Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

The God Impulse: Is Religion Hardwired into the Brain?
This topic is about The God Impulse
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Book & Author Page Issues > user-unfriendliness of combining editions

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message 1: by Alex (last edited Jan 23, 2014 03:56AM) (new) - added it

Alex Livingston (holistician) | 2 comments I added the above edition before becoming a librarian but only got as far as the ISBN13 field because I scanned that in and a carriage return was appended automatically which saved the record prematurely. I then applied to become a librarian and several hours later filled in the other fields as I thought best. It was not included among the editions of The God Impulse: Is Religion Hardwired into the Brain? (why?) so I tried to combine the editions using the "combine" link on the pages for both books. As far as I can see, all this does is present a list of the author's books: it brings up this page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... (which differs from the URL shown when hovering over the "combine" link, which is https://www.goodreads.com/book/combin...). From this page it is utterly unclear what to do to combine editions, if it is possible at all. There is no way to select books from the list to combine (is there?), and clicking the "combine editions" link just brings back the same page (despite the URL associated with the link's being different again). Clicking a book's link just brings up the usual page for that book. Have I encountered a bug? It is extremely frustrating; I must have spent 45 minutes on this so far, reading the Librarians' manual, using Google search, reading other threads in this list/group, you name it, and nowhere is it spelt out what to do to combine editions! Am I barmy? Please help me! Don't just combine these editions and tell me it's done; I want to be able to add and combine editions trouble-free in future and to know why it didn't work this time. Thanks in advance.


message 2: by Bea (last edited Jan 23, 2014 03:32AM) (new)

Bea Alexander, when you click on "combine" on either book page (the one you added or the edition that comes up when you search), you will get a Kevin Nelson combine page. Scroll down the list of books until you find entries for The God Impulse. Checkmark each entry which matches and then click the combine editions button. You will then have all editions combined.


message 3: by Alex (last edited Jan 23, 2014 04:10AM) (new) - added it

Alex Livingston (holistician) | 2 comments Bea wrote: "Alexander, when you click on "combine" on either book page (the one you added or the edition that comes up when you search), you will get a Kevin Nelson combine page. Scroll down the list of books..."

No, Bea, I don't get a Kevin Nelson combine page. There are no checkmarks to check; only a list of Kevin Nelson's books. There is no "combine editions" button. This is the page I get: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show.... Please follow that link to see what I mean!

Alright, so there is a "combine editions" link (in tiny type), but no "combine editions" button (as I understand the word). I described what happens when that link is clicked on in my original message. I repeat: there are no check boxes next to book descriptions to check.


message 4: by Cam (new)

Cam (camthereader) | 608 comments Could it be because you're not yet a librarian? I looked at your profile and I don't see a Goodreads Librarian link under your profile picture.

I clicked on the combine page for the mentioned author and I get the combine editions feature.

Depending on when you applied for librarian status, they should let you know when they've approved you.

I can go ahead and combine those editions for you.


message 5: by Susie (new)

Susie (dragonsusie) | 2469 comments Once you've added a record, you will have limited editing capabilities for this book for a while, just in case you made a mistake or forgot to add info, etc. I'm not sure how long that lasts, but I'm guessing that's why you were able to edit the book info even though you aren't actually currently a librarian.

Applications to be a librarian take several days, anyway, and aren't always accepted.


message 6: by Empress (last edited Jan 23, 2014 07:23AM) (new)

Empress (the_empress) Susie wrote: "Once you've added a record, you will have limited editing capabilities for this book for a while, just in case you made a mistake or forgot to add info, etc."

I didn't know that. Thanks for the info,

Alex. I went ahead an combined the editions of the book.


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