Hans Christian Andersen - A Few Problems

[Cait]

Hi, Abigail! That sounds like quite the project. :)

First: Yes, the best way to handle those Disney adaptions is going to be to separate each one out and then change its primary author to something which better reflects that this is a heavily adapted story: the adapter's name, if it can be found.

Second: Auto-combines are already discouraged for HCA (the link is only at the bottom of the page with a stern warning) because of the numbers of combined works, so the biggest concern will be well-meaning librarians. In that case, a librarian's note per edition is generally useful, since it's prominent on the combine page.

Third: You should be able to save changes to the default description when you save changes to any edition -- are the changes not saving? It's been working for me in the past, so you might want to make a bug report for that. The default description should be stripped of all edition-specific information whenever you notice it. (The default description is a different field from the edition description; it's one of the new fields at the bottom of the edit page.) (The way to keep a default description from showing is to put anything in the description field of the specific edition, by the way; since nothing else will show, you should make sure to put a full description in.)

[Carolyn]

For the Disney tales, we had come up with a default author name of Walt Disney Company for all of them, since stuff published by them rarely has an author attributed. (It's a mondo-project I started and haven't visited in a while - I definitely need to get back to working on it!)

I'd suggest changing the primary author on the Disney one to Walt Disney Company and then they will be moved over to that author page and off the HCA page entirely.

I agree with Cait on her answers to your other two questions. = ) The only thing I'd add is with the sheer number you're talking about, might be better to make a librarian's note at the top of the page, warning other well-meaning folks not to combine collections, since their content will be different. (This is a problem on many authors, though. I just cleaned up a bunch of combines of Louis L'Amour's collected works yesterday.)

Thanks for taking this on!

[vicki_girl]

Carolyn wrote: "I'd suggest changing the primary author on the Disney one to Walt Disney Company and then they will be moved over to that author page and off the HCA page entirely."

They will still need to be separated out manually. Changing the author doesn't automatically uncombine them. :)

[Carolyn]

vicki_girl wrote: "They will still need to be separated out manually. Changing the author doesn't automatically uncombine them. :) "

You are definitely right about that!
Sorry, forgot to mention it.

Good luck Abigail!

[Dori]

Actually, what you stated about somebody deleting/changing the information is exactly what happened. I looked in the librarian change log for that edition, and indeed, that's what someone did last year. As to fixing it...well, hopefully someone else will chime in with a good idea.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Looks like.

And yeah, I'd delete it and let the ratings transfer to the primary edition.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Abigail wrote: "Possibly imported again, after someone messed with this other listing?"

Almost certainly.

Deleted.

[Paula]

The edit page problem is a known bug and reported in feedback, being worked on

Have you sent messages to the librarians doing the recombines? If so I have in this situation normally emailed support at GR (or message rivka) with the details and ask for a formal GR email to the users.

[Paula]

Adaptions should not be combined.

The adaptor should be placed in the primary author position, then "the other author" in the secondary position.

In that example Debra Hautzig should be in the primary position and HCA secondary.

Make sure to separate from the other editions if incorrectly combined before changing authors

Adding librarian notes also

[vicki_girl]

Abigail wrote: "I guess I will add an individual librarian note for each collection I separate."

I have found that there is no way to prevent these types of recombines. I have done many over and over again, with adaptations, collections, etc. However, I have found it is a great time saver to put a librarian note on EACH individual edition. Examples:

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

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

That way I can just click separate on all the items marked as "Four Stories" or "Adaptation" (or whatever). Then I recombine that group back together. This takes about 10-15 minutes to separate (and then recombine) each group, versus hours searching out each individual edition.

[vicki_girl]

I was actually working on "Great Illustrated Classics", which are children's adaptations with text and illustrations. However, I have come across the "Classics Illustrated" books in my crusade to separate out adaptations where I can. The "Classics Illustrated" book you linked is actually a comic book adaptation. Wikipedia Links below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classics...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classics...

It has been very difficult to track down the actual writers of these comic books. There are two options for these. One, list the illustrator as primary. Two, Albert Lewis Kanter was the series creator. I have sometimes added him as the primary author, as Editor.

The Ladybird books are usually adaptations. Worldcat.com can usually help. Often the adapter will be listed first on Worldcat, or at the bottom of the Worldcat record it will state "retold by A. Smith".

[rivka, Former Moderator]

vicki_girl wrote: "However, I have found it is a great time saver to put a librarian note on EACH individual edition."

I've noticed some like this (Vicki's and others') and they really help. Including if another librarian comes along and can see things have been combined that shouldn't be, it means they can do the separation, even if not familiar with the details.

(Also if they realize right AFTER they approve a combine that they shouldn't have done that . . . oops!)

[Carolyn]

About the Walt Disney page, something must have happened to change the author # in the link above, because it does come up in a regular search: Walt Disney Company.
Good luck with the HCA again Abigail!