Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

note: This topic has been closed to new comments.
1352 views
Archived > author names in different languages.

Comments Showing 51-100 of 156 (156 new)    post a comment »

message 51: by Trine (new)

Trine (majjalol) | 2 comments Question, as it get a bit frustrating... There are 2 entries of the author "Sara Blædel" https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... and https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... - is it possible to merge these in some way? The correct spelling of the name is Blædel (though, it is allowed to use ae, but that is not entierly correct..) It is frustrating that the books are spread so much>


message 52: by rivka, Former Moderator (new)

rivka | 45177 comments Mod
In most English-speaking countries she appears to published under Blaedel (e.g.: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...), so that should be the first-listed author on all editions.

The two profiles should NOT be merged.


message 53: by Trine (new)

Trine (majjalol) | 2 comments Ugh, frustrating - but it makes sense with the cover you showed :)


message 54: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Seems for this book, and for this author, the English version of the name should come first?

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...


message 55: by Asma (new)

Asma (bandhan1983) | 8 comments Hello,

I read couple of comments and finding it difficult to read all the comments to get my answers across.

I'm having an issue with the author's name I've added. I added his name in Bengali. He is a Urdu writer and already has his profile in English. I thought since we have a lot books translated in Bengali from Urdu why not have his profile in Bengali with lists of Bengali books. I spent hours editing and adding informations. Today I login to see all his Bengali books are found under his English profile and the Bengali profile I've created has disappeared.

What happened to the profile I've created? Can't we have the author's profile in different language?


message 56: by lethe (last edited May 04, 2015 12:20AM) (new)

lethe | 16359 comments Argh, I feel your pain. There should be author profiles for every language an author has published in (provided the spelling/transliteration is different from the English one). This was clearly done by somebody who should have a refresher course in GR librarianship.

"Today I login to see all his Bengali books are found under his English profile"
This in itself is correct though, but they should *also* be found under his Bengali profile.


message 57: by lethe (new)

lethe | 16359 comments Asma, could you give the link to the English author profile? And also his name in Bengali. Just to make sure this isn't connected to something that came up in another thread.

Thanks!


message 58: by Asma (new)

Asma (bandhan1983) | 8 comments lethe wrote: "Argh, I feel your pain. There should be author profiles for every language an author has published in (provided the spelling/transliteration is different from the English one). This was clearly don..."

Thank you very much Lethe.
The author's profile in English https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

If you take a minute ( I bet it will be confusing for you but you'll work through it straightway by what I meant) and go through his lists of books, you'll see some of the Bengali books are listed in there.

What I did was
1) Added author's name in Bengali when I added his books.
2) Added his name (profile)the one in English under 'add new author'. Could this be the reason?


message 59: by lethe (new)

lethe | 16359 comments I'm not sure what you mean by 2). Did you add his name in both Bengali and English transliteration to the books? That is correct, although I believe that the English name should be the primary author on all translated editions, even when not translated into English. (Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.)

Looking through the list, I see that his Urdu books also have just the English transliteration. This is just plain wrong. And on most of the Bengali books I see his English name listed twice, which means that somebody did indeed merge both profiles. Unfortunately this happens quite a lot with authors with multiple-language profiles, and there is no way to un-merge them. The only thing you can do is leave a librarian note saying the profiles should absolutely not be merged.

If you wish to make another Bengali profile (I can understand if you don't), you can perhaps copy/paste the previous edits you made. (Go to his English profile, click on 'edit data' and then on 'librarian edits'.)

I'm sorry I can't help you with this :(


message 60: by lethe (last edited May 04, 2015 10:30AM) (new)

lethe | 16359 comments For an example of such a librarian note, click on 'edit data' in this profile: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

ETA Now the Bengali books have completely disappeared from Naseem Hijazi's profile. You, or anybody else, working on this?


message 61: by Asma (new)

Asma (bandhan1983) | 8 comments lethe wrote: "I'm not sure what you mean by 2). Did you add his name in both Bengali and English transliteration to the books? That is correct, although I believe that the English name should be the primary auth..."

It all makes sense now. You have done more than enough. Thank you very much. I appreciate your replies and advices. I've already started to make edits to his lists of Bengali books I've added. It was quite simple. I just had to 'edit data'.


message 62: by Asma (new)

Asma (bandhan1983) | 8 comments lethe wrote: "For an example of such a librarian note, click on 'edit data' in this profile: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

ETA Now the Bengali books have completely disappeared from..."


I'm working on this. Will be making his profile look like the link you have posted.


message 63: by lethe (new)

lethe | 16359 comments Hi Asma, I had a quick look at the new Bengali author profile yesterday but didn't have time to respond. Now I look and the profile has gone and the books are showing just the English name again.

This is becoming extremely annoying. There was a librarian note saying not to merge. Somebody is clearly sabotaging here. Calling out to GR staff: will you please make it very clear (once more) that multiple-language author profiles should on no account be merged?

I'd also like to know whether books that have been translated into another language (but not into English) should get the English name as primary author, if that author has other books (other titles) in English translation.

Thanks in advance.


message 64: by rivka, Former Moderator (new)


message 65: by lethe (new)

lethe | 16359 comments Thanks rivka! Hopefully your name will be a deterrent :)


message 66: by Asma (new)

Asma (bandhan1983) | 8 comments lethe wrote: "Hi Asma, I had a quick look at the new Bengali author profile yesterday but didn't have time to respond. Now I look and the profile has gone and the books are showing just the English name again.

..."

Thanx lethe,
It did become annoying and I felt so angry. I had to create author profile in Bengali TWICE. Both times it's been changed. I started digging and luckily found the member who was behind it. It seemed he didn't know what he was doing. He thought he was doing a good job by linking translated Bengali books to his English profile.
I sent him a message and explained about my frustration, gave him this thread's link, told him to read my comments and your replies.
Anyway, next day I checked back to see he'd re edited everything. Pheww!


message 67: by Asma (new)

Asma (bandhan1983) | 8 comments rivka wrote: "Notes added to these profiles: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show..."


Thanks Rivka. I hope whoever goes to merge sees your name.


message 68: by lethe (new)

lethe | 16359 comments Glad to hear there was no bad intent!

And rivka answered my question when she made the new profile. All translated books should have the English name/transliteration as the first author, other (original/translated) name as the second. So the correct way is Nazeem Hijazi first, Bengali transliteration second for his books in Bengali.


message 69: by Purple (new)

Purple Iris (purpleiris) | 15 comments rivka wrote: "In most English-speaking countries she appears to published under Blaedel (e.g.: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...), so that should be the first-listed author on all edi..."

Hi, separate profiles in different languages still allows for all reviews of a same book to be seen on all editions, right?


message 70: by Paula (new)

Paula (paulaan) | 7014 comments Yes, as long as the primary author is the same on all editions, hence why policy is to list all editions with the same primary author, adding other language names in the secondary/tertiary positons


message 71: by Purple (new)

Purple Iris (purpleiris) | 15 comments Great, thanks!


message 72: by Michael (new)

Michael Korleone (michaelkorleone) | 3881 comments Hi,

I just found this author profile
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

First of all, that's a wrong way to create a profile. It has the author's name in Telugu followed by English transliteration in the braces.

As far as I know, this author had not written in English but I'd like to keep an English profile just the same as his books were probably translated into English (though I can't find them now). Since I'm not sure if the author has books in English or not, and to err on the cautious side, I'd like to keep an English profile.

I'm planning to do the following and need someone more experienced in doing such stuff, to let me know if I'm goofing up anywhere

1) Edit the linked profile's data such that it has name written in Telugu
చలం(chalam) --> 'చలం'

2) Update all the books with an additional author called 'Chalam', which is the English transliteration of author's name.

3) Once #2 is done, GR would create a profile for English name, where I'm planning to provide the link to existing author in details section. By that way, people who visit the English profile can still check out the main profile which has complete author details.


I'd also like to leave a librarian note asking others *NOT* to merge the two profiles in future, as I really want to have an English profile for the author. This is because, almost 99% of searches for Telugu books are done by typing the English transliteration (takes too much effort to type in non-Roman script) and I don't want people to keep adding books thinking that the author doesn't yet exist on GR (most of his books don't have ISBN or ASIN, so we can't stop people from creating duplicate books).

Looking forward to your suggestions.


message 73: by Empress (new)

Empress (the_empress) If the author is translated in English and you are going to create such a profile it MUST be the primary profile. This is most easily achieved by renaming the current profile and then adding the Telugu name to the editions as a secondary name.

Is by any chance the second book here one of his?


message 74: by Michael (new)

Michael Korleone (michaelkorleone) | 3881 comments Ellie [The Empress] wrote: "If the author is translated in English and you are going to create such a profile it MUST be the primary profile. This is most easily achieved by renaming the current profile and then adding the Te..."

I see only one book there and it's titled "Sudha (Nectar)....". Seems like a collection of poems written by Chalam in Telugu, which were then translated into English by people mentioned on the cover.

Can't I just update the English profile you found ( link) with all the details from the profile I linked so that it looks exactly identical in terms of author details with the Telugu profile? Both the profiles are unclaimed, so technically how does one identify a primary profile other than the fact that it has all the books ever written/translated belonging to Chalam and that it lists the author's name in English? :)

What I'd like to do is -
Rename the profile I found to 'చలం'.
Update all the books under this profile where I add 'Chalam' as primary author and 'చలం' as secondary. [obviously the author's name cannot allowed to be చలం(chalam) as per GR policy]
Update the English profile data similar to the Telugu profile.

This way -
The Telugu profile has 49 followers while the English one has 2 (pedantic in me would be happy seeing the comparison as Chalam was a highly influential Telugu writer)
The English profile has all the books listed under Telugu profile as well as this book "Sudha (Nectar)....".
Both the profiles have same details in "About this author" section

What do you think?


message 75: by Empress (new)

Empress (the_empress) so technically how does one identify a primary profile other than the fact that it has all the books ever written/translated belonging to Chalam and that it lists the author's name in English?

Technically on GR the primary name is the one in first position. By GR rules if the author is translated it should be the most-popular Roman name. But I think you are aware of that.

And yes, you can manage the profiles as per your suggestion (or I see not reason why you shouldn't). I'm simply suggesting an alternative option.

P.S. If you can take a look when you are done with the profile work.
This seems like transliteration. Is there a book it can be merged with?
And this seems like it needs merging.


message 76: by Michael (new)

Michael Korleone (michaelkorleone) | 3881 comments Thanks, Ellie. There are two profiles for the author now and I'm working on updating the books.

Transliteration --> I updated the title to reflect the original title in Telugu (I don't have the cover with me right now; will take a pic next time I visit the library). There are no other books with that name in GR for me to merge so I'm going to leave it at that.

Book in the second link needs merging. I guess only a super can do it since it has 19 ratings? I want the one with the book cover kept with the other edition merged into it.


message 77: by Empress (new)

Empress (the_empress) Michael wrote: "Book in the second link needs merging. I guess only a super can do it since it has 19 ratings?"

Yes, you can post the request here. I just left it for you as you are dealing with the profile and thought there might be more editions to deal with.


message 78: by Michael (new)

Michael Korleone (michaelkorleone) | 3881 comments Alright, I think I'm done with Chalam for now, at least when it comes to books already on GR.

Then I came across this. Book's title is given on GR as Transliterated name (Actual title on cover) (Language) while author field has only transliterated name though the book cover shows his Hindi name. Edition language is mentioned English but Amazon link for that ISBN shows it's Hindi. Ho hum, more work to do.

Thank you for your help so far. :)


message 79: by Empress (last edited Jun 26, 2015 01:51PM) (new)

Empress (the_empress) Yes, often imported data is wrong and scripts import transliterated names as that is how the books are listed in their database. No need for the transliterated name as well as the language in the title.

Also does the author have a Hindu profile? I can't see one.

Michael wrote: "Ho hum, more work to do."

That is how it is around here. You start doing one thing and then find a hundred more issues. However there is a lot more to be done and desired with non-English authors and books as there are less Librarians (IMO) working on those.


message 80: by Empress (last edited Jun 26, 2015 01:54PM) (new)

Empress (the_empress) Also kindle editions should not be listed with an ISBN . We had some scripts importing those with both an ASIN and ISBN. If that is the case all you need to do is click edit and then save and it will save the ASIN already entered.

Also info about the author should be in the profile not the book description.


message 81: by Michael (new)

Michael Korleone (michaelkorleone) | 3881 comments Ellie [The Empress] wrote: "Also does the author have a Hindu profile? I can't see one."

As far as I know, the author wrote primarily in Hindi and Urdu while his works were translated in English as well as Russian (Wiki says so). I guess he'd be having a minimum of 4 profiles on GR then?

Also, author never wrote books with his own name and except people who love trivia, almost no one even remembers his original name (Dhanpat Rai Srivastav). Author always wrote Hindi and Urdu works under pen name प्रेमचंद or پریمچند respectively (transliteration: Premchand). But he is also commonly referred to as Munshi Premchand where Munshi is an honorific title. Though the author never used Munshi in any of the books he wrote, it's still used on covers of several English translations. So that makes it 5 profiles then?

Hindi: प्रेमचंद [Premchand] --> 3 books
Urdu: پریمچند [Premchand] --> Can't find on GR (my Urdu is hopeless)
English: Premchand --> 79 distinct works
and Munshi Premchand --> 99 distinct works; only profile with complete author details and I'll treat this as primary
Russian: Мунши Премчанд [Munshi Premchand] --> no books added yet (I took that Russian transliteration from Google Translate)

First I'm going to sort through all his Hindi works where I add Munshi Premchand as primary author and प्रेमचंद as secondary. I'll then add Munshi Premchand as primary to all the English translated works lying under Premchand. Then I'll see which all English translated books I can combine with their originals. Oh I'll also be adding English transliteration to the Hindi titles so that they are easier to search (difficult to type Hindi script on widely used English keyboards). That should take me a few weeks at least


message 82: by lethe (new)

lethe | 16359 comments If he is known *primarily* as Munshi Premchand, that name may be used:

"The only exceptions are those where the author is known primarily by a name that includes the honorific:
Example:
Mahatma Gandhi (not Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi)"

(https://www.goodreads.com/help/show/6...)


message 83: by Michael (new)

Michael Korleone (michaelkorleone) | 3881 comments lethe wrote: "If he is known *primarily* as Munshi Premchand, that name may be used:

"The only exceptions are those where the author is known primarily by a name that includes the honorific:
Example:
Mahatma Ga..."


A few English translations were published with "Munshi Premchand" and a few were published with "Premchand". I should be using two different profiles then, correct?


message 84: by lethe (new)

lethe | 16359 comments Only if he is known primarily under that name. Otherwise no honorifics should be used.


message 85: by dely (new)

dely | 127 comments The name of author Liu Yichang has been changed into Chinese: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

The description is also in English but I don't think there should be the Chinese name.


message 86: by Empress (last edited Jul 27, 2015 01:13PM) (new)

Empress (the_empress) Working on #85

Primary author set (Liu Yichang).

The profile used to carry both the English and Chinese name. I've left the original profile as there are more books in Chinese and it will keep all the followers there and created the English profile.


message 87: by dely (new)

dely | 127 comments I think the English name should be added also to Boris Vasil'ev: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...


message 88: by lethe (new)

lethe | 16359 comments dely wrote: "I think the English name should be added also to Boris Vasil'ev: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show..."

The only genuinely English title appears to be a DVD: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1..., the rest is all Russian/Vietnamese/Turkish, as far as I can see.


message 89: by dely (new)

dely | 127 comments lethe wrote: "dely wrote: "I think the English name should be added also to Boris Vasil'ev: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show..."

The only genuinely English title appears to be a DVD: https://www.goo..."


I was sure it was book :/


message 90: by Empress (last edited Jul 27, 2015 02:18PM) (new)

Empress (the_empress) It is a book (I think), just with the wrong cover and in the wrong language:
http://www.worldcat.org/title/a-zori-...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/53...


message 91: by Empress (new)

Empress (the_empress) Found one:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

The uploaded covers were for a completely different book.


message 92: by lethe (last edited Jul 27, 2015 02:23PM) (new)

lethe | 16359 comments #89-90 Ah yes, it's a Russian book, just like this edition I just added the cover to: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Argh, such a mess.


message 93: by dely (new)

dely | 127 comments So, if he hasn't books in English (it seems also the English titles are books in Russian) the author name mustn't be changed?


message 94: by Empress (new)

Empress (the_empress) Yes, we need to go through the books edition by edition.


message 95: by dely (new)

dely | 127 comments Ellie [The Empress] wrote: "Yes, we need to go through the books edition by edition."

Thanks for your work ;-)


message 96: by lethe (new)

lethe | 16359 comments dely wrote: "It seems this is Russian too so he hasn't books in English and the name mustn't be changed. Am I right?"

That is what I think, but I must say I never got a clear answer from anyone if a translated author (into another language than English) still should have an English primary profile.

Ellie found an English-language title. It doesn't mean the name should be changed though, just the English version added as primary author.


message 97: by Empress (last edited Jul 27, 2015 03:02PM) (new)

Empress (the_empress) Done for now as I'm getting sleepy but there is more to be done. There are some short stories I'm not sure have been published separately.


message 98: by dely (new)

dely | 127 comments Thanks to both!


message 99: by Empress (new)

Empress (the_empress) Finally, done.


message 100: by Rafa (new)

Rafa Sánchez | 24 comments Hi friends, I see let say duplicated Vasily Grossman with Vasili Grossman, can you please merge this ?


back to top
This topic has been frozen by the moderator. No new comments can be posted.