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New "role" feature for authors/editors/etc.
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Cait
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Oct 10, 2008 09:15AM
LOOK OUT! There may be some bugs in the works here -- I think I just corrupted (the dreaded "an unexpected error occurred") a record trying to change its author field. I have its data preserved via my browser history but not, I'm afraid, any reviews....
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Mod
Ooohhh....I like the fact that the list is no longer limited to three. However, is there a way you can give a role to the first author? For an edited volume, the first author should be editor...Also...wouldn't it be better to have a dropdown list of possible roles rather than an open ended box? I would think there shouldn't be that many acceptable roles and it would increase consistency (and the potential for a search by function):
* Author
* Editor
* Translator
* Illustrator
* Contributor
* Narrator (for audiobooks)
Any others?
Mod
Agreed.
Also...wouldn't it be better to have a dropdown list of possible roles rather than an open ended box?
STRONGLY agree. Your list looks pretty comprehensive.
Agree with Rivka & all the above. If it's that buggy and we're losing reviews, should we wait to use this until it's more stable?!
Mod
Rivka, Thanks for the good news. I not surprised that Goodreads is on it.
About the role list:What about the person who selected and collected poems of a poet and published a book of these poems? can we say we need a "Collector" on the list?
As the second authors are mmigrated by the system automatically, how are we going to add their role without deleting them first and adding them again? I can't find any links for editing the role, there is just a 'x' for deleting!
I think a collector, in the sense you (Shadi) describe it, would usually be considered an editor (even if they did not "edit" anything, per se). I could be wrong about this.
Yes, Michael, I think you're right. For certain books the responsibility of the editor is to select the works that go into the book and to arrange them, and then also often to write some sort of introduction.
Mohammad, See message 3 in this thread. We all agree we need a place for translators.
Mod
I've been wondering the same thing.
Also, I agree that the collector of a book of poems is called an editor.
The thought of having the role be open text was just to be flexible for other languages and things we didn't think of. We did try to make a strongly worded box to keep the names consistent. I will add Michael's suggestions to that box.The way to add a role to existing authors is unfortunately to delete them them and re-add with a role. There is no harm in this and the author_id won't change.
There are still a few issues with the page that displays all the works by an author, hoping to fix those today.
Mod
I noticed that. Glad to hear y'all are on top of this.
The way to add a role to existing authors is unfortunately to delete them them and re-add with a role. There is no harm in this and the author_id won't change.Otis, without going and checking, is that possible for first authors? Shouldn't there be a "role" field for them as well? (e.g., a book with an Editor may not have a formal author).
Deleting a second author to just add his role is a tedious and also error prone task! We need an edit option!
What do people think about now including "authors" who have roles such as "Preface" or "Forward? In the past I've removed these, since they were not actually author's of the work, but with the new system this seems like a reasonable inclusion since we can now specify the specific contribution.
I find if there are three authors, I have to add them one by one and very often the one I add third ends up in second position. Presumably the authors and publishers wanted the authors in a particular order so although it isn't terribly important, neither is it correct data.
I'd definitely like to start adding them, Michael, although I'm stumped at the moment on finding a good noun for their roles!
Michael, I'm glad you brought it up. I'd like to start adding them now as they do certainly make contributions to various editions of books. Cait, Why couldn't we just say forward, preface, afterward, introduction, etc.? I realize they're not roles but members would know what role they had if we did that.
It bothers my love of symmetry, Lisa. :) But I don't think there are commonly-used role names for "with an introduction by", so I will twitch and move on....
Cait, I agree it wouldn't be an elegant solution.
I agree with Lisa, we should just use "Preface", "Forward", "Introduction", "Afterward", etc., when they are appropriate.Here's an example.
As for "With an introduction by..." that's usually something that goes on the cover, but is not the name of the "piece" that the writer provides. For example, in the book I link to above, the cover says "Introduction by Harlan Ellison" but if you open the book, Harlan Ellison's part is called a "Forward" in the TOC.
Heather, Me too. Sorry for inducing twitches.
I definitely like that we are keeping track of these, but I have two questions: When this information gets entered, isnt it going to put the same information into all the editions? Only certain editions (usually reprints, anniversary editions, special editions, etc) have forewords, and introductions. We dont want to mislead people into thinking every edition has the same Theodore Sturgeon introduction or whatnot.Also, wouldnt it look cleaner if there was a field in te book info for this? Kinda like how we have a field for character name?
When this information gets entered, isnt it going to put the same information into all the editions?No, the author (and role) information is only for that particular edition.
If we enter a "new author" and identify their role as "narrator", should we be able to find their works in a search?When I search for "Patrick Lawlor" for instance, I don't see his work as narrator for The Colony The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai.
I must be missing something because if its not searchable, what's the point?
One more question, if the author is reading their own work, do we list him/her as a second author with the narrator role? I would think so if we're going to be able to search by role (in this case narrator) at some point.
Mod
Otis said that it's not possible to add an author twice; one of the reasons they are working on making it possible to add a role for the primary author is to enable the listing of author/narrator.
Mod
The roles addition has clearly been difficult to implement, but they seem to be working the bugs out one by one (for example, I haven't had any trouble adding multiple authors at once in several days, even when doing so at the same time as other edits). And really, what more can we ask? :)
What role do we give someone who adapts a more-difficult work for children? On B&N they say "Bill Smith (Adapted by)." Does that work for everyone? I've tried both "adapter" and "editor" and neither feels right.
Mod
That was why I leaned that way at first. And then I thought it sounded like a piece of electronics so I came running over here for second opinions.
Check out this book:Treasury of American Tall Tales: Volume 1: Davy Crockett, Rip Van Winkle, Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan. There are quite a few books by either Rabbit Ears or Rabbit Ears Books. I fixed The Velveteen Rabbit with no problem. But should I leave "Rabbit Ears" as the author for these folk tales? Also, I've added in the narrators, but the synopsis makes a big deal of the fact that B.B. King did the music for John Henry in another of their books. I added B.B. King as a musician, then second-guessed myself and here I am. Do I only add narrators and not musicians?
Mod
LOL! Ok, the "o" spelling is a bit better in avoiding that. But yeah.
My general feeling on publisher-as-author is to remove it if there is any known individual author(s) or editor(s), and otherwise leave it. I'd merge REB with RE, though.
I have no opinion on musicians.
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Books mentioned in this topic
Document 512 (other topics)Treasury of American Tall Tales: Volume 1: Davy Crockett, Rip Van Winkle, Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan (other topics)
The Colony: The Harrowing True Story Of The Exiles Of Molokai (other topics)
