Changing How We Work with Disambiguated Authors

[Jim]

So should we be removing the "Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information." bit? In trying to disambiguate some James Taylor works, it took going through three threads to realize that that list is not used anymore, so I shouldn't inform anyone of an error I found in it (i.e. James Taylor #3 seems to no longer exist).

[Melody]

I think we need some sort of note so people know that there are more authors with a name.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

A note is still a good idea; the link is not.

[Cait]

There's a note in the GR Librarian Stuff google doc that covers it:

<i>Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.</i>

(Is there a reason, by the way, that non-librarians can't see the similar names page? It seems like it would be awfully useful to show that list to everyone....)

[Jim]

Cait wrote: (Is there a reason, by the way, that non-librarians can't see the similar names page? It seems like it would be awfully useful to show that list to everyone....)"

I strongly concur. This is exactly the sort of thing that every user should be able to see. If this automatically appeared, it seems there would not be a need to manually insert a Librarian Note.

[Amara]

Jim wrote: "I strongly concur. This is exactly the sort of thing that every user should be able to see. If this automatically appeared, it seems there would not be a need to manually insert a Librarian Note."

I definitely agree that non-librarians should be able to see it, but I don't think it would necessary eliminate the need for the note. The note's a clear sign that the creation of the First^^Last profile wasn't just a typo, and so discourages unaware librarians from undoing the disambiguation.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Cait wrote: "Is there a reason, by the way, that non-librarians can't see the similar names page? It seems like it would be awfully useful to show that list to everyone...."

I haven't pushed on it for a while, but the last time I discussed it with the PTB, they were unconvinced that the majority of librarians would find it helpful. And creating a non-librarian version of the page is also non-trivial.

I will bring it up again the next time there is a discussion about same-name authors.