Yes. Either that, or searching (here) by ISBN -- ideally, ISBN 13 -- will cause the book to be imported even if it isn't in the database yet. You may still have to add the cover image, which sometimes, but not always gets imported along with the rest of the book data, but at least the book itself will be here.
The BookLikes catalogue doesn't include magazines -- and any magazines that do get added are actually deleted again. So you *shouldn't* find any magazines here.
As for search by ISBN, most pre-ISBN books have one or several post-ISBN editions that you can search by -- and then look under "all editions" whether the pre-ISBN edition you want is here. Which isn't to say that it necessarily will or must be. Just saying, this is a way to find out. It's the way I search for Audible editions, too, which only have ASINs (and differing ASINs in the U.S., the UK, and other Amazon / Audible sites, at that) ... and you can't search by ASIN here, either.
The BL catalogue is far from perfect, but there are usually ways to work with it -- and BL librarians are happy to help ...
I think anything that involved is not worth my time. I don't care to work for the Booklikes folks unpaid. I feel the same way about Goodreads and LibraryThing and Litsy...make it seamless and as close to effortless as possible or I'm out. I already have to grit my teeth and power through my intense dislike of the email text editing and its concomitant loss of existing formatting. Anything that doesn't support HTML at this late date is utterly antiquated.
I dropped Litsy - barely look in anymore - because they won't allow me to add single issue comics, and they refuse to hand over any control: you have to ask them and it took them two weeks to get through 2/3 of my comics.
So there was clearly a line where I said 'no.' We all have them, and they're all going to be different. Quite frankly, I think your 'I don't want to do it' is fine, doesn't need explanation, and I was just trying to say 'personally, I am too stubborn to do either of those two things.' Just like I"m happy to explain why I don't like Litsy - but I don't feel the need to justify my lack of use.
I agree, by the way, completely; it would be much, much nicer if they had an easier way to add my DC single issue comics!
I guess for me it comes down to two things, and neither of them has to do with a notion of "working for free for BL" (though BL is a minuscule operation compared to the likes of GR -- e.g., I can't shake the notion that their tech department consists of one single person only and they have no professional librarians).
For one thing, I'm OCD enough to want to have exactly the edition that's on my bookshelves at home (or on my online wishlist / TBR) represented on my BL bookshelves as well, and if that means adding the edition in question by hand, so be it -- Google search, saving the cover image on my own computer and uploading it, and whatever else it takes. It's time-consuming, sure, but since I'm doing it for my personal book catalogue anyway (Calibre, with an Excel backup), I might as well add it on BookLikes while I'm at it. Obviously, everybody has got a different sensitivity level when it comes to that sort of thing, and our preferred media definitely play a role (e.g., Grim, I totally see you issue with single issue comics, and I don't think those would -- or should -- be in the same league as the likes of Time Magazine, Newsweek, or Rolling Stone ... or as sales brochures, FWIW). But just speaking personally, neither a lack of ISBN nor ASIN-only editions are something I consider a significant enough deterrent to drive me away. -- Though, yes again, Grim, having *control* over what editions are on my personal bookshelves is key to me, too. If I weren't able to add any books not yet in the BL catalogue -- by myself, without having to ask anybody -- I'd likely have been gone a long time ago, too.
The other thing, though, is that (NOT having been driven away by the one thing that would have achieved this in no time at all -- lack of control over my own bookshelves), I've come to care about this community *much* more than I have cared about any other online communities in a very long time, and that definitely includes GR, with the exception of a small number of friends I made there. I think everybody who has been on BookLikes for the past couple of years -- particularly, everybody who is still here after the site's near-collapse in 2016 -- has come to realize (a) what a tremendously supportive, open-minded community this is, and (b) just how precarious this site's existence is. I distinctly remember how many of us scrambled to save this community and ensure its continued existence *somewhere* else when it looked like BookLikes was going to go down back then. I, for one, am very happy that it didn't. Most of what it takes to keep the site functional is obviously down to the people who are running it, and there is nothing we can do about that. But curating the library is one of the few things I can do to help making the site a tiny bit more functional, and if that means I'm indirectly also helping to sustain this tremendous community of readers, then all the better for that.
Besides, let's face it, I just like to do this sort of stuff ... :D
As for search by ISBN, most pre-ISBN books have one or several post-ISBN editions that you can search by -- and then look under "all editions" whether the pre-ISBN edition you want is here. Which isn't to say that it necessarily will or must be. Just saying, this is a way to find out. It's the way I search for Audible editions, too, which only have ASINs (and differing ASINs in the U.S., the UK, and other Amazon / Audible sites, at that) ... and you can't search by ASIN here, either.
The BL catalogue is far from perfect, but there are usually ways to work with it -- and BL librarians are happy to help ...
So there was clearly a line where I said 'no.' We all have them, and they're all going to be different. Quite frankly, I think your 'I don't want to do it' is fine, doesn't need explanation, and I was just trying to say 'personally, I am too stubborn to do either of those two things.' Just like I"m happy to explain why I don't like Litsy - but I don't feel the need to justify my lack of use.
I agree, by the way, completely; it would be much, much nicer if they had an easier way to add my DC single issue comics!
For one thing, I'm OCD enough to want to have exactly the edition that's on my bookshelves at home (or on my online wishlist / TBR) represented on my BL bookshelves as well, and if that means adding the edition in question by hand, so be it -- Google search, saving the cover image on my own computer and uploading it, and whatever else it takes. It's time-consuming, sure, but since I'm doing it for my personal book catalogue anyway (Calibre, with an Excel backup), I might as well add it on BookLikes while I'm at it. Obviously, everybody has got a different sensitivity level when it comes to that sort of thing, and our preferred media definitely play a role (e.g., Grim, I totally see you issue with single issue comics, and I don't think those would -- or should -- be in the same league as the likes of Time Magazine, Newsweek, or Rolling Stone ... or as sales brochures, FWIW). But just speaking personally, neither a lack of ISBN nor ASIN-only editions are something I consider a significant enough deterrent to drive me away. -- Though, yes again, Grim, having *control* over what editions are on my personal bookshelves is key to me, too. If I weren't able to add any books not yet in the BL catalogue -- by myself, without having to ask anybody -- I'd likely have been gone a long time ago, too.
The other thing, though, is that (NOT having been driven away by the one thing that would have achieved this in no time at all -- lack of control over my own bookshelves), I've come to care about this community *much* more than I have cared about any other online communities in a very long time, and that definitely includes GR, with the exception of a small number of friends I made there. I think everybody who has been on BookLikes for the past couple of years -- particularly, everybody who is still here after the site's near-collapse in 2016 -- has come to realize (a) what a tremendously supportive, open-minded community this is, and (b) just how precarious this site's existence is. I distinctly remember how many of us scrambled to save this community and ensure its continued existence *somewhere* else when it looked like BookLikes was going to go down back then. I, for one, am very happy that it didn't. Most of what it takes to keep the site functional is obviously down to the people who are running it, and there is nothing we can do about that. But curating the library is one of the few things I can do to help making the site a tiny bit more functional, and if that means I'm indirectly also helping to sustain this tremendous community of readers, then all the better for that.
Besides, let's face it, I just like to do this sort of stuff ... :D
/TA steps off soap box.