Changing How We Work with Disambiguated Authors

[Tyler]

There are two authors listed as A. C. Grayling. The book The Refutation of Scepticism belongs with the author who has a profile filled in but appears under an author with a blank profile who may be a duplicate. Is there a way to associate this book to the other author's profile?

[Deborah]

Tyler wrote: "There are two authors listed as A. C. Grayling. The book The Refutation of Scepticism belongs with the author who has a profile filled in but appears under an author with a blank pr..."

I merged the profiles, the books were just imported with a space between the initials. Goodreads policy is no spaces. If you think there are two authors with the name A.C. Grayling, let us know which books belong to the other one and we can create another profile.

[Tyler]

Thanks, Deborah. No, I think this is the same author with duplicate profiles.

[Julie]

trying to sort out the two(2)John Shea's

[Shay]

julie wrote: "trying to sort out the two(2)John Shea's"

Is what you're saying that the author of Rat Bastards is not the author of The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers?

Also, there's a John Shea that is a narrator for a lot of works by Ted Bell. There appears to be at least one work by Bell that is incorrectly attributed to John Shea as an author.

[Abcdarian]

There are several John Shea authors; I have separated them as best I can & sorted the Ted Bell works that were wrongly attributed. Checking the similar names link will show the various ones; there could well be corrections to be made yet.
http://www.goodreads.com/author/simil...

[Julie]

Thank you soo much, that is perfect

[Grada (BoekenTrol)]

I have found two authors Jorge Louis Borges :
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

The one the upper link goes to, is the right author for the book that I edited: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12... I edited this book's data, to be able to combine this book with the other editions of "The book of Sand". But when clicking on the author with the Georgian edition of this book, I go to a page that has no author information and only 2 books.
What is the trick? Does one of the two have a double space? I also can't find the 'disambigue' link on either authors' page.

[Paula]

The author names are different

Jorge Louis Borges vs Jorge Luis Borges (no O in one)

They need to be the same - I have merged the profiles

You should be good to go with the book combine

[Grada (BoekenTrol)]

Paula wrote: "The author names are different

Jorge Louis Borges vs Jorge Luis Borges (no O in one)

They need to be the same - I have merged the profiles

You should be good to go with the book combine"

Thank you! *is very much ashamed for overlooking the 'o'*

[Moloch]

Sorry, but I didn't understand how this works. I have disambiguated two authors both named Antonio Serra:

Antonio^Serra: Comics & Graphic Novels = http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
Antonio^^Serra: Economics = http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

How do I add the disambiguation note on the profiles now? Thank you

[Paula]

You edit the author profile and add:

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

I have done the first one - you can copy and paste the HTML from there by editing that profile or

copy and paste from here

https://docs.google.com/View?id=dg4dd...

[Moloch]

Oh, it was... simpler than I thought! :-) Thanks

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Paula wrote: "You edit the author profile and add:

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information."

I would not add the "See this thread" line (or link), as that thread has not been updated in over a year.

[Ellen]

Paula wrote: "The author names are different

Jorge Louis Borges vs Jorge Luis Borges (no O in one)

They need to be the same - I have merged the profiles

You should be good to go with the book combine"

Paula wrote: "The author names are different

Jorge Louis Borges vs Jorge Luis Borges (no O in one)

They need to be the same - I have merged the profiles

You should be good to go with the book combine"

I've started the process of combining books, but I think we really need the help of librarians who are fluent in other languages, in particular Spanish, Portuguese, German, and so on. There are so many books whose titles may differ from those of the English versions but, upon reading the description sections, one can tell are the same books. But I'm never sure, so I hesitate to combine these kinds of books. Do we have a discussion topic through which we can send requests to librarians who are fluent in other languages? Thanks so much!

[Paula]

If I need language help I start a new topic "Spanish help needed or such like" and some one generally comes along and helps.

The other place is to use worldcat, they often have the name of the book in English and I use that to work out how to combine editions

[Ellen]

Paula wrote: "If I need language help I start a new topic "Spanish help needed or such like" and some one generally comes along and helps.

The other place is to use worldcat, they often have the name of the boo..."

Thanks so much for these tips, Paula. I was starting to go a bit crazy trying to figure out which of Borges' books were which, and just surrendered. Google Translate can only do so much. I'll check Worldcat to see if it can provide any help. So I simply post a message to the librarians' group asking for Spanish help needed and perhaps someone will decide to tackle Borges' books? Excellent!! I'll do so. Thanks again!!

[Sara ♥]

I just wanted to say that I haven't really tried to disambiguate authors since this new feature went into effect... until yesterday! WOW! I love it!

[Michael]

Hi, a quick question. I was looking at authors named Stephen King, and found three that have no books attributed to them. I'm at a loss as to how I should get rid of these profiles. Can I delete them, or do I need a super to get them? Here are links, in case it's not possible for me to delete them by myself:

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

[Paula]

We don't have a way to delete them, they are fine to stay eventually there will be a script to remove (but that is a way away)

or merge them in to the Stephen King profile if they have no books / fans / quotes associated with them.

Or you can merge in to Unknown

[Michael]

Oh, ok. That makes sense. I'll merge them with Stephen King. Thanks!

[Carolyn]

Need help. I have a Goodreads Author profile and have imported 3 of my books. There are two other authors with my same name. I was able to get one of my books linked to me in Nov 2011. I am not able to get my other 2 books linked to me and I'm not seeing any links to distinguish the similar names. I am the primary author for my books. The second Carolyn Flynn is a secondary co-author of her books. The third goes by Carolyn Brigit Flynn. We all write non-fiction self-help books.

The thread for disambiguated authors was closed so I'm not sure how the three similar named authors get identified.

Thanks!

Carolyn Flynn
author of Heal Your Grief, SMART Talk, and Holiday Peace And Joy.

[Vicky]

Carolyn wrote: "Need help. I have a Goodreads Author profile and have imported 3 of my books. There are two other authors with my same name. I was able to get one of my books linked to me in Nov 2011. I am not..."

I pulled your books out into your profile - for future reference, your author profile is Carolyn^^Flynn (where the ^ is a space).

[Alison]

Another authorial cry for help, since the need to rescue books prompted me to think about finally getting myself disambiguated.

I am Alison Sinclair, and the information in the main profile points to me. I am responsible for: Legacies, Blueheart, Calvalcade, Throne Price (co-author), Darkborn, Lightborn, and Shadowborn (plus the German translations of the latter three, Nachtgeboren, Lichtgeboren and Schattengeboren). I'm also in the collection Space Inc.

By the looks of it there are at least two of my namesakes in the list, and I hesitate to start meddling in case I break something of theirs. Assuming I am able to edit, which I have not tested, should I enter the extra spaces in my own name, or in the names of the other Alison Sinclairs?

Many thanks. Alison.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Alison wrote: "or in the names of the other Alison Sinclairs?"

This, on the edit page of each book that is not yours.

[Alison]

rivka wrote: "Alison wrote: "or in the names of the other Alison Sinclairs?"

This, on the edit page of each book that is not yours."

Thank you, but I'm afraid I'm back with cap in hand again. My name is listed as second author for some titles, and I am not offered an editable field. I thought I'd just delete the name and then re-add it with added spaces. Definite red ERROR.

What is the trick? Thank you, Alison.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Alison wrote: "I thought I'd just delete the name and then re-add it with added spaces."

That's exactly right. But it looks like you'd need librarian status to do that.

If you link to each book needing moving, I or another librarian can help you with that.

[Alison]

rivka wrote: "Alison wrote: "I thought I'd just delete the name and then re-add it with added spaces."

That's exactly right. But it looks like you'd need librarian status to do that.

If you link to each book n..."

Thank you. They are
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...

[Paula]

re 78 - you are dismabiguated now !

http://www.goodreads.com/author/list/...

[Shelleyrae]

I figured out how to disambiguate an author but I can't figure out how to access the works with multiple authors in the disambiguate feature where they are not the primary author.

The profile Wendy James (Australian Fiction Author)http://www.goodreads.com/author/list/... has several books listed in her profile that belong to
Wendy^James (Anthropologist) http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/....

Can someone explain how best to attribute these titles to the right author?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Shelleyrae wrote: "I can't figure out how to access the works with multiple authors in the disambiguate feature where they are not the primary author."

You can't, unfortunately. To disambiguate with an author in any slot other than primary, each book must be edited manually. Remove the exiting author with that name, and add them with the correct number of spaces. Then save the book.

[Shelleyrae]

rivka wrote: "Shelleyrae wrote: "I can't figure out how to access the works with multiple authors in the disambiguate feature where they are not the primary author."

You can't, unfortunately. To disambiguate wi..."

Thank you!

[Pamela]

In order to disambiguate an author, do I need to create an author profile for the "new" author with the same name? I am working on the author Graham Moore who has several non fiction works listed that are obviously written by another Graham Moore. Thanks.

[Paula]

If not a GR Author then |you need to go to the author profile and edit that, half way down the page is a disambiguate link. Select that, enter the new name and select the works that belong to the new name.

http://www.goodreads.com/help/librari...

[David]

Speaking of disambiguation, apparently there's another David T. Page who has written a book called The Sins of the Father (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...) and whose should work should be listed on another author profile page than that of the author of An Explorer's Guide to Yosemite: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

Help? Cheers, dtp

[Sara ♥]

Got it! I noticed that the other three books you have listed on your profile are very similar. Do any of them need combining, or are they individual works that just have similar names?

[David]

Wow, you're good. There should be two books on there (the first edition and the second). The ones with cover images are good. The third (without cover image) could be deleted or perhaps combined with the latest edition. Thanks so much! -dtp

[Michael]

I want to disentangle the authors who are lumped together under John Lee http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
Most of them seem to be "John Lee", the narrator: http://www.tantor.com/NarratorDetail....
I can't find him here: http://www.goodreads.com/author/simil...

Should I create a new "John^^^^^^Lee" entry for "John Lee (Narrator)" and move all his book to the new entry or remove all the other authors from "John^Lee" to a new "John^^^^^^Lee", a "John Lee (hotchpotch)" entry, before sorting them out?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

I suggest the former, and recommend using the disambiguation tool on the author's edit page.

[Alison]

Paula wrote: "re 78 - you are dismabiguated now !

http://www.goodreads.com/author/list/..."

Thank you (far too belatedly)

[[deleted user]]

Is there a way to disambiguate single-name authors? I have a listing that has two separate authors on the same author profile, but the manual doesn't offer any help if they don't have more than one name.

Profile is here

These three titles belong to the same author:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...

This one doesn't:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39...

Thanks.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Moss wrote: "Is there a way to disambiguate single-name authors?"

No.

[[deleted user]]

Aw. Okay, thanks.

[Chris]

Hi. On my profile page at:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
there is a book not by me. This one is not by me:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14...

[Cait]

Chris, I've moved that book off of your profile. You are the default Chris Butler in the system, though, so you may continue to find new books imported and attributed to you. Just post here (please start a new thread in this group under Book Issues) if you find any more.

(ETA: If you'd like, you can add this sentence to your bio, which is the standard notification:
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.)

[Jenny]

I'm really sorry to be a nuisance, but a play by a different "Jenny Schwartz" has popped up under my profile. I don't think the other Jenny is on Goodreads. The play is God's Ear http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...

Is there some way I can mark the play/book so it doesn't get attributed to me again (it's happened before).

Thanks

[Amara]

I've removed your name from the book and corrected Jenny_Schwartz to Jenny^^Schwartz (^ = a space), which is the proper method of disambiguation. (You are Jenny^Schwartz.)

As for making sure it doesn't get added to your profile again by imports, someone else will have to offer some insight on that front.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Jenny, new editions of works by other Jenny Schwartzes will show up on your profile (as the one-space author, you are the default spelling). But just post in this group, and someone can move them.

[Jenny]

Thank you both :)

I didn't want to be causing work for you if there was something I ought to be doing. Much appreciated!

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Not a problem. :)