OPTICAL representation of data. The only numerical data we should be concerned with are a series of NUMBERS, either an ISBN (International Standard BOOK Number) or UPC (Universal Product Code). You should NOT refer to them generically as barcodes because this causes a great deal of confusion. I seriously recommend you replace that “barcode” term on the item form with something more appropriate and meaningful.

ISBN vs. UPC:
When it come to books, ISBN is the most critically important of the two. It’s the only way to guarantee a successful search for a book anywhere in the world. Book sellers almost never keep a record of the UPC.

ISBN:
For books, this should be considered analogous to a video game’s part number.
ISBN’s need to have dashes per your current style guide. Unfortunately, each publisher has a unique format. ISBN-10 examples:
x-xxx-xxxxx-x
x-xxxx-xxxx-x
x-xxxxx-xxx-x
x-xxxxxx-xx-x, et al
This is easily remedied by using the official ISBN converter site http://isbn.org/ISBN_converter. It converts and properly formats ISBN-10 to ISBN-13 and vice versa. It also flags numerical errors in an ISBN. It’s super-simple and easy to use. PLEASE check it out. For consistency, I personally use ISBN-13 which is the new format. Either one will work in any internet search.

UPC:
What I am seeing all too often are unformatted ISBN's (no dashes) that you are mistakenly calling UPC's. Look at the numbers closely.
About 99% of all strategy guides have a UPC unique for each publisher. BradyGames and Prima Publishing/Prima Games have published more than 85% of all the strategy guides to date.  Depending on the time period, Prima Publishing/Prima Games 12-digit UPC’s begin with 086874 (1990~2003) or 050694 (2003-present),  BradyGames begin with 752073; and Nintendo, 045496.
Here's a Nintendo example for Metroid Prime: Hunters
045496693176 (strategy guide)
045496735272 (video game)
If you're still unconvinced, I have compiled a list of the first 6-digits of the UPCs for 100 publishers of games & guides. I will send it to you if you want.

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The following is off topic for this discussion, but I thought I would ask. Recently, an unknown reviewer has started allowing a game’s ESRB rating to be included in a strategy guide’s “Rating” field. I’m referring to a twice rejected edit when I removed the rating on http://vgcollect.com/item/63284. Why has this policy changed? In the past, a rating in this field would have always been rejected. Btw, that guide has the ISBN and UPC in the correct places. 

If I seem to be rambling, please forgive me. I had to write in a hurry.

[SilverBow]

This has been a big focus for gf78, I know. I think ISBNs are fine, but I'm not always happy about them being in the barcode field because there is often a barcode as well for books.

But I agree that we need some sort of standardization for the guides.

You seem to be spot on about the situation. ISBN's are akin to Item Numbers for video games, and they are the only important identifiers for books. I genuinely appreciate you understanding. 

[argyle]

The following is off topic for this discussion, but I thought I would ask. Recently, an unknown reviewer has started allowing a game’s ESRB rating to be included in a strategy guide’s “Rating” field. I’m referring to a twice rejected edit when I removed the rating on http://vgcollect.com/item/63284. Why has this policy changed? In the past, a rating in this field would have always been rejected. Btw, that guide has the ISBN and UPC in the correct places. 

If I seem to be rambling, please forgive me. I had to write in a hurry.

I don't get into the numbers business, I leave that to more level-headed minds. But the rating field I can definitely comment on - I agree with you, and this bugs me as well. Guides DO NOT have ratings, they don't automatically inherit their games' ratings. The field should be blank. In a perfect world, the system wouldn't allow you to fill that field out for guides. Same goes for genre IMO.

And that's an impressive collection - I thought my guide collection was big at 260+!