BASIN Tab. For matching bibliographical data against Amazon to collect ASIN’s or ISBN's when  you don’t have them in BookTrakker’s ASIN or ISBN field.

WARNING! After you add ASIN.s or ISBN's you have to edit the Condition on the Amazon tab.  The current version does not automatically update this field, if you try and upload the records to  Amazon without setting Condition they will not be added. Condition should be set during data entry, or via the ASIN/ISBN lookup process if doing ASIN/ISBN searching manually.

The BASIN tab is designed to match records from manual input or automatically from BookTrakker  Hit Lists against the Amazon database to generate ASIN’s for use in creating new records or adding  ASIN’s to records that do not presently have them.  The entire setup and retrieval of data for the matching process is done on the BASIN tab only. Do  not use the Search tab for BASIN matching.  If you have records in BookTrakker without ASIN's in the ISBN field then you create a Hit List for  matching records against the Amazon database automatically. If you are seeking BASIN's for older, pre-ISBN books then you use the manual input section at the  top of GrabIt!. GrabIt! can retrieve ISBN’s, ASIN’s and BASIN’s depending on what the user types into the upper  Biblio table or from the data in records from a Hit List in BookTrakker. The accuracy of the  automatic process depends largely on the data used to match records to ASIN’s.  Maximum  accuracy is obtained with Author, Title, Cover, Publisher and Date of publication.  Manual input is limited to Author and Title only, for this version. The BASIN system can be run against a predefined Hit List from BookTrakker or by manual  searching, using the Biblio search grid at the top. You must use a Hit List based on Search Criteria.  Category type Hit Lists will not work. Manual lookup only allows for addition of ASIN’s  to the ASIN/ISBN lookup table for further processing, since there are no corresponding record  numbers in BookTrakker for manual searches.  The automated process works as follows. A Hit List is created in BookTrakker of records without  ASIN’s in the ISBN field. GrabIt! then matches words from the Author/Title fields  (set by Word Count) against the Amazon data, generating a database of all possible matches,  unless a maximum limit is exceeded. Then, based on fields selected to be used in matching,  GrabIt! matches data from BookTrakker against this database to try and find an exact match,  or matches that appear to be close. Results of this matching process will appear in the Biblio   Results table in the middle section. If Export Single Results is checked then all single ASIN  results that match perfectly will be exported into the ASIN or ISBN field in BookTrakker, leaving  only single results that did not match or multiple results in the Biblio Results table. When GrabIt  exports the ASIN or ISBN it also checks Marketplace on the Amazon tab in BookTrakker, setting  the record for upload to Amazon and all other sites you list on. You will need to edit the Amazon  Condition field, if necessary.  If Export Single Results is not checked then all matches will be displayed in the Results table.  Users will then have the option of accepting or rejecting individual results.

Description of the BASIN tab:

A. Template: Templates for the BASIN process only get their information from the BASIN   tab.You can set up Templates for the BASIN matching based on any number of selections on the  BASIN tab. Because Amazon is adding new records to its database, you will need to rerun the  BASIN matching system periodically to get the new ASIN’s into your BookTrakker database.  B. Hit List. Selects the Hit list in BookTrakker to match for ASIN generation. This can be your  entire inventory or selected records. The automatic ASIN matching is driven by Hit Lists. For an  explanation of Hit Lists, click the Hit Lists tab on the left side of the Inventory screen in  BookTrakker, then press F1 on your keyboard.  C. Word Count. Word count is what words in Author/Title/Publisher are used for matching, left  to right,  against the Amazon database, not including words from Words to Exclude, over on the  right. Words to Exclude are common words you do not want to match on, you can add to this list.  If the Title in BookTrakker is “Science and Technology in Art Today” and Title count is set to 4  then matching would be done on all of these words, in no particular order: science, technology,  art, today.  D. Amazon Binding. Retrieves records from BookTrakker to match against Amazon data in the  pre-match database. Retrieval is based on the following rules for content in the BookTrakker  Cover field:  Hardcover: Matches on any word in Cover that includes “Hard”, as well as Cloth, HC & HB. Paperback: Matches on any word in Cover that includes “Soft” or “Paperback”, as well as Wraps,  SC, SB, & PB. Spiral-bound: Matches on Spiral Bound, Metal comb binding Plastic Comb: Matches on Plastic Comb Not Specified: No match in Cover required. All records in the Hit List are processed. If Not  specified is selected, then Binding in Matching is not enabled.  E. Matching. This process is used after all possible results from Amazon have made it into the  pre-match database in GrabIt!. Checking one or more of these fields will match their contents  against the pre-match database to further refine the results. F. Use Publisher: Based on the number of words set in Word Count, GrabIt! matches Publisher  from BookTrakker against the pre-match database. All matches that qualify are saved, the rest  are rejected and deleted.  If you check the Loose checkbox then any match of any one word from  your Publisher that matches any one word from Amazon constitutes a match for the record.   G. Use Date: Matches Date in BookTrakker against Date in the pre-match database in GrabIt!.  All matches that qualify are saved, the rest are rejected and deleted.  H. Use Binding: Matches the translated Cover in BookTrakker to the equivalent in the  pre-match database. If Hardcover was specified in the Amazon Binding section, then records  would be matched only to the same Binding in the pre-match database, coming from Amazon.  The Matching process is additive: If one method is checked then only records that match make  it into the results table. Add in one or more choices and both or all three have to match for the  record to be included in results. Checking all three plus using Author/Title & Publisher in Word  count, with high numbers set, increases the accuracy of the resultant match. Matching also has Loose for Publisher. Use this to match any one word in Publisher with any one  word from Amazon. We advise users to only do this after using the previous, tight matching, to  avoid errors.  I. Max Result Limit: Using minimal Author/Title information can result in hundreds if not  thousands of possible matches. Setting Max Result Limit means that if results exceed the number  in this field, then GrabIt! skips that input and moves onto the next one.  J. Export Single Results: When checked, GrabIt! will export the ASIN/ISBN into the  BookTrakker ASIN or ISBN field when there is only one final match to the input data. This can  be both a benefit and a liability. If tight matching is used then matches have a very high  confidence factor, approaching 100% accuracy. If matching is loose then matches are much  less reliable, and can even be incorrect for many results. If in doubt, do not use Export Single  Results.  K. Exclude Single Letters: Checking this will exclude all single letters with/without periods from  the data gathered from BookTrakker. So G. P. Putnam's Sons will result in g.p if this is unchecked,  but if checked, then putnam's sons is what will be used for matching. Obviously "putnam's sons"  has a higher probability of matching than "g.p." Excluding single letters applies to Author, Title  and Publisher. L. Get BT Records: After selecting your Hit List, click Get BT Records to retrieve records from  BookTrakker.  M. Get Amazon Data: This button is used to retrieve all records from Amazon that match the  Author/Title fields, whether from a BookTrakker Hit List or from manual data entry on the top Biblio  tab.    N. Rematch Records: Use this button to Rematch Records when you uncheck one or more of the  Matching selections. Caution: Matches may not be as accurate as they should be, so be careful here.

Processing a BookTrakker Hit List to Match Amazon for BASIN’s

A. Create a Hit List in BookTrakker.  Click the Hit Lists tab, left side of main Inventory screen in BookTrakker. Click New. Name it. Click OK. Click in the empty field under Search Field, just to the right of the *. Select Status from the dropdown list. Click again in the empty field, just below Status. Select ISBN from the dropdown list. Over on the right, under Search Type, you will see Beginning of Field (most likely) Change to Entire Field if it doesn’t already have that selected. Click again in the empty field, just below ISBN. Select ASIN from the dropdown list. Over on the right, under Search Type, you will see Beginning of Field (most likely) Change to Entire Field if it doesn’t already have that selected. You should end up with your Hit List setup looking like this: (ISBN only for 3.3 or earlier)

Do NOT, under any circumstances, click into the Search Criteria field for ISBN, this will invalidate  the setup, and you will have to do it over.  You should end up with all Available records that do not have content in the ISBN or ASIN field.  If you want further Search Criteria, such as Cover, then select them before running the Hit List.  Click the Execute button in BookTrakker to confirm your selection and make sure the records in List  View are the ones you want. If so, click the red Hit List button at the top to return to Inventory:

B. Select this Hit List in GrabIt!, and process for ASIN’s. For our example, we have Export Single  Results unchecked, so nothing will be exported to BookTrakker.  Select Hit List from the dropdown list selector on the BASIN tab. Do your setup for matching. For your first pass we would advise the following, which are the  defaults that ship with GrabIt!:  Word Count: Author, 2; Title, 5; Publisher, 2.   Matching: All three boxes checked:

3. Click Get BT Records button.  GrabIt! will retrieve all records without ISBN’s that match Hardcover from BookTrakker, then parse  out of Author/Title/Publisher all the words, left to right, up to the number specified in Word Count,  minus the Words To Exclude. It will then report the number of results with a message box.

Click OK to continue.    4. Click Get Amazon Data button  GrabIt! will connect to the Amazon database and retrieve all listings that match the Author/Title combination from BookTrakker, subject to the Max Results Limit, and populate the pre-match  database in GrabIt!.  For the setup above, if you have Export Single Records checked, GrabIt! will  match your Publisher, Date and Binding data against all the records retrieved from Amazon. If a  single result can be obtained by this process then GrabIt! will transfer the ASIN into the ISBN field  in BookTrakker, then delete all input and results from the search for that record, then move onto the  next one.  If no single match can be generated from the  input data and criteria, then GrabIt! displays all the  results into the Biblio Results table in the middle section, for further processing.  At the end of this process GrabIt! reports the number of ASIN’s exported to BookTrakker.

For the records that resulted in multiple possible matches, you can see these in the Biblio list in the  middle section.  To process, do the following:

Select the first record in the Biblio input list at the top. In the middle section you will see all the  records retrieved from Amazon that match the input but did not produce a single record for export  back into BookTrakker.

To the left of each Result is a dark blue button under the Amz header:

Clicking this button will open up a small Amazon web page for this specific ASIN. To view the page  full screen, or to enlarge it, either click on the square button at the upper right, or grab an the lower  right corner and drag to a larger view:

Once you have the page the size you want, as long as you continue within this session of GrabIt!  the Amazon window will remain at the size you set it at. If you maximize to full screen you need to  click on GrabIt! in the task bar below to return to GrabIt!.

If you can decide which listing matches your book, click the green Add button. If you need  further details from your BookTrakker database, the Details tab below will display the List View field  at the bottom of List View in BookTrakker, which you can modify if there is not enough information displayed:

In the above example, the second listing on the Biblio tab matches the book in BookTrakker, so we  would click the green button to the left of the second listing:

This adds the ASIN/ISBN to the ASIN/ISBN field in BookTrakker for the respective record number,  then deletes the input and output associated with this record, and moves onto the next result. If none of the records from Amazon match what you have in BookTrakker, and you want to delete  them, then click the red Del button to the immediate left of the input listing at the top:

Click the red button:

After you have transferred all ASIN's or ISBN's to BookTrakker you are going to want to know  which records got them, whether Exported as Single Results or manually transferred. Click the Hit List tab on the left side of BookTrakker when in Detail View. Click New. Name it  "Upload" Click OK. Under Search field select Upload. Click Execute. You will get a list of all  records set for upload, which will include all records you just added ASIN's or ISBN's to. When you need to know which records got ASIN's or ISBN's again, just select the "Upload"  Hit List and click Execute. The list will empty every time you do an upload.

Doing a Manual search on Amazon for ASIN’s using GrabIt!

You can also do searches using Author/Title records that are typed in, rather than being derived  from the BookTrakker database. The main difference between manual and automated ASIN  matching is there are no matches taking place that are derived from BookTrakker data. Therefore,  all you can do is perform a search on Amazon using GrabIt! to isolate the correct ASIN, then when  you select your choice it feeds into the ASIN/ISBN lookup process to retrieve all of the available  data associated with the ASIN.  Data entry for ASIN Author/title search is done on the upper Biblio tab:

For manual searching Publisher, PubDate and Binding are not used. You can type in Publisher  and PubDate for reference. Binding is unavailable. After typing in data:

You have two methods to acquire data:  1. The green button on the left of each data entry row. 2. Click Get Amazon Data button on the BASIN tab.  Either one will end up with the same results:

Export Single Results does not operate in manual lookup mode, there is no corresponding  record in BookTrakker to export to. Nor does the Publisher or Date get used in input, this  information is strictly for your own benefit to compare Results to input. Binding is not  accessible at all.  Click the Green Add button to the left of the result that matches your book to add the ASIN  to the ASIN/ISBN lookup tab for further processing. Unlike automatic mode, GrabIt! does not  delete the results when you click the Add button.    When you click the Add button, notice the Book ID field on the Biblio tab at the top, it records  the new Record Number in BookTrakker that will correspond to the BASIN you just added to  the ASIN/ISBN lookup table. For all operations, if you want to see Amazon results on their website, click the Blue Amz button,  then click the maximize button upper right corner to make the Amazon website full screen.  Once you are done with Author/Title lookup and have collected all ASIN’s for your session, go to  ASIN/ISBN lookup to finish the process. (Search tab.) You will need to click the Get ASIN/ISBN  Data button, wait for GrabIt to retrieve the data from Amazon, then click Transfer to BookTrakker  when the download is complete. Read the Help on ASIN/ISBN lookup for more information on  setting output for data lookup.

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