duplicate/copy (and edit) book data option

It could be a good idea to provide a "duplicate/copy (and edit) book data option".

What I mean is this:

1) Of some books, I have a exact 2nd copy. In this case, it 'd be easy to add this 2nd copy without any hassle: just by copying them all.

2) Some of my books are more or less the same than their "siblings". It 'd be nice and easy to diplicate the data of one book and then edit them to match those of the second (and so on).

3) The same case as (2) could be used for series, i.e. as well for a edition series (1st edition, 2nd edition,...) as for other rather matching books, matching in whatever way.

However, I do understand there is some danger in this. Will all data be checked (and if necessary be edited to match, or will this "easy way" rather be "too easy", thus giving rise to "that 'll do" data; i.e. data that might be wrong.

On the other hand, the latter is or can be the case for book data taken from other data collections, too. This is counting as well for data that don't meet a full match (thus belonging to not exactly the same book), as for data that the other source (LOC not excepted) has got wrong.

On the topic of duplicates, I like the suggestion made here. However, in my case, I want to go just the opposite direction. I want to eliminate duplicates. I may have more than one copy but for my purposes, I only want to have a list of unique titles. So I'd like a de-duping feature.

How it could work is that the feature would give me a quick list of all titles which show up more than once in my library. I can then delete one or the other. I may wish to do further research and verify that they are duplicates and not different editions, etc. In any case, I can quickly find and eliminate stuff that is totally a duplicate and unnecessary in my listing.

The power edit function allows you to find duplicate ISBNs. (On the 'Your Library' tab: there is a button with P E and a pencil. Find duplicate ISBNs is under 'Miscellaneous powers'.)

I'd quite like a duplicate titles feature, as well.

That was easy. "Works for me" as Hunter used to say. The only variation would be, like you say, to check for duplicates by title, not just ISBN.

Another way to check for duplicates, go to your profile and click on Fun statistics.

Just below the Library statistics there is a line in smaller type that says
* See work multiples.

Click on it and you will get a list of your duplicates.

I would also prefer to be able to check for duplicates through title, not just ISBN, because if I have a book in two different editions with different ISBNs, I would still like to see that I have it twice.

Kira - see message 6

>8 GreyHead:

Wow, GreyHead. You have 411 duplicate titles! Time for some housekeeping!

Actually that's probably not too far off the mark as a count - though most likely not all are the right titles. We do have a lot of duplicates. My wife and I had built up separate libraries and when we came to live together a few years ago there were some areas of overlap and some big differences. The merged collection is in LT - there are at least 8 boxes of duplicates up-stairs in the loft and as my wife is an author we have multiple copies of some of her books (though I haven't put in the couple of thousand stock copies of her latest!).

When I have more than one copy of the same edition of a book, I indicate the number of copies in the comments field instead of entering the book multiple times. (This is actually only true of my Passover Haggadahs.) My other multiples are, either intentionally or unintentionally, different editions or translations of the work, and I want to keep them listed individually to reflect the content of my bookshelves.

I agree that this would be a useful feature. I recently bought three duplicate books (same edition, even) to replace some well-read favorites.

("Replace" isn't entirely accurate...I'm not getting rid of the old copies - hence why the feature would be useful ;)

>8 GreyHead: Ah thanks GreyHead! For some reason I had it in my mind that the fun statistics page worked by ISBN, even though sqdancer clearly said it was 'work multiples' rather than ISBN... I shouldn't post so early in the morning :)

I don't think checking for duplicates will work by title - because it must be fairly probable that there are several different works that have the same title. Its one of the reasons why touchstones are so finicky.

Say you owned Red rose and red rose this would show as a duplicate when they are completely different.

I just guessed at a title likely to be duplicated and was lucky first time - hence there will be LOTS of similar cases. (Well it was two different touchstones until I tried to tidy my grammer)

If you own older books, where ISBN numbers are sometimes duplicated or not available, you can get book multiples fairly easily. Many of my Michelin guides before about 1972 are shown as duplicates, even though they are from different years. Some publishers did not update ISBN numbers when they changed editions, so maybe the 1972 hardback and the 1986 paper copy have the same ISBN. I do put a comment in if I knowingly have two copies of the same edition of the same book.
- Bob Campbell

Wouldn't sorting on ISBN or title also help to find duplicates?

Well, one problem with duplicates is whether you have put the same book in twice somehow, vs. owning two copies of the same book. Do you want them listed twice? Maybe yes, maybe no. If they have a different cover, you may want them in twice. There is no category now within LT to indicate that you have two copies of the same book, except as a tag or a comment.
--Bob Campbell

"There is no category now within LT to indicate that you have two copies of the same book"

Hmm - see #6 - your profile, fun statistics, see work duplicates.

This shows you all the (more than 1) copies you own of a given work.

"Book" is a bit of a nebulous term on LT.... it refers to a physical object, which may or may not bear any resemblance to your LT catalog.

I am familiar with work duplicates. These include books that were combined improperly, books that have erroneous ISBN numbers, old books that are serials but have only one listing from the LOC catalog but I want to retain the different dates, as well as true duplicates. I've got so many books (3600 cataloged so far), not all truly well organized, that I may have two copies of the same book and not really know that; or I may have two copies of the same book but in different editions some with the same ISBN #. some not with the same ISBN #.
- Bob

How comethat acording to statistisk i have about 2520 books, and about 4500 duplicates ?
There are maybe 10 duplicates in my library not 4500.
Where does those come from, and how to remove them at once, not one at a time ?

Hopefully somebody can help ??
Thanks..

Wow. You do indeed have thousands of duplicates. How on earth did that happen? When I try and look at your duplicates on your statistics page, I see my own instead. I have no idea how to remove them en masse. I think the only people who can help are Tim and co. Send an email to Tim, and make it clear in the subject line what your problem is.

nielsenj

If you look at your catalog and sort by title, you can see that many of your books are duplicated there 2 to 20 times.

I don't know how it happens or if there is an easy way to fix it - as Noisy said, an e-mail to Tim seems like the first step to take.

Did you add books one at a time or thru the import feature? That feature has occasionally stuttered in such a way as to give huge numbers of false duplicates to a recently joined member.

I used the import feature.
I will try to delete everything and then see if it happens again...

There is a new feature found on the Edit Page of books, called "Number of copies". I have used that on some books I have that are exact duplicates. The count of books in my library went down by one for each time I edited one of them to say "2" copies and then deleted the second, duplicate, entry. No problem there, but if you want your library to reflect the actual number of books you have, it's something to consider.

The new feature on the edit page is the way to go here.
Just change "Number of copies" to whatever number you have. It's a new data point so it hasn't spread throughout the site code quite yet, but it will.

The best thing to do is let us know if it is giving you the wrong results (statistics, book counts, etc.). Like the best things in life, the feature will take some time to mature. :)

I deleted all the books, and imported them again.
This time it went well.
Now there is only the expected amount :-)

>1 boekerij: Hi! I am about to request the same thing. I discovered that it would be much easier for me to duplicate a book based on an existing one and then just edit the new one.
I really don't understand why all the responses of this thread speaks about a totally diferent topic.
For short, I would be very grateful if the DUPLICATE button or function will be implemented.
Thank you!

Why have you reopened a topic from 2007. So much of the site has changed that the old discussion is hardly useful.

>28 PovesteaPreferata: This thread: https://www.librarything.com/topic/115928