My book is labelled "Not A Book"

[Kathy]

Hi,
The paper-doll book "Scandinavian Girl and Boy Paper Dolls" is on my list of books, but it doesn't show my name, so I'm unable to edit it...It's tagged "Not a Book" but my other paper doll books are not tagged NAB. They do have isbn numbers. And they were all published by Dover Publications, not Turtleback!
Can someone fix these issues?
Thanks,
Kathy Allert

[Syed Zeeshan]

Kathy wrote: "Hi,
The paper-doll book "Scandinavian Girl and Boy Paper Dolls" is on my list of books, but it doesn't show my name, so I'm unable to edit it...It's tagged "Not a Book" but my other paper doll book..."

Fixed

[Kathy]

Thanks, Syed!

Kathy

[Tiffany]

Is there any text in the book? If books don't have text, then we mark them as "Not a Book." For books like paper doll books, if they have descriptive text, we'd keep the author's name; if they're *only* dolls (same with coloring books, etc.), then they'd be "Not a Book," even if they have ISBNs.

[Lobstergirl]

Every Dover paper doll book I've seen has text.

[Lobstergirl]

And it's an outdated and inconsistent notion to NAB any book which only has pictures and no text anyway, since some books only have illustrations and are wordless and we don't NAB them.

[Krystal109]

I disagree with that statement that the book must have text as well. Please do not use this as your standard for NABing a book.

[Tiffany]

I was just going with what the librarian's manual says about "Not a Book" and coloring books/stickers -- under "These items are not books:" is "* coloring books (except those for reference or which tell a story)" and also "* stickers". I would have thought that paper dolls would have fallen under the same category: "not a book" if no text. If that's incorrect, then maybe the librarian's manual needs to be updated to specify.

[Lobstergirl]

Here's the thing about nearly every paper doll book in the GR database: people don't buy these to cut out the paperdolls and play with them. They leave the books intact. The books are bought by people who collect them, or use them as references because they are about historical costumes, or the history of ordinary clothing, or fashion design. They are reference books just like any other pictorial reference book. They do include text, but even if they didn't, they should still be considered books because they are reference works.

Look at the author page of Tom Tierney, who wrote and illustrated many of these books. Many GR users have shelved these books, and I can guarantee you they are not cutting out the paperdolls and playing with them.

[MissJessie]

True, but a non-coloring-book/paper doll collector librarian has absolutely no way to know of the strong feelings of those who treasure coloring books/paper dolls.

The instructions were being followed. I agree with Tiffany; the manual should be revised I believe to eliminate such confusion. Perhaps LG would be interested in doing so since she feels so strongly about the subject? (And I also have several Tierney paper doll sets since costume is a particular interest; very beautiful but not in MHO a book.)

[Krystal109]

Make a thread in the Librarian Manual additions for this suggestion.

I think that anything that can be a reference books should not be deleted, such as these paper doll books. Coloring books and sticker books are still less likely to be considered reference books or books at all. Still, be careful to check before NABing anything.

[Lobstergirl]

MissJessie wrote: "True, but a non-coloring-book/paper doll collector librarian has absolutely no way to know of the strong feelings of those who treasure coloring books/paper dolls."

In many cases they do, because I and several other librarians have added librarian notes on the combine page asking people PLEASE not to NAB these works.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/combine...

[Tiffany]

Krystal109 wrote: "... I think that anything that can be a reference books should not be deleted, such as these paper doll books. Coloring books and sticker books are still less likely to be considered reference books or books at all. Still, be careful to check before NABing anything."

Krystal109--

I think the confusion comes in from, as MissJessie said, those of us who are not aficionados don't know that these could be considered "reference," especially if there's no text in them. Obviously we wouldn't delete typical reference books, like an encyclopedia or dictionary, but I always thought paper doll books were just little pieces of paper you cut out and played with; I didn't realize that some are considered "reference".

[❂ Murder by Death]

I'll second that Tiffany - I would have NAB'd a paper doll book (one without a librarian's note attached, of course). Never, ever would have occurred to me that they'd be used for reference or by collectors.

I'm not sure how you'd add it to the librarians manual though, as I can imagine exceptions to the paper dolls rule: I'm tipping a book of, oh, I don't know, Spongebob paper dolls would still be considered Not a Book (although he's quite stylin' in his shorts and suspenders...).

[lafon حمزة]

You know, before I read this thread I didn't even know what a paper doll book was never mind if it needed to be NAB'd or not.

[MissJessie]

Lobstergirl wrote: "MissJessie wrote: "True, but a non-coloring-book/paper doll collector librarian has absolutely no way to know of the strong feelings of those who treasure coloring books/paper dolls."

In many case..."


So I have noticed; but obviously nothing like all of them are so marked. In fact, in the last week or so I have removed the Not a Book designation from at least a dozen of his books/paperdoll sets (not marked by you as a matter of fact) only for the reason that I know you feel this way, even though I don't agree.

People just don't read minds very well, I have noticed. They just do what they think the rules tell them to do in good faith. It might be worthwhile to go to his page and mark every one of the entries with the note; it would substantially cut down on the NABing I imagine.

[Lobstergirl]

I have noticed that when Ingram reimports a Tom Tierney book, it leaves Tom Tierney as the primary author and adds NOT A BOOK as the secondary author. I have removed some of these as well.