Keith’s Comments (group member since Sep 19, 2008)

Keith’s comments from the Goodreads Librarians Group group.

Done, and series added also

Updated with publisher, description, page count

I have in hand a copy of this book from the SFPL main library. We have two editions in the system already:

The most current cover with the ISBN attached
1973 cover as an ACE

The one I have in hand was printed in between those two editions, and here is a photo I took with both the cover and the barcode visible, same ISBN 9780156701532: https://www.dropbox.com/s/slz2kqcx1aj...

(I attach that image here per https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... )

If I use the ACE creation link https://www.goodreads.com/book/new_al... I get a note that the ISBN will move to the newly created ACE, but my understanding is that the ISBN should be on the current-cover edition per GR policy, which it already is. And as shown in the above photo, the ACE I have should have the same cover image as this Harvest edition.

So I could use some help with figuring out how to get this in the system without violating any policies in the process. I am equally open to being instructed, or having someone else just do it—I generally just stay away from ACE creation in the process of my Librarian work whenever possible anyway. We all have our specializations, right?

rivka wrote: "This is correct, as that is the name on the earliest published cover. Listing Judy Boss as secondary on..."

Thanks, rivka. I've added a link on the correct Judith A. Boss and J.D. Boss profiles back to Judy Boss.

To complete the record with relevant links for review by higher staff, I note that there is now a Judith A.^^Boss profile, and that the books requested to be attached to Judy Boss are Fall from Grace (above) and Deception Island (at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... on author profile), which has been published both as Judith A. Boss and as J.D. Boss.

Scott wrote: "Judith A. Boss is the correct name for Fall From Grace."

You are incorrect, Scott. See message 1 in this thread, and Cassandra's previous change on the book record. Perhaps we need rivka to weigh in here as a GR employee (EDIT: I've sent a message with a link back to here), but when a Goodreads Author has a profile and claims their own book, it gets attached to their profile regardless of what the cover says.

Even if we want "Judith A. Boss" to appear on the book record because it appears on the title, that would appear to be a different Judith A. Boss than the one you are attaching to it, and would need two spaces to disambiguate from the Judith A. Boss academic writer. (Could be the same person, writing in a different field post-retirement, but again GR Authors are frequently given leeway in disambiguating their profiles.)

Explicit requests by the author have been made to attach both Fall from Grace and Deception Island to Judy Boss.

This appears to have migrated again. I have moved it again and added a Librarian Note to link to this request, since the book cover with "Judith A. Boss" is likely to cause librarians to continually want to move it back.

done, and a few others for that author besides

This edition, added by 3,298,934 people and edited by many librarians over the years, has a librarian note indicating that it was, at least at one time, "Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780451524935" which in turn links to another ACE that actually has an alternative cover. The first two, however, have the same cover image, so something clearly got changed that should not have, likely in contravention of GR policy, but being such a popular edition is it almost impossible to find the relevant edit to flag it.

Moreover, that popular 1950 edition has numerous secondary authors that should almost certainly be attached to different editions (especially the translator and illustrator), and in some cases more likely graphic novel adaptations that should not even be combined with this work to begin with. As far as I am able to determine from WorldCat (OCLC 906787420 since I can't add a direct link) and Google without a physical copy in hand, the only secondary that should be on the 1950 edition is Erich Fromm for the Afterword.

I am a Super, so I'm pretty sure I have the correct edit rights, but with all that's wrong here I'm at a bit of a loss for what to do, especially regarding the cover image given how strictly we forbid changes (except when things change anyway while no one is looking) and the number of different covers Signet has used on that ISBN over time.

This appears to have been done already, not by me.

Liz V. wrote: "Thanks yet again Keith.

FYI : Bible of Tibet
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/..."

I handled the Tibetan stuff and a few besides, but that full entry remains far from complete.

Liz V. wrote: "done

#934 sent message to Keith

W.Y. Evans-Wentz
W. Y. Evans Wentz
Wy Evans
Evans Wentz"

940 done (with a few latecomers besides)

Clare wrote: "Hi folks,
I spotted that this author is shown as having two books..."

950 combine, done

Liz V. wrote: "Are there other authors for whom you'd like an alert?"

Almost anything with a Tibetan name is likely to be a nightmare for any Librarian who is not a subject-matter expert, which I am relatively speaking. That said, I keep my notes on canonicalization of names publicly available, I think, and welcome knowledgeable and careful assistance, and am willing to render the same: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/...

Also, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (aka, H.P. Blavatsky, Madame Blavatsky, etc. ad infinitum) moves every other week it seems and is a nightmare of such proportions that I am loath to return to it at all, if I could even find her now.

Liz V. wrote: "#934 sent message to Keith

Thanks for the heads-up, Liz. I'll get on that: he's always rather a mess.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Jaan Krossi kogutud teosed

Google translate: Works collected by Jaan Kross

How can this be a series?"

Looks like an honest mistake where what appears to a reader to be a "collected works" series does not qualify as a Series under Goodreads' particular rules (which I would bet the series' creator has neither heard of nor read).

rivka wrote: "Another entire novel that happens never to have been published separately, no. (And with works that are out of copyright, people can and do release them with their own sequels attached.)"

Hrm, well, that's what i was trying to exclude under "that is not another complete, separately-published work in its own right."

But I'm guessing that when you say, "with their own sequels attached," you mean something like Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer, plus Huck/Tom: A Sordid Love or that sort of fanfic or "derivative works" republication. So that would be a separate thing from Huck Finn, and from Tom Sawyer, and from all other real Twain editions, if I'm following you correctly now, yes?

So let me try that again:

A single complete work with any quantity of supplemental, nonfictional material about the primary work(s) or its author that is not another complete, separately-published work in its own right should be combined with the original work—even when it has a different title from the primary, original work—with the original author of the primary source as the primary author, and any editors or contributors listed in subsequent author fields.

Thanks, rivka.

Just to be sure I'm clear on the general form of the rule:

A single complete work with any quantity of supplemental material that is not another complete, separately-published work in its own right should be combined (not merged, sorry) with the original work—even when it has a different title from the primary, original work—with the original author of the primary source as the primary author, and any editors or contributors listed in subsequent author fields.

I should know better by now than to ever go near the Mark Twain profile.

Merged in with all of the many, many other editions of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are three editions of Huck Finn and His Critics. According to the table of contents of one of those (available through the Internet Archive here) that book is half Huck Finn, along with "The raftsmen passage," and half critical essays by an assortment of other authors.

Now, for "normal" books, if you have Vol 1 and Vol 2, and an omnibus Vol 1+2, each of those is its own "work" by GR standards and policy. Similarly, Huck Finn is one work, Tom Sawyer is another work, and both together is a third separate work.

So, back to the question: shouldn't Huck Finn and His Critics, half of which was neither written, read, nor endorsed by Mark Twain, be a separate work with the lead editor as the primary author, rather the same way that an adaptation would have the adaptor as primary? (per Goodreads policy in Librarian Manual: "Adaptations [...] should remain separated from its parent work, with the adaptor listed as primary author.")

And if not, then what is the guiding principle that distinguishes this case from the examples I lead with? How much difference is needed to make a separate work? What can we, as GR Librarians, cite to (better) ensure policy compliance from less experienced Librarians who encounter our changes? I note that one Dutch librarian with 10 years experience left a note two years ago indicating that the merge with the original Huck Finn should stick, but without citing any specific policy—this is part of why I am loath to unilaterally overrule the action without further guidance From Above.

(FWIW, some libraries file this book under the editor Lettis, and others make Twain the lead author, so we're left with little guidance there, plus their databases don't have the same constraints and concerns as ours in this regard.)

I'm not an expert, but I lean toward "yes, as a non-fiction series" for both in #10, the latter more than the former. Also, the former should probably have the sort-by-number box checked.

I'm not certain enough, however, to actually work on them; just adding a voice to the mix so it doesn't look ignored.