Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

The author Michelle Lovric is also known as M.R. Lovric according to my research, should I merge them?! And if the answer is yes, what should be the name that stays?

Thanks in advance!

Joao

What is the name on the book covers? Is it predominatley one or the other?

Librian manual suggests checking the National Library of Congress to see how they name the author

Here is what the Librarians manual says

Each author name is unique and has its own profile. Sometimes various data sources use slightly different spellings of an author name (eg JK Rowling vs J.K. Rowling vs Joanne Kathleen Rowling). To merge two author profiles, edit the data for the profile that should be discarded, and change the name to be the exact same spelling (copy/pasting helps here) of the profile that it should be merged into. All books will be associated with the new author. We plan to support author pseudonyms soon to help prevent this issue. If there is doubt as to the correct spelling, we recommend checking The Library of Congress.

Also, there are many times when it's best to leave things as they are. If some books have one name and others have the other name on their covers, many of us are waiting for the AKA feature. In the meantime, you can write a note on each author's profile page, giving the other name as an alternate name.

First of all: thanks Paula and Lisa!

My problem at the start was that the same book (but in different languages, obviously) had the author name spell in different ways...
So I check, like Paula suggest, The Library of Congress, and it seems that regarding how they name the author, they prefer Michelle Lovric. I believe the best to do is wait for the AKA feature, and in the meantime I´m going to do what you said Lisa!

Thanks for all!

I am in the process of distinguishing books by authors with the name of "David Mitchell" because I discovered (to my horror) that the award-winning British novelist David Mitchell has many books attributed to him that are incorrect. This will take some time, because it is clear that there are multiple authors by this common name - but I'll keep chipping away at it. (If anyone wants to join me, please do!)

Start here.

rivka wrote: "Start here."

Thanks - I since found the basic instructions regarding how to create new entries for authors of the same name, and I have since suggested that the keeper of the multiple author list add a new one for David Mitchell. There were two to begin with, and I created one new entry. There are many more to be figured out! (I'll work on it as I have time!)

Hi! I just added a traslation of book in greek from a russian author http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67... but I don't know if the author of the book (according to the cover)http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/... is the same with this author http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/... who already exist in the list. So what am I supposed to do? Do I combine the authors and do you know where I can find out if they are the same person? I already googled them!I'm a new librarian so thanks in advance for your help!!!

Lisa and Rivka:
Can we add an author´s picture which was scanned from one of her/his books? If so, how to mention it in the copyright field?
Thanks
Laura

Laura, I don't think so. I think you have to write the publisher and request permission to use any photo, unless it's in the public domain, or unless it's at the author's web site and they specify it's ok to use it.

Lisa is correct. There are serious copyright issues with photos, especially of living people. And the pictures on the book covers even more so.

Lisa is correct. Copyright issues mean we cannot use a scanned photo unless specifically given permission.

On the other hand, many publishers/authors welcome new ways to market their authors, so sending them an email to request use of the photo might get you a positive response.

Excellent point.

This author is not alive any more but I will ask a formal permission to her publisher then.
Thank you all!!

Angeliki wrote: "Hi! I just added a traslation of book in greek from a russian author..."

Angeliki, you're right - it's the same author. But as far as those books were imported from amazon.com, the name of author was presented (in latin letters) as it's written in russian: first name, middle name, last name. I changed the name to the one you used - it's also correct.

Thanks Mayona!

The author Jake Forbes is also credited as Jake T. Forbes. My research indicates that both name variations are the same person.

I'd normally have no problem just combining these two author profiles, but the Jake T. Forbes profile has Goodreads Author status and, because of that status, I do not believe I can combine them.

Do you think it would be best to treat these variations as pseudonyms? This could even be reasonable, as the Jake Forbes variation seems to be common for works that he's edited and the Jake T. Forbes for works that he's authored. And because the names are so similar, any user searching for Jake Forbes would also find results for Jake T. Forbes. I could easily edit the Jake Forbes profile to this effect and clean up the various book accreditation.

There are actually workarounds for librarians to merge authors with GR Authors, but I can merge them directly -- and did so.

rivka wrote: "There are actually workarounds for librarians to merge authors with GR Authors, but I can merge them directly -- and did so."

Thanks much!

For the author Barack Obama does President go in front of his name?

no titles - unless they are goodread authors and elect to include titles.

Melody wrote: "no titles - unless they are goodread authors and elect to include titles. "

Thanks

Goodness there were a lot of variations on his name! I think I got them all.

Is Jill Norman writer of cooking books like http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21... the same Jill Norman of Penguin phrase books like http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18... ?
I'd guess not but for the time being all books are listed under the same author and I cannot find much information about any Jill Norman. Anyone knows anything about Jill Norman?

I'm having a hard time sorting out the books between these two profiles: J.-H. Rosny and J.-H. Rosny Aîné.

The first is in fact a pseudonym for two brothers for their collaborative work until 1908, the older being known after as J.-H. Rosny Aîné, the younger as J.-H. Rosny Jeune.
Many books listed under the first profile aren't part of their collaboration, so should go under the second profile.

The question nagging me is this: do we keep the two-brother pseudonym, or do we merge it in the older brother profile and add the younger brother as a second author for their collaborative work?

I'm inclined to keep the pseudonym, if that's the name under which the books are published, and link to the respective brothers' profiles in the pseudonym's profile. It's like The Brothers Grimm, though now that I mention it, I notice that there are plenty of works, like Grimm's Fairy Tales that attribute the brothers as separate authors....

Thanks, I wanted to make sure of the policy on that matter.
I was kind of hoping for the other solution (easier to do), but I have a plan B: I'll change the author's name of the few collaborative works to separate them from the others, so they'll be in a new two-brother profile; then I'll be able to merge the old profile in the older brother's profile.

But first of all I have to ascertain which is which. What I got from the web isn't always reliable, sometimes even conflicting, so I'll have to cross-check everything. Any expertise of J.-H. Rosny is welcome.

Sorry if this is listed elsewhere --- I looked and cannot find. I know an author's birth year, but not birthdate. Is there a way to enter this without it defaulting to January 1st?

I couldn't find another thread, but I'm pretty sure I've read about it and that the answer is no.

Here's the old thread: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

So yeah, no, unfortunately.

Back with my book sorting between J.-H. Rosny Aîné and J.-H. Rosny. I think it's mainly done, but I've still a little doubt about two books:

- The Xipehuz and The death of the earth contain one story from the two brothers and the other is from Rosny Aîné alone. I figured the whole book can be considered a collaborative work, so I left it in the two brothers' profile.

- Ironcastle seems to be considered a retell by Philip José Farmer of L'étonnant voyage de Hareton Ironcastle by J.-H. Rosny Aîné. As I haven't read either, I'm not sure if these two works should be combined or not, so I left it as it is.

how come Levinas is a goodreads author?

What do you mean? Why shouldn't he be?

Edit: Ah, probably because Wikipedia thinks he's dead.

I'll look into that. It could be his estate.

I know this is an old discussion, but my question is related...

The children's author Joy Berry is listed in the Library of Congress as Joy Wilt Berry, but is listed in most other places as just Joy Berry. As far as I can tell, her books are published as only Joy Berry; many of them are even labelled "Joy Berry Classics."

On Goodreads, there are two main listings for her: Joy Wilt Berry, which is linked to her blog, includes a photo, and has some 200+ books listed, and Joy Berry, which has no blog link, no photo, and fewer than 200 books listed.

Based on the guidelines in the Librarian Manual and the discussions in this group, I'm really not sure which name should be used as the standard for this author. While the Joy Wilt Berry profile is more fleshed-out, I'm inclined to merge it into the Joy Berry profile, as the books are published under the Joy Berry name, and thus will continue to be added to the catalog (by people and by imports) under the author Joy Berry.

However, I was hoping to get confirmation from a more experienced librarian before changing the author name on some 200+ books.

There's a third option. Merge into the more complete profile, and then edit it to the preferred version of the name.

I'm glad I asked, as that option will definitely save time! Thanks. I'll take care of that tomorrow.