Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
Requests for Superlibrarians
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Edwina wrote: "https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
These 2 books look to be exactly the same. Plea..."
Looks can be deceiving.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... used to be the ebook edition (ISBN 9780979226595) for the original cover but was just vandalized by a bot, had it's format changed from ebook to Kindle and the ASIN B073TPK3HR added. Then an ACE was created from that edition and the ebook ISBN removed along with the ASIN (via ACE tool) & moved to the newest cover here -> https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Only GR staff can fix this because they need to move the bloody ebook isbn back to https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... and revert the format to ebook.
Tal wrote: "Edwina wrote: "https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
These 2 books look to be exactly..."
The ISBN has been added back to the book. Not sure what else needs to be done. Should it still have an ASIN?
Edwina wrote: "Tal wrote: "Edwina wrote: "https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
These 2 books look t..."
When the edition was merged(deleted) the valid 1st cover ebook edition with ISBN 9780979226595 (which was in wide distribution not limited to KU) was deleted and all users with that shelving had it replaced with an edition they didn't shelve. Unfortunately it was merged (6 minutes) before I posted and thus too late. You really need to look through the change log to understand whether something is a true duplicate or just an error in editing by either bots or humans. With how widespread the bot damage is to ebook and kindle editions in particular never take anything at face value from the book page.
Tal wrote: "Edwina wrote: "Tal wrote: "Edwina wrote: "https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
These..."
How do I look through the book change log?
Should I not be reporting books that look like duplicates to me?
Is that only something librarians are supposed to do?
I was only trying to help by reporting these things when I see them. Sorry if I caused a mess. Sometimes it's very confusing to the user about how things are done on here.
Edwina wrote: "How do I look through the book change log?"If you want to PM me I can link you to a tutorial I wrote several years ago to help librarian applicants when the quiz was implemented. Reviewing the change log doesn't just require looking at it, but also understanding what you are seeing. It's very much an auditing skill. It takes time and experience to understand. I can also show you how to check # shelvings to determine if an actual duplicate needs a super to set the status to Deleted. :)
Edwina wrote:"Should I not be reporting books that look like duplicates to me?"
You can report whatever you wish but it's always better to make requests based on facts and not assumptions. What something "looks like" on a book page can be very misleading until you look at the history of changes. The wording in the "Read this before posting in this folder" includes "Please only post in this folder if you are certain a Goodreads Superlibrarian is needed." If you are not certain something is a duplicate and that it actually requires a super the appropriate folder to make such requests would be Book & Author Page Issues.
Edwina wrote:"Is that only something librarians are supposed to do?"
No.
Edwina wrote: "I was only trying to help by reporting these things when I see them. Sorry if I caused a mess. Sometimes it's very confusing to the user about how things are done on here."
I totally understand your motivation and ultimately it was not your responsibility that a valid ebook edition with ISBN got nuked from the database against policy. With the current **bot situation what you can view on a book page should never be assumed to be accurate.
**
a)Digital ebook editions with shelvings (ebook, Kindle & Nook) are being deleted for no discernible reason.
b)Distinct ebook editions (ebooks w/ISBN & Kindle with ASIN) are being mashed together into one record. Either at time of import or later bot edits overwriting existing book records.
The "b" scenario is what happened in this case. It was correctable up until the merge happened. GR staff can still move ISBN's and that in addition to reverting the format to ebook was all that was necessary to fix the bot vandalized ebook edition. The timing was just unfortunate. It's certainly not the first valid book to get deleted and unfortunately won't be the last.
I'm glad I'm not a librarian. It sounds like a headache to learn and remember so many things. I think I'll just stop reporting what I think are errors and stick with requesting ACEs and page count additions. Thanks for your time in replying to my post.
Edwina wrote: "I'm glad I'm not a librarian. It sounds like a headache to learn and remember so many things. I think I'll just stop reporting what I think are errors and stick with requesting ACEs and page count ..."You should still report what you think are errors, wrong/missing metadata. That can have tremendous value to users of the site.
IMHO, deleting duplicates is probably the lowest value added librarian activity when it comes to fulfilling the GR mission to readers of "Track the books you're reading, have read, and want to read." The existence of duplicates just doesn't have the same negative impact on GR users as the absence of a book they want to shelve.
I've been on GR for 10 years and I think I've made less than 10 requests of supers to merge in that time. Almost all were canceled pre-order ASINs that needed to be merged with a new pre-order ASIN so the existing reader shelvings transitioned seamlessly or no-ARC issued placeholders. Anyway, my offer stands if you want to learn how to look up edit history and shelving stats, just shoot me a PM. :)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
These 2 books look to be exactly the same. Please merge.