Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
Policies & Practices
>
Please mark posts done in the librarians group
Mod
Krazykiwi is absolutely correct. Please post a reply in a thread saying if you have made a requested fix. Of course, occasionally something will happen and you may be unable to do so. But not every time, or even most of the time.
And somewhat related: please, everybody, also leave 'change comments' whenever possible if edits are not clear, especially when they seem to go against policy.I came across a cover replacement just now and I happen to know that the previous image was the same. So was the previous image of a lesser quality? Please say so, in order to prevent unnecessary reverting.
(Although I notice that the librarian in question isn't a member of the Librarians Group, so this won't reach them.)
I'd suggest to add the change comment every time someone adds/modifies cover or page count. We have strict rules about sources for these two kind of edits and it always helps to know that the change was done after the librarian verified an approved source. PS
Can we also start hyper-linking ACEs and their main editions in the respective description sections please? Especially if there are 20+ editions for the book as it's a pain to go through all the covers before deciding whether an ACE already exists :)
Mod
rivka wrote: "While both the practices Michael outlines in post #8 continue to be good ideas, they are not required."I would like staff to consider/discuss the cross-referencing of ACEs and the parent editions become policy. (Both in the description and in a librarian note.)
Michael - I have not been hyper-linking in the ACE edition, but agree that it is a good idea and I'll start doing it (though hyperlinking both ISBNs doesn't seem necessary as they should be the same link.)
Michael wrote: "I'd suggest to add the change comment every time someone adds/modifies cover or page count. We have strict rules about sources for these two kind of edits and it always helps to know that the chang..."I'd be more likely to see a librarian note for these two things.
Mod
It has been discussed at length.
rivka wrote: "It has been discussed at length. "
Thanks for the follow-up. I feel that doing this might help members find their edition.
Maybe it's just me - but the change comment is a 'required' box and yet you can leave it blank -Sybor actually making that mandatory, no change without it completed
The comment left for items to the Work as a whole don't go anywhere, so leaving them is sort of useless if you change the orig pub date, for instance.
rivka wrote: "While both the practices Michael outlines in post #8 continue to be good ideas, they are not required."Of course, Rivka. It would be nice to have hyper links for ACEs but if it's already been discussed at length whether it should included in policy, I don't mind the status quo :)
I've been putting off reading A Tale of Two Cities and Les Miserables as my covers don't match the first few editions and by the time I reach a certain page in list of editions, I get tired and go away. Rinse and repeat ;)
Michael wrote: "I've been putting off reading A Tale of Two Cities and Les Miserables as my covers don't match the first few editions and by the time I reach a certain page in list of editions, I get tired and go away."Try looking on the combine page. Your ISBN and ACE are probably identified there.
Just tried to leave change comments for two covers I removed last night (one Amazon placeholder image and one for the wrong country/language cover added to an edition) and the system didn't save them. I had fallen out of the habit of using the comments, but I thought they used to save even if you added a comment after the event, not just at the exact time you made that chance.Re. ACEs, it would make it a lot easier when looking through editions for merging if people mentioned it was an alternate cover in the edition field not just in the book description or in a librarian note. It used to be common practice as far as I can remember, but now I see a lot of them just in the book description. Which obviously people will see before trying to merge, but if they were listed in edition field and possibly also librarian notes, it would save various tabs being opened when looking through a long edition list for strays etc, (esp the sort where you have a range of cover designs that repeat across different ISBNs as happens with bestsellers - The Color Purple had a number of those) and make the work a bit easier. Also, it just looks messy for a book blurb to open with stuff about the ISBN - but my main issue here is that either way, it's not mentioned in the edition field as often as it used to be.
ACE's are not in the edition field because we have been specifically instructed to not put it there.I also think that's a good use of the edition field and would +1 being allowed to use it as such, but I do as I'm told :)
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...For one place, first one I found with a search, I've seen that said explicitly more than once though.
ETA: I can't read today apparently, that very clearly says "NOT" to use for ACE's.
Antonomasia wrote: "Just tried to leave change comments for two covers I removed last night (one Amazon placeholder image and one for the wrong country/language cover added to an edition) and the system didn't save them. I had fallen out of the habit of using the comments, but I thought they used to save even if you added a comment after the event, not just at the exact time you made that chance."You can't add a change comment to a cover removal.
Tou can add a change comment to a cover upload, so when you add a correct cover you can attach the change comment to that.
I have been removing bookseller covers and couldn't leave a change comment because I had no acceptable source for the same cover.
Also when reverting an invalid change from the librarian log, it is impossible to leave a change comment.
Ah, I knew I wasn't going insane, it's also stated here (about not putting ACE info in the edition field): https://www.goodreads.com/help/show/402
This field is for such things as "2nd edition", "Film Tie-In Edition", "Large Print", "Special Illustrated Edition" and other edition-specific data that belongs neither in the title nor the format fields.
The following should not be added to the edition field:
* information regarding alternate covers (use the description and Note fields)
[...]
Ok, maybe slightly insane. But who'd notice.
*Bump for great justice*See post #1 and #4
This is getting to slightly annoying proportions again. The last three things I looked at had replies from a librarian noting some other librarian had done them and not posted, so at least two of us wasted time on posts that were already complete.
Also, do a pending post if you can. Even a quick "On it" which you can edit later to say what you did and why... Saves two (or more!) of us working on the same thing simultaneously!
Oh good point Emy. I will add that to the first post.
Yes, good idea, I often overlap with other librarians.
The "other edition" on this page for the book The Soul of Christmas is a completely separate item. It has the same title and is by the same author but it is an unrelated combination book/CD released in 1997.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
,#30 The title of this thread is "Please mark posts done in the librarians group". How is your request related?
#30: Corrected; please post elsewhere next time.
My apologies, David and Abcdarian. Where would have been an appropriate place to post this?
Thanks, Barque
Mod
Just bumping to highlight this thread again, as I'm getting tired of posting "done by someone".
+1 Truth be told, it's quite systematic by some librarians not to leave "Done" messages, not to speak of "On it" messages. I sent a private message, was ignored. Any suggestions?
Send another and link to this thread?I've done that a couple of times, when it was getting really annoying.
Mod
It also appeared to be about a specific list. If so, comments should be left on the list in question, not in this thread.
Just wanted to bump this thread up, since I have notice a big resurgence of people not marking threads done.
Philip wrote: "Just wanted to bump this thread up, since I have notice a big resurgence of people not marking threads done."Good to do this, and GR employees should take note as well.
Bumping this again, as I have just had a frustrating, wasted time trying to make User-requested edits only to find from the Changelog that another Librarian is already on it. Takes two seconds to mark a post 'Working On This'.
![annob [on hiatus] (annob) | 4048 comments](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1674812294p1/68231680.jpg)
Hi guys, I'm still newish compared to a lot of you but completely agree a quick 'working' / 'done' note is not too much to ask.But couldn't this issue be also be caused by Librarians editing book records they find through other means than user requests made in this group? How would such a librarian know a forum request has been made? Other than when a book has been linked to a thread, and even then the bottom of the book detail page might not be a place a librarian think to look very often.
annob wrote: "But couldn't this issue be also be caused by Librarians editing book records they find through other means than user requests made in this group?"Possible, if highly unlikely, especially if - as in my instance above - the Librarian is coincidentally doing the task asked by User request, and then replies to the User post saying they've done it! :o)
If behaviour is omitting 'working on it' but later adding a 'done' comment in the forum thread, then I fully understand your frustration. :)
Mod
Looks like some folks need a reminder of this.
I'd like to volunteer that a librarian could be guilty of this without realizing a request has been made. Many of us just work along, and fix things when we see them.
Yes, sometimes I see a name in the list of authors being talked about that needs fixing. I don't get it from a thread.
Scott wrote: "Yes, sometimes I see a name in the list of authors being talked about that needs fixing. I don't get it from a thread."and I've been known to see a book without a cover in the same right side panel and go to fix it.
Krazykiwi wrote: "Please just post a "done" if you do fulfill a request in here. Or "working on it" and edit to done when you're finished, if it's a big lot of work.For several reasons I am asking this:
- IT only..."
Happening again. :(
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.
For several reasons I am asking this:
- IT only takes a second of your time, but it saves multiple other librarians time they spend opening the post, going to the requested item, when they could have just moved on to the next request.
- It helps the group function as something of an audit trail, since the librarian logs aren't always complete.
- It notifies the person who made the request that they've been taken care of. Due to caching on the site that is not always obvious by simply looking at the book or author page, for up to a couple of days, depending on what was done.
- It's just what has emerged to be best practice around here, and most of us have come to expect it.
Probably 75% or better of the posts I opened in the last few days had "someone did that" or "I guess it was taken care of" in a reply by someone other than the person who did it. So that's at least my time and the person doing the replying's time wasted.
Additionally: If the task will take more than a few seconds, please post an "On it" or "Working on it" or similar post. You can edit it later to say what you did and why, and it will also save double-ups wasting librarian time.
(Obviously I'm just another librarian, and this is no official request, just a please - it's really helpful.) See also post #4.