Author in need of attention

[rivka, Librarian Moderator]

I thought we could use a thread where we notify other librarians of authors who need cleanup -- either because we don't have time, or if we are unfamiliar with their work, or if we don't speak the appropriate language(s), or whatever.

I'll start. ;)

I did what I could with Mary Higgins Clark. However, since I don't read her books, I'm a bit confused as to which titles are really the same book, and which are different books with similar titles (perhaps in the same series).

Also, someone who speaks French and German (or who feels like playing around with a translator) would be helpful as well. One problem seems to be that many of her titles are not literal translations.

[Laura]

I didn't notice any egregious errors in the German titles. I cleaned up couple of them, but just for small stuff like periods after the title and so forth.

Of course, I was kind of tempted with Mary Higgins Clark to change the titles to "Ich hasse dieses dumme Buch" or "Das schlimmste Buch in der Welt" but I restrained myself, I swear.

[rivka, Librarian Moderator]

*snicker* Now, now. No editorializing. ;)

[Femmy]

Astrid Lindgren's list of works is still a mess, if anyone wants to work on that.

[Jon]

Leo Tolstoy needs lots of work.

Fyodor Dostoevsky, as well as F.M. Dostoevsky. (Still can't wait until the a.k.a./pseudonym feature comes out!)

I did a little work on both of these, but it's a vast job . . .

[Anna]

Ugh. I'll definitively try to do my best with Astrid Lindgren -there are lots of sites in Swedish which lists the translated titles as well, but I'd be happy if someone else wants to help, too!

[rivka, Librarian Moderator]

I was working on Lindgren last night when the site went down. But I think I had done about all I could without a working knowledge of Swedish -- even online translators can only do so much.

[Anna]

I just spent a couple of hours on it, and in terms of literature it was as bad as it could get.
Most of the chararcters have different names ( eg Kajsa Kavat/ Brenda Brave/ Polly/ Rosi) in the different languages (and Lindgren is translated into like 30 languages although thankfully it's just a few on this site).
The books often have different titles for the same book depending for each edition, even in the same language. One book has three different titles just in English!
Plus several of the titles are ridiculously similar in translation for different books (such as Cherry time ...and Spring time ...- two different books) GAH!
(I*m Swedish which obviously helps in this case :) )

I think it's all done now, for Lindgren. You and I pulled it off, Rivka. Let's choose something easier the next time... :-D

[Anna]

And I also wanted to say: great intitiative, Rivka!

[Lisa]

Rivka & Anna,

I found one more Kati in Amerika to combine, but I could do so ONLY because of how terrific the Astrid Lindgren page looks; I'd worked on it just a bit when I added my 3 Pippi books but now can see I did VERY little. You guys did a wonderful job!

And Rivka, great idea for us to alert each other to authors who need work.

[Lisa]

I've been working a little bit on Dr. Seuss books. You cannot just go to the author page, as most of the uncombined books are that way because of incorrect or different author spellings.

Another huge job so multiple people working on it would be helpful.

[John]

I've recently tackled some of the Mega-stars of the classics (Dickens, etc.), doing the French and Spanish titles as best I could (as well as the really obvious other languages). Translated titles often bear little or no resemblance to the original.

[Anna]

And I probably missed misspellings of her name, so I think it's a constant job. I'm going to try to add some of the books that weren't there (in Swedish eg) now that we're working on it anyhow. :-)


John - I KNOW! It drove me crazy with Lindgren. There should be a law against that :-)

[Anna]

Also, someone who speaks Indonesian - could that person check the editions. Some I found on a site that lists Astrid Lindgrens works in several languages, but some I just have no idea.

(And Lisa - I'm just now adding more books so I noticed your Kati edit. That book is a collection of the three others, so it's separate... :-) Sorry...but great job anyhow.)

[Lisa]

Anna AND All, So very sorry. I'm usually so careful about such things. Glad you caught that Anna. Thanks.

[Anna]

No problem Lisa, it was just because I have been staring at those titles for hours that I noticed it. :-)

[rivka, Librarian Moderator]

Cherry time ...and Spring time ...- two different books

:o Ooopsie. Google was no help, so I guessed. Good thing we had someone who actually speaks the language! :) Teamwork is awesome. :D

As far as Dr. Seuss, one question is what to do about the books published under his real name (Theodor Geisel or Theodor Seuss Geisel) OR his alternate pseudonym (Theo Le Sieg). Especially since I think in a couple cases different editions of the same book were published under different names. (Yup, Wacky Wednesday was.)

One possibility is to wait for the aka option to combine the ones listed under different versions of his name.

Thoughts?

[Lisa]

Yes, I am waiting for the AKA option for those. But sometimes that's not the issue. I saw one Dr. Seuss book where the author was listed as "Golden Books" and I'm sure there are others like that as well.

[rivka, Librarian Moderator]

I don't suppose you recall the title? I caught a few with misspellings. But if there are some with completely off authors, those will be harder to find.

I'll see what else "Golden Books" has written, though. ;)

[rivka, Librarian Moderator]

SEVEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINE?

Ok, I'm going to start on these, but some help would certainly be appreciated!

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

[Lisa]

I'm laughing, it's so ridiculous. I will help! Probably not until over this weekend.

[Rob]

Oh my dear lord.

I did one and I'm already ready to cry. :(

I'll try to hit a few at a time. Methinks it will take popping up the image in one window and writing the author in the other.

Yikes!

-Rob

[rivka, Librarian Moderator]

The image helps on some. Googling the ISBN helps on others. And for yet others, searching for the title on GoodReads is the best option. Not only does it often pull up other editions with the correct author, it's easier to deal with five Golden-Books-authored versions of The Poky Little Puppy at once than each one completely separately.

[Lisa]

Yes, I will pull up the titles on Goodreads because at least the correct author will show up on other editions. And then they can be combined. P.S.: Sometimes that doesn't work - I'm working on them for a few minutes and came to one where it's the ONLY edition on Goodreads and I have NO idea who the author is. But just did one by title and then was able to combine it with the other editions.

I will work on them this weekend. And will try to do one or a few at a time other times as well.

I have a question though: After we all correct the authors on these, PLEASE tell me they will not show up again with Golden Books as the author?! (Because they'll obviously still be listed that way at Amazon.)

[rivka, Librarian Moderator]

As far as I've been able to tell, Amazon's API only updates empty fields. And it sorts by ISBN, not author or title.

But yeah, I'd really like to have that confirmed by Otis.

[Matt]

I just did 10 or so. I don't really have anything to add, I just want the attention. I'll fix some more later tonight.

[rivka, Librarian Moderator]

And thanks to you and everyone else who worked on them, we're down 40 already. Good start! :)

[Lisa]

I've been working on these a bit and notice that some of the books listed with a Golden Books author are not books, but are coloring books, sticker books, activity books, and items even less like real books such as posters.

Also, some of the books, that's the only edition I can find, even when I search elsewhere using the isbn #. Golden Books always shows up as the author.

Assuming some of these books are worked on by many people who do not get author credit.

So, it seems that some books are going to remain authored by Golden Books.

Re the non-books and the books above, does anybody have any idea of how we should flag them so that multiple people don't try, over & over, to fix them? I do remember that Otis has said that there's no point in deleting non-books from Goodreads' database because they will just reappear.

[rivka, Librarian Moderator]

We could always change their titles to Not a Book (or somesuch) and then group them together.

I had also noticed that some of the Golden Books truly have no author. To be honest, I was relieved -- it means we can leave those ones alone. ;)

[Lisa]

Rivka, Good idea about putting Not a Book, although I'd do it in front of the "title" instead of deleting the old title.

But, not doing anything with books until current Goodreads bugs are fixed.

[Matt]

Reminding everyone that Golden Books still has 566 books listed and while some fall under the "hard to find" or "not a book" categories listed before I'd say theat 3 out of 4 are just a google search of the isbn away from finding the author.

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