Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
Questions (not edit requests)
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How to properly combine editions
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Combining = combining different editions of the same book under one "header"Merging = deleting a duplicate/identical edition
If the books are really identical, you can separate both of them from the other editions using the separate tool. That way you don't need to separate and combine both editions together again. When you have separated them, you can merge the superfluous book by clicking on "delete". Reviews, rating etc. move over to the other edition.* The leftover edition then needs to be recombined with the other editions.
*If the edition to be deleted has been added more than 5 times to people's shelves, you get a message saying "only superlibrarians can delete editions with so many reviews". That's what this thread is for: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Hope this helps a bit. I remember how confused I was the first time I tried to merge :)
ETA It is also perfectly okay to wait a bit before you do things like merging. You can start off simple with combining editions, adding books, etc. Check the threads how other librarians solve things. Best thing to do is to check the manual every time you want to do something, to see how it should be done.
Thank you! That helps. Yeah, combining is super confusing, haha. Best way to learn is probably to jump in and try, so I'll do that and post in that request thread if I hit the end of the line due to too many shelves.
Oh, now I understand why I was confused. The book in question only had two editions, which I wanted to combine (they were in fact identical), so following the guide I separated the two only editions and combined them again. That obviously wasn't necessary. The "delete this book" link should probably be called "delete this edition" instead, because that's why I thought they had to be separated before deleting. All sorted now! Thanks for the help.
You're welcome :)The "delete this book" link should probably be called "delete this edition" instead
That is a good point, actually. Occasionally books that have no other editions need to be deleted, but that can only be done by supers, and they are not going to be confused by the terminology, whereas for newer librarians 'edition' is clearer than 'book' here.
I found this guide:
https://www.goodreads.com/help/show/3...
I haven't tried this yet because the process seems slightly destructive. I think I get the gist of it, though: We separate out the editions as separate books, then combine those two separate books, and then combine the resulting book back with the original book. Slightly hacky, but OK. Please tell me if I've misunderstood here.
However, under list item #3 it says the following:
Click 'delete this book' at the bottom of the edit book page. Note that this only works for books shelved fewer than five times. It will merge with its actual edition because this is the most popular (only) other edition available in that combination.
What, exactly, is it that only works for books shelved fewer than five times? The deletion? Doesn't that mean the whole process won't work with books that are shelved more?