Goodreads Librarians Group discussion
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Policies & Practices
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an intro to being a librarian
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I was just about to post the link under the delete the book thread when the link suddenly disappeared. Sorry anyway :)
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In Message 49 Kristen asked whether to combine editions of a book published under different titles, with the example of US and UK editions. What happens to the book then? Does it have one title or two, and if two, do they both show up in searches once combined? I am slightly hesitant to combine them because I don't want one title to vanish. I have two examples in mind: Eric Brown's science fiction novel known as Necropath and Bengal Station; and Richard Morgan's book variously known as Thirteen and Black Man.
Titles are unique to each edition of the book. Combining them won't merge the titles in any way. During a book search the most popular title will show up, but you can see all the choices by looking at "other editions".You might want to include a librarian note explaining why you combined the books. That way someone won't accidentally un-combine them.
Mlady Rebecca, thank you for a very clear and concise answer. But, with a bit more digging I found that "Bengal Station" is a much-shortened version of the novel Brown eventually published as "Necropath". With over a hundred pages cut out (about a quarter of the book) it is probably sufficiently different that I oughtn't to combine them. With the Morgan book I am sure that only the titles are different. Thanks again.
I guess it is said somewhere but right now I can't find the answer and searching discussions gives way too many topics. I've been adding Finnish editions of books I've read and I was wondering if it's okay to put the back cover text in the description field or is it considered spoilery? For example, I added Sydämen muotoinen rasia. Can I put the cover text in the description field? It is in Finnish, though. Is it okay to have the description in Finnish for a Finnish edition or is there a policy ready for this stuff which I haven't seen?Also, just checking if I got this right: the translator in the Author field by adding the translator role, and the cover artist in the Description field; right? (Check the book I linked above; is that correct?)
(Sorry, head is still a bit stuffy from the summer cold I'm recovering from. I hope this question makes some sense.)
Also as a newbie, is the correct way to represent the titles of foreign language books like this: Dexterin pimeät unet / Darkly Dreaming Dexter Would it be enough if the title was just "Dexterin pimeät unet (Dexter, #1)" without the English title?
Personally, as long as it is combined with the English books, I prefer the second way, without specifying the English title.
I agree with Michael, but combining with other editions of the book is key. I go to many books where there are many foreign language editions not yet combined with all editions of a book.
Thanks Michael & Lisa :)Any takes on the description field (message 113)?
Well, I think the book description should be in whatever language that edition is in. However, we need to be very careful about what we put in the book description field for any book/book edition. Along with not putting personal opinions/reviews or spoilers, some text is copyright protected and should not be used.
Okay. Thanks for clearing that up, Lisa :)
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Wasn't the book description one of the field that was being considered for being migrated from "per edition" to "per book"?
mlady_rebecca wrote: "Wasn't the book description one of the field that was being considered for being migrated from "per edition" to "per book"?"I could be misremembering, but I don't think so.
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Rivka, That's the conversation I was remembering. Either moving it or splitting it into two. I don't think foreign language editions came up at the time. Just things specific to audio books, or editions with special prefaces or afterwords. Things that would be "in addition" to the regular description, rather than a translation which would be "in place of" the regular description.
I would like to update information about a book which had gone out of print and has recently be re-printed (with edits & additional content) by a different publisher. The new edition has a different ISBN. Do I manually add the book and then combine with the existing edition or...what? help. thanks.
SalvatriceTry doing a search first by ISBN, which can trigger a download from Amazon. Other wise add the book, filling in all the details you can and the combine with the other addtion.
Salvatrice wrote: "I would like to update information about a book which had gone out of print and has recently be re-printed (with edits & additional content) by a different publisher. The new edition has a differe..."yes, I believe this is the only solution you have. Goodreads deal with each book-edition as a seperate entity. then you can later combine the two books.
Salvatrice, definitely add the book (through the upload as Paula suggested, or manually), and then combine it with the existing editions.Regardless of edits, translations, and extra materials like appendices, introductions, etc., texts that are essentially the same content are combined together.
Hi,Question about authors - is it okay to simply copy the biographical info from a site like amazon or the publisher and paste it into the 'about the author' section?
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There is a new book out by Harry Markopolos called No One Would Listen. It currently has several audio editions and an ebook listed with the correct title but the title of the hardcover must have changed right before publication because the cover that is used is for No One Would Listen, while the title is still listed as An Army of One. I guess I could combine all editions, etc., but feel less than confident. Please help with your superior knowledge.
How do you put a new editon of a book on here?
Zakiya, From this page:http://www.goodreads.com/book/new
Then, it needs to be combined with any other editions of the book.
A link to this page shows up whenever you've searched for a book. Just click on the "manually add books" link.
Please make certain the edition isn't already in the Goodreads database before you add it.
Okay what's an "HC ISBN" and a "PB ISBN"?
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Alright, so it seems to me that the "anthologies with different authors in one collection, under one editor, but where only the editor appears on the cover" situation has no definite resolution, so before I apply changes to the current book listing for the book in my hand right now, I'd like to pose the question again. Specifically, I would like to add the individual authors of the individual 'chapters'/papers in "What is History Now?" (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34...) into the author section. In fact lots of history and literature anthologies have this situation, where only the editor is on the cover, but there are indiv. authors for each section, and listed on the copyrights page as well as down the table of contents.
Thanks~
Booyah, question 2: Do we put "#nd edition" in the title or in the edition line? Because I've seen both on GR.
If it's on the cover, stuck to the title, I assume it goes in title line, but I'd like someone who has authority to tell me I'm right.
And, if it's not right up and personal with the title, or it doesn't even appear on the book cover (perhaps appears on the title page instead), I assume to forego the title line and stick it in the edition line.
Thanks in advance.
Argh, ok, so question 3. (Sorry, wanting to make things as accurate and standard as possible makes me have all these questions.)I'm told ISBNs are unique for each edition, publishing session, and publishing format. So, what would I do in the situation where the ISBN of the hardcover book in my hand is listed as paperback on GR? Everything is the same as my book, except for format, and other editions of the title are paperback and different ISBNs and publishing years, so I know it's not any of those. Is there a thread or something where I can post a "can someone please check if this book is..." question? Or, is it safe to change the book listing from paperback to hardcover, because I'm staring at it in my hand...?
Thanks!
1) You can list multiple authors for an anthology. The editor is listed first.3) ISBN's are supposed to be unique. Quite often paperbacks of the same book reuse the ISBN with later publishing dates and covers. There are also cases of completely unrelated books using the same ISBN.
If everything matches up, except the format, you can probably change it safely.
As for resources. You can post a question in the Librarian group asking for help or confirmation. In this case, I'd use "Book Issues".
WorldCat and the Library of Congress are resources that are helpful for definitive decisions. You can search for the appropriate pages directly from the book page. Look for "find at" under the book cover and description. You might have to hit "more options" depending how you have things sorted.
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That's because the edition field is still fairly new. Please put edition info there, not in the title.
I have a book from 1870, so there is no ISBN (that I can find via searching). How can I add this?It's called, "Our Duty to Animals" by Mrs. Charles Bray. London: S.W. Partridge & Co. if anyone can do a better search than I.
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Doh! Thank you. Failed to noticed the little star wasn't beside the ISBN field therefore not mandatory.
Hmmm...she only lists her name as "Mrs. Charles Bray". How is that listed?
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R wrote: "Hmmm...she only lists her name as "Mrs. Charles Bray". How is that listed?"Her given name is Caroline Hennell, but as was the custom of the time, she was published as Mrs. Charles Bray (like Elizabeth Gaskell, who was often published during her time as Mrs. Gaskell or Mrs. William Gaskell). So both would be correct. :)
Took a bit of Library Science power(and the Library of Congress!) to track her down. :)
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If it's entered under her given name though, chances are book search won't find what you want because she Wrote under the married name. I think that the author's name should tend to me, in this situation, to be what he/she called herself. Seems a little presumptuous to decide to call them something else for the sake of an arbitrary consistency. Not to mention causing endless confusion if other books/editions under her married name are added.
I think people in general tend to know how (or knew how) to spell or structure their own names. Times change, but at the contemporary time, this was the correct way.
I wouldn't call it presumption. If you were to look for her books under the name "Mrs. Charles Bray" in a library, you would probably not find anything at first. You might find an authority record sending you to her books, listed under her name Caroline (Hennell) Bray. In the Library of Congress, this is how she is listed (there is no record for a Mrs. Charles Bray) because this is how we would catalog her in according to Anglo-American Cataloging Rules. In the British Library, she is just listed as Caroline Bray.Once again, using Elizabeth Gaskell as a reference, we list her not as Mrs. Gaskell (even though I have numerous editions of her books where this is her listed name), but as Elizabeth Gaskell with a note in the biography mentioning this.
Since Mrs. is not her first name, this is a gray area as far as the manual is concerned. For the same reason, although he might be published as Dr. Robert Atkins, we list him as Robert Atkins according to the manual.
This might also be something to discuss in further manual updates, since "Mrs." is not a social convention mentioned.
Until pseudonyms are supported (which I hear is coming soon, Rivka?) I would just list her as Caroline Hennell Bray or Caroline^^Bray until such time as we can add a pseudonym link to "Mrs. Charles Bray." She would need to be added to the Disambiguation thread, since there is a modern author by the same name.
Just my opinion of course.
Whatever works best, of course. This is certainly much clearer.It just "bugs" me -- it seems to be that people ought to be called by whatever name they chose.
Sort of like calling Bob Dylan, in the catalogue, Robert Dylan.
But that's just me :)
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I hear that too. Unfortunately, I've been hearing that for a while now. But don't worry, I keep pushing. The last time I pushed in person got us the separate disambiguation page, so I figure that's a step in the right direction!
MissJessie wrote: "It just "bugs" me -- it seems to be that people ought to be called by whatever name they chose.
"
I ran into this problem here at the library. We got a copy of a new Julie Andrews children's book and it was cataloged under the name Julie Edwards, which I thought was a mistake. Thankfully I asked someone in cataloging who mentioned that her author record is under this name in the Library of Congress, per her wishes. Here I thought our catalogers were just losing it ;) So all her kids books are listed under Julie Edwards.
Funnily enough, I've heard that publishers often mention to their clients that whatever they put on their first book is most likely what they will be cataloged by, so to choose wisely since they might get "stuck" with it! LOL
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I assume I am at the limit of my librarian powers with this one.