New librarian Questions

[rivka, Former Moderator]

These are all the official GR widgets. Sounds like someone must have come up with that one on their own.

[Sab H.]

Oh, that's what I thought! Thanks! ;D

[Otis]

There is one actually! Each group has a widget, which you can find on the edit your group membership page.

http://www.goodreads.com/group/member...

[Sab H.]

Oh, Thanks!! Great!! That wasn't the one I saw tho, But works for me! Thanks!

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Oh, oh, that !

*feels dumb*

[Niledaughter]

in this listopia : no 5 & no 11 are the same book (combiened) - the yacoubian building, also no (9 , 31) children of our Alley, is it a system problem or should I do something about it ?
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/38...

in this one
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/13...
no 2 (the kite runner) & no 18 (a thousand splinded suns) are fiction books , should I move them myself to the fiction list ?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Rasha, I ran the "check for duplicates" on the first list (found on each list's edit page and it fixed them.

As for books that don't belong on a list, you can remove them, but be very careful about doing so.

[Niledaughter]

Thanks :)
is there a way to move them with thier votes to this one
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/13...

[rivka, Former Moderator]

No, there's no way to move them to another list.

[Niledaughter]

Thanks , I deleted them ,left links to show the reasons & a note of the right list (the fiction one ) to vote in .

[Niledaughter]

For this auther
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
can this be an offecial website ?
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Seems reasonable.

[Brian]

Is there a recommended source image size/spec for cover art?

e.g. 480px wide, 300 dpi? or? It would save time and trouble if I just scanned them at the right quality to begin with instead of making them smaller to upload, then having the website trim them again to it's specs.

I believe some pictures have a higher quality image available when you click on the thumbnail - is that the max upload size?

Comments appreciated,

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Brian wrote: "Is there a recommended source image size/spec for cover art?"

Not to my knowledge.

[Brian]

One more question - is there a link where I can see a summary of all *my* changes? Might be a cool motivator :-)

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Yup. :D

(Click where it says "Goodreads librarian" on your profile page.)

[Brian]

Awesome - thanks!

rivka wrote: "Yup. :D

(Click where it says "Goodreads librarian" on your profile page.)"

[Harlequin Books]

Hello, When entering some of recent titles I have run into an issue with isbn #'s. For the past couple of months there have been an average of 10 books that shared isbn numbers with an older book, usually from the 70's. Totally different authors, titles, and/or genre.

What is the correct way to enter the new book?

I have been creating the book without providing the isbn so at least if a person is looking for it by title, they should be able to find it.

[Cait]

Creating the book without an ISBN is the correct way to do it; we also recommend that you add a librarian's note to the top of the edition so that other librarians know that it is a valid edition. (Here's the instructions from the librarian manual.)

[Harlequin Books]

Thank you. :)

[Brian]

OK, I've read merge authours in the manual, but I'm still not clear.

Russell Thorndike
Russell Thorndike Thorndyke
Russell Thorndike

are all the same guy. I don't know which spelling is 'definative' - There are cover pictures with both i and y in them.

He's popular enough he's got his own Yahoo group so I feel like I'm messing with a legend here :-)

What's the right thing to do?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Library of Congress prefers the "i" spelling, so I'd merge the other two to that.

[Brian]

Thanks, I'll go ahead with that then.

[willaful]

When adding series information, should it be added to all three title fields?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

It's fairly irrelevant to the sort field, and the work field varies.

[Cynthia]

I'm not precisely new - I just haven't been around much for a while :-) It is AMAZING how much you can forget when you aren't using knowledge constantly - and, of course, if you aren't keeping up with these forums constantly, there are all manner of little updates and changes that go right by.

So I'm certain that I need to re-read the manual, and I can't seem to find my bookmark or remember where it lives. Help, pretty please?

I saw something which led me to believe that pseudonyms might have been implemented - is that the case? If so, how does one use them, or is that already in the manual? (If so, I'll just read the manual - no need to repeat yourselves.)

Thanks!
Cyn

[Lisa]

Cyn,

Here's a link to the librarian manual:

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

You can find it at this group's description if you click the more link.

And, no, as far as I know the AKA-pseudonyms feature has not yet been implemented. Might you have seen some posts about secondary authors?

[Andy]

Looks like Lisa beat me to it... ah, well, it's the thought that counts, right?

rivka, may I suggest that the librarian manual and Otis's "an intro to being a librarian" be added to your "Useful links for Librarians" thread? I probably won't forget where the manual is for a couple of days now, but after a couple weeks...

Thanks!

[rivka, Former Moderator]

The manual is linked to in the group description, but sure.

Um, "Otis' intro" would be what, exactly?

[MissJessie]

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/9...

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Ok, linking that as well.

[Cynthia]

Thank you!

I just remembered something, though. There have been quite a few times when I wished I could easily refer to the manual without needing to have a web page open to it. Has there been any consideration given to creating one or more downloadable versions of it in various formats? Doing so would require issuing version numbers, but that wouldn't be such a bad idea - that way we would know that as of version (foo) the policy regarding (x) was to do (y).

Thanks,
Cyn

[rivka, Former Moderator]

What is the advantage of having it be downloadable? Why is it any better to have an open Word document than an open browser tab?

[Cynthia]

I meant an ebook of some sort, not a Word document.

Honestly, I have too many browser tabs open already when I'm editing - and it isn't easy to determine which of the many GR tabs is the manual tab.

I have a lot of RAM on both of my PCs, but I am aware that most people don't have those specs. Every browser tab consumes more resources, and brings the user closer to the possibility of a crash. That isn't an issue for some, and I invite them to keep doing what they're doing - but it's fairly easy to provide alternatives.

Word is pretty resource-intensive, as well, which is why I wouldn't put the manual into a Word file.

I just saved the current manual to a HTML file on my hard drive, and from there it's a matter of a few minutes to create an epub file so that I can refer to it on my iTouch, no matter which of my PCs I'm using to edit. (I already have my bookmarks synchronized between the two computers, so the references are always available on both.)

Stanza is a free epub viewer for Windows, Mac, and (I think?) Linux, if one prefers. It takes up fewer resources than Word or loading a PDF using Acrobat. (I can't speak to how it compares to Foxit or one of the other alternative PDF viewers.)

There are several other ebook formats that are fairly standard, and I know that I can create PDF and PRC files very easily from HTML files. Unfortunately, I haven't any experience with making decent TOCs or anything in those.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

The manual gets revised and tweaked too often to make that realistic. And I question whether a single browser tab -- with no resource-intensive images, music, etc. -- takes more resources than an HTML-enabled ebook. Or did you want to remove the functionality of all the example links?

[Cynthia]

Acutally, the links should work just fine, since the iTouch has its own browser. I don't recall using them in a long time, so I haven't tried. I seldom do more than glance at the manual for a quick reminder - "Oh, right, that's how to combine duplicate books" - then go back to what I'm doing.

I find it a bit surprising that the manual is still being tweaked so much, but like I said, I haven't been around much in a long time. I'll just use the ebook I made for myself. Should anyone else ever want a copy, he or she is welcome to drop a message to me and I'll be happy to share.

Thanks!
Cyn

[Usako]

I haven't tried to get my librarian status activated yet but now I wish I had it. Would there be a librarian who could be extra helpful and assist me in updating my friend's book page and gain her author access to her author page? Seems that her publisher added the book but the other info isn't there such as pictures, synopsis, etc.

Appreciate any help a librarian can give me. And I might send cookies out of appreciation!

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Tanja, anyone here would be happy to help update, I'm sure. :)

As for author program access, she just needs to click on the "Is this you? Let us know" link on her author profile page to request it. Approval usually happens with 24-48 hours.

[Usako]

Thanks rivka! Could I PM you with the synopsis and low-res book cover for the book itself to be added? :)

[rivka, Former Moderator]

You can't PM attachments, but if the book cover is hosted anywhere you can link to it. A PM is fine. :)

[༺Kiki༻]

Hi all, I'm trying to sort out the correct titles for a set of audiobooks, each containing multiple titles. I've read through the manual, plus dozens of discussions, and I'm still not absolutley certain how to address these:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/63...

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...


I think this might be close, based on an excellent post by Cait:

The Dunwich Horror / The Call of Cthulhu (The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft, Volume 1)

The Horror at Red Hook / Herbert West: Re-animator / The Outsider / The Statement of Randolph Carter (The Dark Worlds of H.P. Lovecraft, Volume 3)

The title for the 3rd volume is so long, which is causing me to hesitate. Any suggestions?

I'm also wondering how to tackle inconsistencies I've noticed with series. The manual says not to worry about alternate formats, but it's so untidy - some books on my shelves use a different series format for each book!

If the official series title contains Trilogy, Series, Sequence, or the like do you include it in the book's title? What about A and The at the beginning, keep or not? Should the series use title case or start case?

Which of these is preferred?

A. Greenwitch (The Dark is Rising Sequence, #3)
B. Greenwitch (The Dark is Rising, #3)
C. Greenwitch (Dark is Rising, #3)
D. Greenwitch (Dark Is Rising, #3) [using start case:]

I made a few title series edits earlier today, and am now second guessing. Just because the inconsistencies drive me batty doesn't mean I should mess with them. I'd appreciate any direction from more senior librarians. Thanks!

[Michael]

What are title case and start case?

[This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For]

I'd go with B. Generally speaking, I try to avoid words like "series", "sequence", "trilogy", etc. Sometimes this is unavoidable, but generally speaking, the fact that it is a series can be understood by the fact that it's contained within the () with a #.

As for the leading "The", I usually leave those off, as they sort of go with the "Series" at the end, but in this specific case "The Dark is Rising" is actually a solid and specific phrase related to the books, unlike, say "The Harry Potter Series" or "The Twilight Series".

[༺Kiki༻]

Michael wrote: "What are title case and start case?"

Hi Michael, sorry for the confusion. Start case capitalizes every word. Title case varies by publisher, usually prepositions and conjunctions are not capitalized. I've seen series formatted on GR using both cases, hence my question.

Start case: This Is My Title
Title case: This is My Title / This is my Title (depends on publisher)

[༺Kiki༻]

This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For wrote: "I'd go with B. Generally speaking, I try to avoid words like "series", "sequence", "trilogy", etc. Sometimes this is unavoidable, but generally speaking, the fact that it is a series can be underst..."

Brilliant, thank you so much! I agree, in this case the leading "The" should be included. The most popular edition doesn't use it, so I followed that example when adding the series to two editions that were missing the information entirely.

I most fear making erroneous changes to correct information. Now I can proceed with confidence.

[Sofia]

Hello everyone, I just became a librarian on Goodreads and am really happy about being able to help out at the site!

I have a question though (apologies if it has been asked before, I searched for it but couldn't seem to find it). Recently I bought a few graphic novels and when I searched for them on the site I realized their covers looked nothing like the ones I was holding in my hand. A couple of examples:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/89...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/89...

The first one actually has an alternate cover that's closer to the original, but it's listed as hardcover, and the book I have is the softcover. I checked Amazon but the covers they have there are the same washed out ones (a true pity since these covers have absolutely gorgeous colors).

My question is, is it ok if I change the covers to versions that match the originals more closely, even if they are different from the ones at Amazon? If so, how do I go about changing them - deleting the current ones and uploading the new ones?

Thanks in advance!

[Cait]

Welcome, Sofia!

My question is, is it ok if I change the covers to versions that match the originals more closely, even if they are different from the ones at Amazon?

No, please don't change the covers -- they are likely to be correct for some printings of the book. The instructions for adding an alternate cover editions are here in the manual. Thanks for checking first!

[Sofia]

Thank you. I had read that part of the manual but assumed it was for completely different covers and not for color corrections... Thanks for clarifying!

[Shasta]

Hello,
I just joined as a librarian this week and I'm looking forward to helping out in any way I can.

My first question is about cover images. Do you have a list of trusted sites for images? Obviously, the main booksellers (like Amazon) would have photos, but what if they're currently unavailable?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

If it's linked on pretty much any book site to that SPECIFIC ISBN, it's probably fine. Just matching the title (or title and format) alone is not enough, it must be the same ISBN. And please don't remove/replace any existing images.

Welcome! :)