Dear Librarian « PaperBackSwap Blog

Archive for the ‘Dear Librarian’ Category

DEAR R&R: Newsletter – January 2008

Tuesday, January 1st, 2008

Dear R&R—I requested a book from another member, who apparently read my Requestor Conditions wrong. My conditions say “I only want hardcovers if they have their dustjackets”, but this was a paperback book! I have no conditions for paperbacks. She declined the request! How do I get this book from her? –Frantic in Phoenix

Dear Franny,

Bottom line: you can’t. If the sender declined your request by clicking “My book does not meet these conditions”, then you will not be able to re-request that copy of the book from her. It is very important to word your Requestor Conditions as clearly as possible for this reason: once the book is declined, you will not be able to get this copy. If you have Requestor Conditions on your account, review them to make sure that they reflect exactly what you mean.

In your case, Fran, the sender may have read only as far as “I am only willing to accept hardcovers…” before she clicked to decline. Yes, that’s her error, but you can’t eliminate human mistakes! Everyone makes them sometimes. The best you can do is prevent them as much as possible, by wording your Requestor Conditions as clearly and unambiguously as possible.

We suggest that all members read the Help Center item “How to Use Requestor Conditions” to learn how this feature works from both the sender and the requestor’s point of view.

Sorry, Franny, you will have to wait until another copy of the book is posted into the system. If this book was on a Wish List, it was passed to the next Wishing member when the sender clicked “My Book Does Not Meet Conditions”. If it was not on a Wish List, it will have to be requested by another member before you can put it onto your Wish List.

Dear R&R—My Requestor Conditions say “I don’t want books that smell funny. If you have any questions, PM me.” I got an email from PBS saying that the book couldn’t be sent, but the email included a message from the sender saying “It doesn’t smell funny to me, but I was born without a sense of smell. I had my sister smell it, and she says it smells okay to her. Do you still want it?” YES, I do! How do I tell her that? –Disappointed in Denver

Dear Denny,

You can’t. She clicked “My book does not meet conditions” on the request, and that copy of the book can’t be requested by you now.

There are a couple of things about your Requestor Conditions to consider: (1) they are very subjective. What smells “funny” to one person may smell fine to another. If you have a problem with odors, it may be tough for you to get books here that meet your conditions, and you may miss out on some books you might have been okay with. And (2) Requestor Conditions should NOT ask members to PM you to ask for more details. The Conditions should be clearly interpretable by themselves, without added PM communication. The reason for this is that the sender does not have a way to PM you before accepting or declining the request; she or he may think declining is the first step toward further negotiation/discussion about this book. And once declined, that copy of the book can’t be re-requested by you! So if you MUST have something like this in your Requestor Conditions, it should be worded as “If you have any questions, please ACCEPT my request and send me a Personal Message. If you decline this request, I won’t be allowed to request the book from you!”

Dear R&R–I am allergic to cats, so my Requestor Conditions ask for “No books from a household containing cats, please, due to severe allergies.” I requested a book as a present for my sister, who is NOT allergic to cats. But the sender declined it. How can I tell her that it would be okay to send? –Sniffly in San Jose

Dear Jose,

Did you know that you can toggle your Requestor Conditions on and off when you request a book? Yes, you can do this in your account settings: choose “No” at the top of your Requestor Conditions and then click Update. Then request the book, and go back to your Account Settings and choose “Yes” again, and click Update again.

If a book that you don’t need to apply Requestor Conditions for is on your Wish List, don’t set it to Auto-Request: if you do, it will be requested by your account and your Requestor Conditions will be applied to the request. Instead, set it to Auto-Request: No, and when the book is offered to you, you can turn OFF your Requestor Conditions before accepting the offer. Then turn them back on again, and they will be applied to your future requests.

We are sorry that you will not be able to get this copy of this book from this sender. We hope that it is posted again soon, and you are able to get it by turning off your Requestor Conditions just before accepting the offer, as above.

Dear R&R–I am so upset about the coming Wish List changes at PBS that I can’t sleep at night. What should I do? –Insomniac in Idaho

Dear Ida,

Don’t fret. We know that change can be tough. Will it help if we sing a little lullaby? (to the tune of Brahms’ Lullaby)

Lullaby, and goodnight…don’t let the Wish List upset you…You will be quite sur-prised…By how well it’ll work, we bet you!
You will not… lose out on books… you have been waiting for…In fact, we expect…that you’ll get even more.
The club… needs to evolve…to keep alive for many more seasons…We wouldn’t make this change if there…weren’t a heck of a lot of good reasons…
We don’t have…a date yet…for im-ple-men-ta-tion… You will see…when it comes…that your fears were largely mis-in-for-mation.

Shhh…she’s sleeping….

Dear R&R–Why don’t you shut up about the coming Wish List changes? Either do it, or don’t do it, but stop talking about it! –Annoyed in Arizona

Dear Ari,

We only mention it because it came up in the Discussion Forums, and there has been a lot of incorrect info bandied about. We don’t want to ignore our members’ concerns, even if they are premature. We would have informed the membership well in advance of the change, but some members demanded we discuss it now. So we did. We’ll be happy to shut up about it. This is how it sounds when we shut up. 🙂

Tags: Condition of Books, Members, Wish List
Posted in Dear Librarian, Newsletter | No Comments »

DEAR R&R: Newsletter – December 2007

Sunday, December 2nd, 2007

Dear R&R–I wanted to ask you about… Hey, are you wearing a Santa suit? –Inquiring in Indiana

Dear Indy,

Ho Ho Ho! Why yes, we are. We thought it was appropriate. Why, does the costume make us look fat?

Dear R&R– Well, yes, but that’s the point, isn’t it? Anyway. I wanted to talk to you about a book that I received. It was the wrong book! I ordered the Revised Edition, and that was in the title of the listing, but I got the old edition. And now the sender refuses to give me my credit unless I send the book back. I said that’s fine, but please send me postage to ship it, and she said that I was outrageous and scamming her. She made the mistake in the first place!! This isn’t right. Why should I pay postage to send back the book SHE listed incorrectly? This really steams me. –Irritated now in Indiana

Dear Indy,

Yes, we understand your irritation. We have made this clear in the Help Cent–

Dear R&R–Sorry to interrupt but I have the same problem. I ordered a paperback book because hardbacks are hard for me to hold when I read. I got a hardback! The ISBN didn’t even match! The sender is saying I shouldn’t complain because it is the same book, and is also asking me to send back the book HE posted wrong, at MY expense, if I want my credit back. Don’t I have a right to get the book I requested? He is saying that I should be happy with the hardback, since it’s more valuable, and I shouldn’t get to keep the book AND get my credit back. I don’t like hardbacks! Why do I have to justify wanting to get the book I requested? Why would I have to pay to send back the book to get my credit back? Tell him he’s being a jerk! –Fuming in Phoenix

Dear Feeny,

Now, now, Santa doesn’t use words like “jerk”. Boys and girls who do are taking the fast road to the Naughty list. As I was saying to Indy, the Help Center Doc does explain that the requestor doesn’t have to return the wrong item, if it IS a wrong item. When you request a book, you should receive the book you requested: the book should match the listing’s ISBN, title, author and binding type EXACTLY. It does not have to match the cover image or publication date.

So if the title included the words “Revised Edition”, Indy, you did get the wrong book. But if the title did NOT include those words, and everything else (ISBN, author and binding type) matched the listing, you didn’t. When this happens–

Well the ISBN does match! But the listing said paperback, and I got a hardback! So it’s YOUR fault, for having the wrong listing in the database. –Indy

Dear Indy,

Publishers sometimes do reuse the ISBN for reprintings of books, which can confuse things. PBS can assign one ISBN to only one listing. When a member puts the ISBN into the Post Books page, she or he will see the listing previewed on the right, with the words in red text asking him or her to confirm that the ISBN, title, author and binding type on the listing preview ALL exactly match the book being posted. If the title or binding type doesn’t match, that book can’t be posted with that listing, even if the ISBN matches. In that case, the book needs to have a custom listing created by the posting member, which has the correct info on it. The Post a Book Without an ISBN feature allows the posting member to create that custom listing for a book if it is necessary.

And Feeny, if you requested a paperback and got a hardcover, that was also the wrong book. And if the ISBN didn’t match it is doubly wrong. If the ISBN doesn’t match we suspect that the posting member went to the Club Wish List and clicked “post this book”. There is a window that comes down that will ask you to confirm that the ISBN on your item matches if you do that, but the sender didn’t check it if you got the wrong ISBN.

When a sender makes an error and sends a wrong book, then the requestor does not have to return the wrong item at his or her expense. Again, this is clear in the Help–

Hey! I am one of the senders being called names here. It’s the same book. So what if it’s a hardcover? It’s the same story! You’re telling me that I spent postage and sent a book and now I have to spend postage AGAIN to get the book back, and I won’t even get a credit? That’s insane. –really Peeved in Pittsfield

Dear Pitty,

We are sorry that this happened, but Santa has some tough love for you: You made a mistake. Yes, you did. You clicked Post This Book when your book didn’t match the listing. We put those words in red on the listing preview on the Post Books page for a reason. And if you are looking at the Club Wish List and clicking Post this Book if something matches the title of a book you have without checking the ISBN and binding type to make sure that they match your book, then that is not the correct way to list a book.

Think of it this way: if you order a sweater in blue, and you get a green sweater instead, do you have to send back the green sweater at your expense? Do you have to justify that you wanted blue and not green? No. The sender of the green sweater either replaces the wrong item with the correct one at no charge, or refunds the money if the sender doesn’t have the blue sweater that was ordered. Yes, the sweaters both fit the same and you can wear them both, no matter what color they are. But if the requestor wants a blue sweater, don’t say you have one if you don’t. And don’t send a green sweater and ask the person to be happy with it, or to pay to send it back to you in order to get a refund.

We know that no one means to do this, but when you make a mistake posting a book, you need to deal with it properly. Some requestors don’t make a fuss about getting the wrong book. But to others, the specifics (like binding type) really matter. You can’t know how the requestor will feel about a wrong book, so you should post the book correctly in the first place, to avoid a problem swap. Otherwise, yes, you can end up losing item, postage and credit…but that will only happen because of a mistake you made when you posted the book. If you list your sweaters–er, books–correctly, you will not have this trouble in future.

And please stop pulling Santa’s beard, okay?

Dear R&R–Well how about Large Print books? Large Print isn’t included in the “ISBN, title, author, binding type” thing. If I request a book for my mom who needs Large Print, and I get a regular-font book she can’t read, what do I do? The last sender who did this to me told me just “Sorry, that was the way it was listed on PBS! Hope you enjoy the book!” What about me? What do I do here? –Seeing Red in San Pedro

Dear Pedro,

Large Print is a special case. If a member enters the ISBN of an item into the Post Books page and that item is categorized at PBS as Large Print, the book listing preview will have some special text in a red box on the right of the Post Books page. This text says very clearly that this listing can be used only if the book being posted is Large Print. There are also links there to help post the book properly if it is not a Large Print book. Because Large Print is not a preference in most cases but a necessity, Santa is taking a hard line on these problem swaps: if the sender does not return the credit within a week of your Personal Message that states the problem, the title of the book, and the request for a credit refund, let us know and we will do it if the book was really listed incorrectly. We don’t intervene in problem swaps when the issue is subjective (such as book condition) or in dispute, but in the case of Large Print, we will. Be sure that your Personal Message lets the sender know that you want your credit returned, and also that the member can read instructions on how to do this in the Help Center.

We do sympathize with the members who post books incorrectly; we know they don’t mean to. But if you post a book incorrectly, you do run the risk of losing book, credit, and postage. It is easy to prevent this: just follow the instructions on the Post Books screen when posting your book, and if you have trouble, read Solutions to Common Book Posting Problems in the Help Center, and this will help you get your book listed properly.

And if you get a problem book, do be clear in your Personal Message. Be gentle, but do say that you would like the credit to be refunded. Sometimes a sender is new and doesn’t even know this is an option. And remember, if you report a problem swap (of any kind) to a sender, in a PM clearly requesting a credit refund and you get no response at all from the sender within a week, let us know, and we’ll look into it.

Dear R&R–I got a book that smells funny. I specifically requested no funny-smelling books in my Requestor Conditions. This sender HAD to know the book smells funny. Even my neighbor says it smells funny. What about that? Will you get my credit back from that sender for me? –Olfactorily Sensitive in St. Olaf

Dear Olaf,

No. Santa can’t intervene in subjective cases, or when the issue is book condition and it is in dispute. Members have to work these ones out; if a member has a pattern of problem sending on an account, it will emerge if you choose “yes but with a problem” while marking the book received. We will intervene if there is a pattern, since several requestors having the same trouble with one sender is an objective situation.

Dear R&R–what if I send the book to you so you can smell it? Or I can send a picture of my neighbor holding her nose. –Olaf

Dear Olaf,

We’re not even answering that.

Hey Santa–you don’t sound very jolly. –Amused in Ann Arbor

Dear Ann,

Sorry. Santa gets weary of squabbling, especially at Christmas. That doesn’t mean that Santa doesn’t care about each and every one of you! Um, Ho ho ho.

Hey, did you know that in the Netherlands, Santa is called Sinterklaas, and comes to the home of naughty boys and girls and beats them with sticks? There’s actually a burlap sack involved. The naughty person goes into the sack, and out come the sticks.

Dear R&R–We didn’t know that. Why do you mention it? –Ann

Dear Ann,

Just a fun fact. And we like saying Sinterklaas. Sinterklaaaaas. Really rolls off the tongue.

Anyway, to get back on track here: Problem swaps aren’t actually as common as you might be led to believe if you read the Discussion Forums–the vast majority of swaps take place without a problem at PBS–but of course with a membership of this size, they will happen. Please everyone, if one happens to you, take a step back and look at things from the other member’s point of view: The member who posted a book by clicking on the Club Wish List may have thought “Hey! I’m granting a wish!” The member who posted a hardcover instead of a paperback may have thought “This member will be so happy because she’s getting a more valuable book”. The member who posted the “Revised Edition” may simply not have noticed those words in parentheses in the title.

The person who sends you a wrong book is not trying to scam you. He or she has taken the time to wrap up the book and mail it to you because he or she thought you wanted it. If he or she made a mistake, BE NICE. You may make a mistake someday yourself, after all. In fact, if you search your memory, we bet that you can probably recall having made a mistake yourself at one time. So BE NICE in your Personal Messages to each other. We have a club of humans who sometimes make mistakes; they are not “scammers” if they do.

And if you made a mistake and someone lets you know about it, BE NICE in your reply. Check the Help Center and see if the requestor is correct about the way you listed your book. Suck it up and take the loss if you made a mistake and the requestor asks you to refund the credit. You’ll be a better person for it, and a better swapper. And Santa–who knows all–will keep you on the Nice list if you behave well during the communication about a problem swap.

If you are naughty… there’s always the Sinterklaas clause to invoke. Santa could use a little cardio.

Dear R&R–Now I’m afraid to post a book. You are a scary Santa. –CindyLou in Whoville

Dear CindyLou,

We are sorry we scared you! Don’t worry–it is easy to post a book properly. Just read the information on the page when you post, and check your book against the listing shown. And even if there is a problem with a swap, most members ARE nice about it. They understand that the sender could be someone like their own mom or grandpa, and they treat them as they would want their Mom or Grandpa treated. We have a nice club overall. But tempers do get short sometimes. Even ours, sorry.

Dear R&R–That’s okay. I wouldn’t want someone asking me to smell a book over the internet either. –CindyLou

Dear CindyLou,

Thanks for understanding. I know a little Who who’s getting a Wii this year!

Enjoy your Roast Beast, everyone! HO, HO, HO!

COMING SOON:

For Facebook users: a PaperBackSwap application that will let you share your booklists with that community…
The New Wish List: You love to say you’ll hate it, but we think you will love it. We are working to perfect it, and we will explain it thoroughly when we are closer to a release date…

Tags: Help Center, ISBNs, Members
Posted in Dear Librarian, Newsletter | No Comments »

DEAR R&R: Newsletter – August 2007

Wednesday, August 1st, 2007

Dear R&R–I joined PBS and I love it! I posted 9 books and ordered 3 right away. But no one wants my books, so now I have no more credits. I think my books are probably pretty common, and there are lots of folks who posted copies “ahead of me”. Is there anything I can do to get my books moving? I see so many books I want to request! –Bummed in Baton Rouge

Dear Batty,

You’re right: if you posted books that are numerous in the system, your books are waiting in line for requests. That doesn’t mean no one wants them! Even very numerous books are swapped frequently. But your books may have to wait a while for requests if you depend only on FIFO. Luckily, you don’t have to do this! Yes, most books at PBS are swapped according to the dates they entered the system, but members can also order directly from you if they like. To do that, they have to be able to find you. if you increase the visibility of yourself, and your bookshelf, on the site, you will get things moving.

So: first and foremost, make a public profile. Having one means that you are searchable in the Member Directory. Members with public profiles get roughly twice the number of requests that members without public profiles do. You don’t have to put a lot of personal info in there: just choose a nickname, and you’re off and running! Then you can participate more on the site–post in the Discussion Forums (we have many to choose from); members who see your posts can click your Booklist button and order directly from you. Post more books–anyone who requests one of your books in Books Posted Today can browse your bookshelf and send you a multiple-book request. Consider making a deal–visit the Book Bazaar Discussion Forum to read about how to do this.

All of the information above is in the Help document How to get your books requested! that is in the Help Center. Instructions on making a public profile are included there too.

Don’t worry, Bats. You’ll find new homes for your books–you may just have to give them a little push!

Dear R&R–My credit balance says NEGATIVE 2? How is this possible? Give my credits back and correct this system error immediately! –Steamed in Santa Fe

Dear Santa,

This was not a system error. The most likely reason why you would have negative credits would be if you told the system you received more books than you had credits to spend. This happens if you: order a book that is declared Lost in the Mail and get your credit back, then spend it on another book before the “lost” book arrives. You need to mark the Lost book received so the sender gets credit–and the credit is taken from you when you do that. If you don’t have credits when you mark a lost book received, PBS will “lend” them to you so that the sender gets credit–and your balance will be negative for that reason. When you get another credit from a book you sent being marked received, you will automatically “pay us back” and be back to even.

Or, and this is also a common cause of this situation, you went into your Transaction Archive and marked books received that you didn’t actually get. Because members sometimes send books without marking them mailed, the canceled transactions in the Transaction Archive have the “Was Book Received?” button on them. That button should be clicked ONLY if you got THAT copy from THAT sender. If you confused a canceled or lost transaction for a book with a transaction for a book of the same title that you received, and marked more than one transaction for the same title received, you were telling the system that you got more than one copy of that book. If you do this, you need to contact the sender first, to explain what happened so he or she can return the credit for the book that was never sent/received. If you don’t hear from the sender after a week, you can contact us.

Look before you click! You can read the Help docs How to Mark a Book Received, How to Use the Transaction Archive, Why are there canceled/lost books in my Transaction Archive that I know were sent/received?, Why is my account balance NEGATIVE? and I accidentally marked a book received! for much more information about this.

Oh, and Santa? Is it too early to remind you about that iPhone for Christmas? 🙂

Dear R&R–Why do I have to contact the sender if I mark a book received by mistake? Why can’t you do this for me? –Santa again

Hi, Santa!

Well, you understand what it’s like to be one person trying to help millions. We don’t have millions of members at PBS (yet), but we are really outnumbered. We can’t manage member transactions on a routine basis–but of course we will help if it is necessary–e.g., if the sender doesn’t answer your PM in this situation. Most of the time this can be taken care of between the members, and we don’t need to get involved. So we ask the members who make mistakes to try to correct them first themselves, before contacting us. It really makes a difference if we aren’t asked to address every issue personally–that means we can get to all those new features that our members want so much. Ho ho ho.

Dear R&R–I really love this site, and wish you allowed us to swap videos here. How about it? –Swapaddict in St Petersburg

Dear Addy,

A video swap site? Now that’s a big project! I wonder if we will find the time to put something like this together…hmmm….

COMING SOON: The Decatur Book Festival over Labor Day weekend in Decatur, Georgia…also, the currently absolutely most-requested feature at PBS may become a reality…Shhh, the Founders are working…

Tags: Members, Public Profiles
Posted in Dear Librarian, Newsletter | No Comments »

DEAR R&R: Newsletter – June 2007

Friday, June 1st, 2007

Dear R&R–I am bothered by your denouncement of the bookstore owner who had to burn his books. He did it to send a message–didn’t you get that?!? People in America don’t read anymore, and he tried to give his books away, and nobody wanted them! You shouldn’t blame him for trying to get the message out. And there are plenty of good causes to which those books could be donated. Why should PBS get them? –Inquiring in Indiana

Dear Inky,

The Stop the Fires – Save the Books petition is not intended to denounce Mr. Wayne! We do understand the message that he was trying to get across: that reading has declined in America to the point where he could not even GIVE books away. We sympathize with his frustration at not being able to find a home for these books. The PBS petition is meant to let him know that there ARE still readers in America–and many of them are at PBS! We are pleased to know that other groups are interested also; we trust the bookstore owners to make the decision about who should get the books. We know that PBS members would put the books to good use, but of course we will be happy also if the books go to another group–as long as they don’t get burned!

Dear R&R, I received two books, but can’t find them in my Transaction Archive when I went to mark them received! I requested the books, and then they just disappeared from my account. Where did they go? –Perplexed in Petaluma

Dear Lexie,

When you receive a book, the first place you should look to mark it received is on the En Route to Me tab in My Account. The Transaction Archive holds only PAST transactions–not those that are still active. To get to your En Route to Me tab, click My Account in the toolbar at the top of the site, and scroll down if necessary to see the En Route to Me tab. If you have books to mail or books newly requested from you, the Books to Mail tab or Requested from Me tab will show by default; the En Route to Me tab will be to the right. Click that tab and you should see your books, which you can mark received as usual.

Dear R&R–I looked at the new Transaction Archive, and I see that some books I sent (and thought I got credit for!) were canceled! I also see that books I marked received were canceled! Didn’t these books get marked received correctly? Did I get credits for the books I sent? Did the senders get credits for those books I received?? I am really confused. How did this happen? –Panicked in Palo Alto

Dear Pan,

The Transaction Archive is very useful, and a huge improvement over the previous site design, but you do need to familiarize yourself with how to use it properly. Remember that ACTIVE transactions will not appear in the Transaction Archive. ACTIVE transactions are on the tabs in My Account: click My Account and scroll down if necessary to see the different tabs (Requested From Me, Books to Mail, Books I’ve Requested, En Route to Me, Wish List Holds). Clicking each tab will show you the active transactions in that category. (If you do not have any active transactions in that category, no corresponding tab will appear on My Account.)

The Transaction Archive (TA) shows ALL PAST TRANSACTIONS, which include canceled, lost, problem and successfully completed transactions. That means that one title may be appear in more than one transaction. For example, if one sender declined to send you a book, that transaction will appear in your TA as “Canceled” (red X on icon to left of transaction). And then when the request was passed along to a new sender who sent the book, and then you marked it received, that second transaction **for the same title** will also appear in your TA, but as “Completed Successfully” (green checkmark on icon to left of transaction). You can see more information about the status of a book by putting your cursor over the icon to the left of it and seeing the text that pops up.

When you mark a book received, it will give the sender credit. If you are unsure if you have done this for a book you received, simply sort the TA by “Requested by Me” – “All” – “title” – “Descending”. Then scroll down to look at all the transactions for that specific title. If one of them has a green checkmark beside it, you marked that copy received. You can see who sent it to you by looking at the name of the sender on the right side of the transaction. If none of them has a green checkmark, you never marked any copy of this title received. Again, you can tell the different senders apart by looking at the names to the right of each transaction.

To see if a book you sent was marked received, do exactly the same thing as above, except choose “Requested From me” at the top of the TA (everything else the same as above), and re-sort before scrolling down to see the transactions for the title(s) you want to check on.

You can also read the Help information on the Transaction Archive in the Help Center, accessible from the toolbar at the top of any page on the site. The Transaction Archive can be understood and used without reading the Help information, but if you need guidance, the Help information is available.

Dear R&R–I can’t understand why you think the new Search is better than the one we had before! I can’t find any of the books I am looking for. For instance, I wanted to find books in the genre Science, subgenre Education, but putting “Science Education” into the search field in the toolbar got me all kinds of unrelated books! What’s up with that?! Also, it seems you are missing a lot of authors in your database–I put Jodi Picoult into the search field and it said there were no books by her at PBS! And when I wanted to find a biography of Truman by David somebody, I put “Truman” into the Search field and I got a bunch of mysteries! Then I wanted to look up books on beekeeping (I am interested in taking up this hobby) but putting “Bees” in the search field gave me novels and Winnie-the-Pooh! This is crazy! How can I find the books I want? –Frustrated in Fort Wayne, IN

Dear Russ,

Yes, the Search is very different, and it may take some getting used to. But really, it is much more powerful than the previous Search. Let me give you some help with these searches:

Genre/subgenre search: Putting genre/subgenre terms into the Keyword Search will find you all books in those genres, as well as any books with Science or Education in the title or description. That’s why you saw other books in your search result.The Genre/Subgenre search is best done using the Browse by Genre tab in the Search area. Click Search in the toolbar at the top of the site, and choose the Browse by Genre tab. Choose your genre/subgenre and click Go. You can refine your search from there if you like by selecting a further subgenre at the top of the page, or Recent Additions only, or WishList books only, or Unposted Books only, or choosing a letter to view only titles that begin with that letter. You can also widen your search by clicking All Books from the top of the page. You can also “jump” to another genre/subgenre right from the top of the page.

The default Search is for Only Posted books. Jodi Picoult is a very popular author–her books are ALL on Wish Lists at this time. Which means that none of them appear as Posted (Posted books are available books that have not yet been requested). So when you put “Jodi Picoult” into the search field, you got no Posted results. Just click to widen the search to All Books (or click the link “Don’t see the book you are looking for?” on the upper right of any search results page) and you will see the titles in the database for this author.

To avoid a “Search Avalanche”: The added power of the new Search means that you can get overwhelmed with results! (You don’t have to know the exact title of a book though, like you did with the previous Search.) The Search will get you books that have your search terms in the title, genre, author field, or description. To avoid getting “buried” with results (and having the books you want “buried” somewhere in the results too), put MORE terms into the search field. A one-word search is almost always too broad (an exception would be if you are searching for an author with an unusual first or last name). You can put in all the basic information you know about the book you are looking for right into the search field in the toolbar, to narrow your search from the start. You can then further focus your results (if necessary) by clicking the Advanced Search link at the top of the search results page (your previous search terms will auto-fill in the appropriate fields on the Advanced Search) and choosing additional constraints: publication date, booktype, genre, Large Print, etc. You can also choose how the results will be displayed (by relevance to the search terms, alphabetically by title or author, etc) from the bottom of the Advanced Search. In the example you give, Russ, “Truman Biography” would have turned up biographies on President Truman. “Truman Biography David” would turn up just one–that great Truman biography by author David McCullough.

To Search by subject: again, with this Search, MORE (in the Search field) is usually better! “Bees” is pretty broad, and will get you all books that have that word in the title or description. “Beekeeping”, or better “Beekeeping how-to” turns up no Posted books with the intial (default) search, but clicking on the search results page to widen the search to All Books gives some excellent results. You can put any of those Beekeeping books on your Wish List (or even click to Buy it New if you can’t wait to get started!).

There is more information about how to make the PBS “turbo” Search work for you in the Help item “How to find books to request” (in the Help Center and also in the Need Help? tab at the upper right of the Search page, the Homepage, and My Account). But the best way to tame this search is to try it out; we are confident that those who were able to cope with the limitations and quirks of the old Search will be able to get the hang of the new Search with a little practice.

Tags: Book Burning, Genres, Members, Transactions
Posted in Dear Librarian, Newsletter | No Comments »

Dear R&R: Newsletter – May 2007

Tuesday, May 1st, 2007

Dear R&R— Raising the price of credits?!?! You’re killing me. What do credit prices have to do with postal rates? Credits don’t really exist!—Irritated in Idaho

Dear Ida,

I know it seems odd, but actually credits are not completely virtual commodities. When the taxman and the lawyers come around each year, they look at the number of credits and the number of books swapped at PBS and there is always a discrepancy—because we give each new member 3 credits. Any credit that does not represent an actual book is assessed at a price based on postal rates. The taxmen assess us for all of these “invented” credits, and it costs real money! So while credits may seem virtual, they are very real to Uncle Sam, and therefore to us too. We hate to raise the price of credits, but we are forced to. We feel your pain, believe me. April 15th is a tough day every year. We continue to give the 3 start-up credits, though, because we understand how hard it is for a new member to believe how well PBS works. Once you get a free book you are a believer. Some of our members have given back those free credits (and more!) after they have belonged for a while. We don’t ask that anyone do that, but we are deeply touched and humbled by such generosity. We created this website as a fun idea for booklovers, and it has attracted the nicest people! We get letters telling us that the service is priceless to them. So many people depend on PBS now for their books—we hear from folks who live rurally and don’t have access to bookstores, teachers struggling to provide books to their students, homeschooling parents whose kids go through books like wildfire, retired booklovers on fixed incomes. We would rather do anything than charge money for credits—but if we didn’t, PBS would not be able to survive. I hope that those who buy credits (or Box-O-Books or Book Journal or anything in the PBS Store) realize that they are keeping the club going for everyone when they do. And those of you who don’t visit the Kiosk are still giving to the club, every time you wrap up your nice book and send it off to its new home. You are all part of Team PBS, as much as those of us who program and administer the site. We never expected that PBS would take over our lives in this way, but our members inspire us every day to try to make the site better!
Dear R&R—What the heck is going on? I posted a book to my bookshelf and it went on there twice. I only have one copy! It’s on a wish list and I can’t make the extra request go away. –-Stymied in Saratoga

Dear Sara,

This double-posting sometimes happens when the server “hiccups”, and sometimes if a member clicks “refresh” on her browser while the posting is in process—this can send the posting through multiple times. The best thing to do is to wait for the extra copy to be requested, and click “I cannot send” on the request. You can explain to the requestor what happened (there is a text box to send a message when you cancel). It may have happened to her too in the past–if so, she will understand. When you click “I cannot send” the extra copy will be removed from your bookshelf. It’s annoying, I know, but it seems to be part of having so much activity on the site—we keep our servers terribly busy, and sometimes they miss a step. They do so much so well (check out the Pulse of PBS to get an idea of how much) the vast majority of the time!

Dear R&R—I got an email telling me I have a request, but when I went to my account, there isn’t any request there! What happened? –Empty-handed in Erie

Dear Em,

Well, a few things could have happened.

The requestor could have canceled the request before you responded (check your email—you should have a cancellation notification there).
If the book was on a Wish List, and the first Wisher had it on auto-request, you would have gotten the email about the request; then, if the Wisher canceled and the book was passed along, all you will see when you get to your account page is a pending Wish List offer. We don’t send you an email when this kind of cancellation happens. Not because we’re trying to drive you crazy! We just want to limit the number of PBS emails in our members’ inboxes.
You also won’t get a cancellation email if you canceled a request yourself by mistake. This sometimes happens, especially if it is a bulk (multiple-book) request. Members click “I can mail” too quickly, without checking the boxes on the request to indicate which books of those requested can be mailed. If you don’t click the box beside each book on a bulk request, the system thinks you cannot mail that book. A window does come up asking if the number of books you are agreeing to send is correct, and you can go back and click the boxes if you missed some. However, some members click right past this “safety” measure and cancel all books in the request! Because of this, we have re-thought this design, and the new site will have all books in a bulk request “checked” by default–you will have to un-check the boxes next to books you can’t send. This will be part of the new site design that we hope to roll out very soon. Until then, check your bulk request boxes (and double-check your checkmarks!), to make sure you are agreeing to send the correct number of books.

If a request is canceled by mistake by a sender, the books have to be reposted in order to be swapped. I am glad you brought this up, Em; it reminded us to change this in the new site design.

Tags: Book Credits, Members
Posted in Dear Librarian, Newsletter | No Comments »

DEAR R&R: Newsletter – April 2007

Monday, April 2nd, 2007

Dear R&R— I got a book which was all marked up inside. The Book Conditions item in the Help Center says “no writing inside a book”. I contacted the sender, who said that she got the book this way from another member. Can YOU give my credit back? –Annoyed in Ashtabula

Dear Ann,

We are so sorry to hear you received a book in poor condition! Unfortunately, we cannot give your credit back. The sender who sent you the book has your credit, and she needs to do this. If she got this book from another member, it was her responsibility to deal with the problem then—not pass it on to you! As the Help item “I received a book in poor condition!” says, “”If a member receives a book in poor condition, he or she must NOT compound the error by reposting it. The “buck” (or should we say “book”) has to stop SOMEWHERE!” Each person is responsible for the books he or she sends out. Members should not make someone else’s violation into their own violation by passing along an unacceptable book.

Take this up with the sender who sent you the book. She should give your credit back, and contact the sender who sent HER the book to ask for the credit back. I do hope that both of you marked the book “received with a problem,” and chose “Damaged by Sender” from the options. This is the only way that PBS can keep track of poor swapping behavior. You can find more information in the Help item “I received a book in poor condition!” which is in the Help Center (search there for “damaged”) and also in the Need Help? Tab at the upper right of your account page—choose “Questions about receiving a book?” from the list that drops down there.

Dear R&R—I can’t ever find any answers in the Help Center. Who organized that thing? It’s confusing! –Muddled in Montana

Dear Monty—LOL. We tried to organize the Help Center logically by category, with “troubleshooting” items in a subheading for each. For example, clicking “Posting Books” shows you items about posting books, and clicking “Having trouble posting a book?” in the list that drops down after you click the “Posting Books” heading shows you troubleshooting items about posting books. We put in a Help Center search at the top (we have refined this lately, so it works better)—simple terms work best there, such as “lost” or “book condition”. We put in a Quick Help box on the right of the Help Center page for one-click answers to the most-commonly asked or most urgent questions. But we have to admit that it is a lot of information to wade through! And it may be inconvenient at times to have to click away from a page you are having trouble with, to go to the Help Center and find your answer, and then have to find your way back.

So we have added a Need Help? tab at the top right of nearly every page on the site. Each Need Help? tab contains items that are relevant to that page—so if you are on the Wish List page, the Need Help? tab has a list of Help items about the Wish List feature, for example. Almost ALL Help items are available from the Need Help? tab on your account page—these are organized into (1) basic questions (like “How do I post a book?”), (2) category questions (like “Questions about posting a book?”—troubleshooting items are included), and (3) urgent items (like “I can’t mark my book mailed!”). There is also an item which contains links to information managing your PBS account, called “Managing Your PBS Account”; and “The Wish List” has its own item too.

We hope that you will find this useful, Monty. Next time you have a question about something, click Need Help? on the upper right of the page you are on, and choose from the list that drops down. Most information will be viewable in a popup window, without even leaving that page.

Dear R&R—I am so frustrated! I posted a Wish Listed book that has 47 people Wishing for that ISBN in the Club Wish List. The first THREE have declined the book! The request is pending with the fourth Wisher now. I posted this book a week ago! When will I be able to send out this book? –Outraged in Ohio

Dear Hi,

This is classic Wish List abuse, which we have done so much to discourage. I sympathize with your frustration—all you want to do is share the book with someone who wants it! Some members don’t understand the different purposes of the Wish and Reminder Lists. The Wish List is for items that members KNOW they want, and that will be requested when they are offered; the Reminder List is for items that members are only considering requesting in the future. We tell people this over and over, and the information is very clear in the Help Center.

If you don’t want an item anymore, remove it from your Wish List (very easy to do, on the Wish List page). If you are not sure you want an item, use the “convert” feature on your Wish List to move it to your Reminder List. If you are going to be away from your account, put your bookshelf on hold and set the Wish List items you have credits for to auto-request.
If you don’t have credits but you want to stay in line for a book, put your bookshelf on hold (this puts your Wish List on hold too). You can post books to your “Held” bookshelf after you have applied the hold, and those newly posted books will appear available (see “How to put your account on hold” in the Help Center under “Account Options”, or from the Need Help? Tab on your account page, under “Managing your PBS Account”). You can send out the newly posted books, get credits, and then take your Wish List off hold again. It’s a little extra work, but it’s good swapping behavior to use the Wish List feature appropriately.

The worst Wish List abusers (those that decline or ignore multiple Wish List offers in a row) risk having their entire Wish Lists cleared, so it is important for them to heed this rule! There’s nothing you can do about this book, Hi, except wait for someone who actually wants it to accept your offer. You can take a little comfort from the fact that by doing this, you are helping to clear the Wish Lists of Wish List abusers—all by yourself!

Tags: Help Center, Members, Wish List
Posted in Dear Librarian, Newsletter | No Comments »

DEAR R&R: Newsletter – March 2007

Thursday, March 1st, 2007

Dear R&R— I am trying to request a book, and it says I can’t! I have to “confirm my email address”. What gives? –Mystified in Mississipi

Dear Missy,

You must have joined fairly recently. Welcome to PBS! The system now asks you to confirm your email address before you can request a book. This is very easy—one of the emails you received after you completed your registration has a link in it, which you can click to go to the page where you enter your password to verify that your email address works. If the link isn’t clickable in the email you got (some email providers don’t display clickable links), you can just copy-paste the URL into your browser to be taken to the appropriate page. If you can’t find the email in your inbox or spam folders, or if you think you might have deleted it, just contact us by sending an email to librarian@paperbackswap.com from your PBS User Email address (the one that you used to register) and we will help you out. This information is also in the Quick Help box on the right side of the Help Center page.

Dear R&R—I’m new. Are there any basic, bottom-line things I should know about using the site before I plunge in? –Brand-new in Bellingham

Dear Belle,

PBS is really designed so that you can manage everything as it happens—posting books, requesting them and sending them—by reading the information on the screens that come up as you go along. That said, there are some basic pointers that we would love to share (thanks for asking!):

Make sure your books meet the criteria for Book Condition on the site. These aren’t stringent—books are NOT supposed to be new—but there are some baseline requirements. We have made them as clear as possible in the Help Center items “What can be swapped here?” and “Book Condition”. These are both found under the heading “Posting Books”.
Wrap your books well for their journeys. You don’t have to use the PBS Wrapper if you don’t want (see the Help Center about this), and the wrapping doesn’t have to be labor-intensive! But the books do need to be enclosed COMPLETELY by the packaging (whatever method you choose), and packages should be sealed with plenty of tape (shipping tape, not Scotch). Don’t apply tape to the books themselves—this can damage the book when the package is opened by the eager receiver, Also, don’t tape over the stamps, because USPS doesn’t like that. There is a full discussion of wrapping techniques in the Help Center items “How do I wrap a book?” and “Sending Larger/Hardcover/Multiple Books”. These are both under the heading “Sending a Book”. Be kind to your books—you want them to get where they are going safely, and arrive in the same condition in which you sent them out.
Don’t forget to mark your books mailed. The sending process isn’t complete until you have clicked the “Book Has Been Mailed” button on the transaction on your account page. There is a (flexible) deadline to do this—you choose the deadline when you choose your mail-by date at the time of accepting the request. You’ll get reminder emails if you forget to mark your books mailed. You can read all about the sending process in the Help Center item “How do I send a book?” under the heading “Sending a Book”.
You can put your bookshelf on Hold whenever you like. This will prevent incoming requests when you can’t send out books for any reason. You can read all about the Hold feature in the Help Center item “How to put your account on hold” which is under the heading “Account Options”.
As you might have guessed, we do recommend checking out the Help Center. A great deal of information is available there. You can start with the Help Center item “I just joined! Where do I start?” which can be found at the top of the list of items in the Quick Help box on the right side of the Help Center page. All major items on posting, sending, and requesting are linked from that item, and it gives a good overview of the site.
Don’t forget to check out the Discussion Forums! Our more experienced members are friendly and very willing to help if you have a question, and there is lively discussion going on about almost anything you can think of at all times of day and night. It’s a real community here, and you are welcome! You can get to the Discussion Forums by clicking “Discussion Forums” in the left menu of any page on the site.

Don’t worry, Belle, PBS is really very easy to use, and after your first few swaps you’ll be a pro!

Love numbers? We do, too! Our real-time counter is a hit with the membership; it’s fun to watch the numbers change. We hope to have some other stats for you to watch on the site very soon…

Tags: Email from PBS, Members, Tips & Tricks
Posted in Dear Librarian, Newsletter | No Comments »

PaperBackSwap Blog

Archive for the ‘Dear Librarian’ Category

Categories

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Archive for the ‘Dear Librarian’ Category

Categories

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Tags

Archives

Loading...