Combining/Separating (Please Fix This Book!) Request Thread #65

THIS THREAD is for LibraryThing Members, and especially for “beginners,” to ask help and learn about combining and separating specific LibraryThing Works.
-- If a book is combined with other, very different books.
-- If a book won’t combine with others just like it.
-- If problems with any Work are overwhelming, or maybe you just don’t have time.

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WHEN YOU POST:
-- Please give Titles, Authors, hyperlinks, and other information that will help.
-- If you post multiple requests at once, please number each group. Examples:

“Please combine:
#1: The Story of the Life of You
http://www.librarything.com/work/AAAAAAAA
http://www.librarything.com/work/BBBBBBBB
#2: The Story of the Life of Everyone Else
http://www.librarything.com/work/XXXXXXXX
http://www.librarything.com/work/YYYYYYYY
http://www.librarything.com/work/ZZZZZZZZ ”

-- Ask about sets of Works or Series pages, ask for opinions, or ask for help with specific languages, subjects, etc.; but please be brief.
-- Please do not give Search pages, Author pages, or groups of “possibles,” unless you have a specific question.
-- “Someone will be with you shortly.” Most requests are handled by our fellow LibraryThing Members, not by staff.
-- If you add to a post, please use “ETA:” or “EDIT:” to show what’s new.
-- Please note when a request is “DONE.”

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NOTES:
-- If two works have more than 200 records each, LibraryThing staff may need to do the combining. Please post these requests to: http://www.librarything.com/topic/95602 .
-- For information and discussion, but not problems, please see the Combiner’s Group Information, FAQ & Discussion Thread: http://www.librarything.com/topic/57164 .
-- For the related wiki page, please see: http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/Book_combining .
-- Please note Tim’s Guidelines for Proper Etiquette for Contacting Members about Book Records at http://www.librarything.com/topic/30795#469616 ; if you contact another Member, please use Private Comment.
-- When this thread reaches 200 posts, please do not post here but start a new Thread. Threads under 200 posts load faster and are easier to navigate. Please copy these notes as post #1 of the new thread. Thank you.

Please follow up on Thread #64:

-- Post #196, http://www.librarything.com/topic/179312#4895088 Done;

-- Post #199, http://www.librarything.com/topic/179312#4895400 Done (such as I can); and

-- Post #200, http://www.librarything.com/topic/179312#4895448 Done.

Thank you, all!

A new book http://www.librarything.com/work/2150324/book/113603614
is totally entwined with another work (look at the editions) also can't seem to be able to add my new book to the series.

Amusingly the book says it was 1st printed in Dec. 2014

#3 by @guido47> Please take a look at http://www.librarything.com/series/The+Complete+Carl+Barks+Disney+Library and let us know if it's better now, or what more should be done. Thank you!

Thanks >4 jasbro: Everything OK. Not sure how that entanglement happened.

0 edition
http://www.librarything.com/work/15446899/editions
http://www.librarything.com/work/15446896/editions

#6 by @MarthaJeanne> Done! Thank you.

Hello and thanks in advance. I'm a LibraryThing Author of two books, but my name seems to be two separate entities (one a LibraryThing Author, one not.)

Can you please combine the author, Claudia Brevis, of this book: https://www.librarything.com/work/15433317/book/113479813

with the LibraryThing author, Claudia Brevis, of this book: https://www.librarything.com/work/14959523/book/111537272

Thank you so much. I tried to do it on my own, apparently unsuccessfully! :)

>8 ClaudiaBrevis: They both point to this page, https://www.librarything.com/author/brevisclaudia, which has the LT author logo, so either you did fix it and it just took a while to take effect, or someone fixed it silently.

Ahh! Hmmmm...thanks for that! Maybe I did fix it!!

The author page shows only one work, though, this one: https://www.librarything.com/work/14959523 and not this one: https://www.librarything.com/work/15433317/113479813

Am I being impatient? Perhaps that is an issue that will take a while to show up?

thanks again for your help!! much appreciated. :)

Just in case you missed it, don't confuse https://www.librarything.com/profile/ClaudiaBrevis with https://www.librarything.com/author/brevisclaudia - your profile is yours completely, to do with as you please, your author page is LT's, and gets filled with information from everyone interested.

eta: both show on the Author page now.

Thank you so much for the info and the fix!!

>10 ClaudiaBrevis: The author page now shows both works; there was a typo in the author's name of Lightning: A Collection of Very Small Stories

Thank you!

Only peripherally about combining: Is there a convention as to how the author of a book that's a collection of a single artist's works should be entered? It doesn't seem right to attribute the book to a person who wrote an introduction, for example, but the artist isn't strictly an author. Thanks.

You can set the artist as "main author" and then use the drop-down menu to select the type of contributor (or write in "artist" if it's not one of the standard choices; "illustrator" doesn't seem quite right). This will get the correct attribution to the most relevant person while still making clear what their role was. (The term "author" in this context is perhaps slightly misleading, it means "creator" more than "writer")

The SOP for libraries is to use the artist's name in lieu of an author. I recommend entering the author of the text, intro, etc. as secondary authors, making sure to go to the work page and confirming them under "other authors." I also recommend putting something in the disambig, such as "catalog for XYZ exhibit" or "edited by So-and-so" or whatever. Otherwise you wind up with a bunch of The Artist by The Artist books and no way to reasonably separate them.

Thanks to both of you. Henceforth I'll remind myself of author as creator & so without qualms make the entries as librarians do. Disambig notice an excellent idea that wouldn't have occurred to me.

The novel _First Impressions_ by Charlie Lovett seems to have been mixed in with _Susan_ by Barbara Smucker. I thought removing the Lovett mentions from the Smucker listing would fix it, but made one move that didn't seem to help. And now I'm afraid of making it even worse.

Could someone please make it better:
http://www.librarything.com/combine.php?author=smuckerbarbara

Merci mille fois,
Renee

what would be nice is a quarantine flag for books like that that required some sort of verification procedure before it could be combined.

If no one has left a message with @DiosoLibrary I will do so.

please combine
1 done
http://www.librarything.com/series/The+Knights+of+Pendragon

thanks

>24 supersidvicious: done and will examine the rest of this author's page today.

>19 ReneeMarie:: And ... mea culpa, mea culpa ...

I recombined before I saw what Collectorator said in 20 & 23, SimonW11 in 21, and 2wonderY in 22.

The errant Barbara Smucker Wigwam in the City copy is now re-separated at http://www.librarything.com/work/15459134 , but I feel strongly that it should be combined notwithstanding an incorrect ISBN that gives it Charlie Lovett's First Impressions: A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love, and Jane Austen cover image. It seems apparent that it's the same Smucker Work, notwithstanding the ratty data.

(BTW: Charlie's a friend, and I'm shameless to admit that his books are excellent!)

>26 jasbro: I'm checking with the member to see which book they meant to post on the shelf and will follow up with combinations as needed after they respond.

Generally, though, if there's a conflict between the title and the isbn we generally use the title to decide where to combine it, since it's easier to screw up the isbn than the title.

Ya, I tend to keep those as singletons as well when I find they pollute the suggested combinations. There's no way of knowing from the data present which work is meant. I do make an effort to check when the last addition to the user's catalog was, and if recent enough try to ask them to check which it is. But even when they replied I've had a book remain as it was.

Also, I reason if they don't care enough to have a correct entry, they won't mind missing the social connections.

I do leave a disambiguation message.

> 26-30
This is an odd one. The catalog says it was imported from Amazon, always a source of bad data: http://www.librarything.com/work/15459134/details/87655402

But WorldCat has the same error in one of it's records: http://www.worldcat.org/title/wigwam-in-the-city/oclc/639624350&referer=brie...

Also, the book was added to LT in 2012 and the Lovett book with the same ISBN was not published until 2014. So when the book was added it would not have appeared with the wrong cover or any easily apparent error.

It seems clear from the publication info that this is intended to be the Smucker book, despite the ISBN. I favor combining.

Easy team. I sent an email to their yahoo address. Can we wait for a reply?

>29 Collectorator:: I value your (and others') thoughts on such points, but -- in most instances -- I can't say which of our Work records have appropriate cover images, much less accurate ones.

In many cases, particularly where I cataloged large batches (100-200 records) at a time, I didn't even see associated cover images except where (a) I uploaded them directly from my own scans, or (b) I expressly chose an existing image that more nearly resembled our copy than not. Both categories include quite a few examples, but nowhere near all of our Work records.

Where I've entered Work records from the Library of Congress, another OverCat source library, or in some cases Amazon.com, I've also not seen, much less confirmed or corrected, the accompanying ISBNs. Even our Titles and Authors aren't anywhere near complete, correct, or to my liking; now that most (but not all) of our Works are cataloged, editing each record may be my next Herculean task. Here's hoping I live that long, and longer!

Was this approach sloppy and careless on my part? It certainly feels that way, regardless of what any other LT Members may say or do. Was it a useful compromise, balancing the lion's share of our library getting cataloged as an overriding priority against accuracy, based on ways we actually use LT?

In the end, that's a choice I made -- otherwise, I'd still be cataloging, one book at a time, 'til Kingdom come. If you're curious, take a look at my Stats/Memes; you'll see I was getting almost exactly nowhere for the first five years, then knuckled down and "got 'er done" in my sixth year. (It actually makes my progress the last two months look kinda sad ... .)

Since I was working directly from a list of titles rather than from ISBNs (many of our books pre-date ISBN anyway), any record I created for our catalog is more than likely for "Never Cry Wolf" than for "ISBN 0316881791." (Which, incidentally, may be another excellent example; Farley Mowat certainly didn't write Born to Rebel, but that's an obviously incorrect cover image/ISBN connection in WorldCat that I just lucked up on.)

Much as I wish it weren't the case, handling each book that has an ISBN in turn, and confirming that even this one detail is true, complete & correct in our LT catalog, seems more Sisyphean than Herculean. And, any time I did search on ISBN for cataloging but got it wrong (transposing numbers, etc.), I generally got ... nothing like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, so I knew immediately if something was terribly, terribly wrong.

Hence, I for one fall in the "if there's a conflict, use the title" camp. For the record, I also only butter the TOP of my bread, even if I have to turn it over.

I'm very interested to "hear" more if y'all would share insights, opinions and perspective. Thank you!

>32 2wonderY:: And a special thanks to you!

>34 Collectorator:: Agreed; wrong is wrong, and should be corrected. And ASAP, if not before. But it's not gonna happen this week. Maybe not even this month.

In deciding then how we can best work with, in, among, and in spite of ratty data, some common, general-principle approaches seem helpful. And that could be a reason for "why it's wrong" being relevant. Based on my own thinking and behavior (a subjective/anecdotal standard, at best), "Title" for any given record seems likely to be the most "intentional" of all fields, and the least likely to be utterly incorrect; comparatively speaking, it also seems ISBN falls pretty far down the list. Hence, the rule-of-thumb that jjwilson61 articulated above.

What would really help me most right now is to better understand how LT Members generally, and Combiners in particular, prefer to handle examples like these, and why. Collectorator's and JerryMmm's observations above are new(s) to me; maybe I've been out of a loop (stranger things have happened, not nearly as often), but I'm very open to meaningful discussion that improves what we all do here.

In the meantime, while we're all waiting for me to get my cataloging house in order (granting some of us wait with more baited breath than others), I'd prefer to see us combine most the likely intended Works, or at a minimum to not separate my records based on ratty data alone. If I'm off-base, please tell me how. Thanks again!

ETA: Let me know too if somebody would take this discussion to a new thread; I don't wanna completely commandeer or derail the "Combining/Separating (Please Fix This Book!) Request Thread." Thanks, thanks, thanks.

Like I said, I try to contact the user with the ratty data so they can fix and then combine properly. But if that doesn't happen, I reason they don't care enough about the site (either because they're no longer here, or because they just don't care), so I keep the ratty data from influencing the site the best I can.

So, if we find something wrong with your catalog, and tell you, and you fix it (by correcting it, or by removing the thing that is causing problems), everybody will be happy.

I'm neither a librarian nor a programmer, but as a bookseller I may not be the typical LT member, either.

When I first joined LT, I did start with what I think was the default: getting the info from Amazon. I soon changed to using a library system, mostly Library of Congress when possible, as the data source.

What didn't change is that I always, always looked it up by ISBN, since I know that it's different depending on format and publisher. I want a record of what I actually own. My biggest problem, since I don't own a ton of pre-ISBN titles, is that I do have a ton of ARCs. So for those I fudge, and use the ISBN the book will be published under first, and make sure I tag the item as ARC.

I have had to do some manual entries. Not sure if that's due to library cataloguing or LT combining. Mostly where multiple volumes are concerned. I want the ISBN of that book to be identified as the volume that it is.

I would want a work to be different editions and languages and formats of the same content. I would not want a work to be all the volumes in a series. And I would not want a work to be different content items combined because of an error in one of them.

I could live with a "ratty data" item being combined with others of the same item. But, if so, I like the idea of quarantining it or flagging it, to make it difficult for the error to propagate.

I actually did contact Amazon once, to request they correct information related to a book on their Web site (forget the details now, other than that it was Co. Aytch.

And surely OCLC would want to correct data known to be wrong? (The two books aren't by the same publisher, and publisher data is built into an ISBN.) Or am I being naive?

My opinion, FWIW,
Renee

I regularly send corrections to Amazon, but that doesn't change previous entries.

FWIW, when I was new, I didn't realize you could add books by ISBN, so I used title. If I have any entries were ISBN and title don't match, it's almost certain that the ISBN is the problem.

Hi All,

This combining stuff is very confusing. I have two orphaned books in my library. They are French translations of books in another language (not English), and I cannot combine them with other editions. How do I do this?

Specifically, how can I combine this:
http://www.librarything.com/work/15452748/book/113677694

with this:
http://www.librarything.com/work/1772525

and while we're at it, it's very probably the same as this one too:
http://www.librarything.com/work/13762588

>42 FlorenceArt: First, you need to conform your author name to the others, either by editing your entry of combining the names. That makes all the titles appear on the same author page and you can combine them there.

Do you want us to walk you through or would you rather try it yourself?

>43 2wonderY: Thanks! I changed the author's name, and now my book shows as three different editions!! but I still can't combine it.

ETA: they already appeared on the same author page from the beginning.

Confirming that the third belongs, and have combined that.

OK, I found the link on the author page and combined the French version. Thank you!

Seems to be combined now.

Once they are on the same author page, you click on the combine/separate works link over on the right of the author page. You then select the works to be combined, click on combine and confirm.

Yes, thank you, I figured it out after posting. I don't do this kind of thing often and I forget how to to it.

>48 FlorenceArt: That's one of many reasons we're all here. Thanks for your questions and help!

Hi,

I need help. I was at Anders De La Motte's page. There were six or seven books when I started: Game, Buzz, Bubble and MemoRandom, plus copies of the first three where the title was in brackets as on the original Swedish covers. All I meant to do was combine so that there were only one copy of all four books, but somehow I have managed to disappear Bubble. When I check the page for the series (https://www.librarything.com/series/The+Game+Trilogy), they're all there, but as I said, I have lost Bubble on the author page. All four books are also still available in my library (https://www.librarything.com/catalog/swedechick&deepsearch=motte). Can someone help?

Edit: I know that sometimes updates take a few minutes to go through on the servers, so I'm not touching it anymore. ;)

It's there now.

I have a problem I do not know how to solve and hope somebody here can tell me what to do.
At:

https://www.librarything.com/work/1856352/reviews/113829887

there appears a review of a book, Queen Hortense, by Louise Mulbach which should not be on that page since that page is for the book Napoleon and Blucher by Louise Mulbach. How do I get that review off that page?

Or can you remove it therefrom for me?

I do not find the book listed on Louise Mulbach's page. Since the book exists, should it not be on her page:

https://www.librarything.com/author/muhlbachl

You can do it yourself by using the Editions link on the left side of the page and separating out all of the Queen Hortense editions.

I've done the separating but there are several stray 0 editions.

Main work
https://www.librarything.com/work/15467699

https://www.librarything.com/work/15467752/editions
https://www.librarything.com/work/15467751/editions
https://www.librarything.com/work/15467750/editions
https://www.librarything.com/work/15467748/editions
https://www.librarything.com/work/15467741/editions

The work actually had a canonical title of Queen Hortense, but was made up of both.

Thank you, Martha. At least the book Napoleon and Blucher now shows on Louise Mulbach's page. On the book's page:

https://www.librarything.com/work/1856352/reviews/113829887

there are now two reviews of the book by me. I do not know how to remove the excess review, which reads the same as the first one. Can you remove the second reveiw by me? One is given three stars and the other is given two and a half. I don't care which one is removed, but one of them should be.

Thank you much.

You have two copies of the book entered. To delete a review you need to either delete that copy of the book, or go into the record and remove the review. Noone else can do it.

BTW, My name is MarthaJeanne.

>54 MarthaJeanne: I combined the 0-copy editions with the main work.

Thanks, MarthaJeanne. I deleted the second entry of the book on my list and that seems to have cured the situation--and the book, Napoleon and Blucher, is now on the author's page, where previously it was not. Thank you much.

please separate
1 done
http://www.librarything.com/work/14950806/editions

thanks

>59 supersidvicious: done

http://www.librarything.com/work/1907511 has a disambiguation note and a canonical title that says it's the Ancient Greek edition. It's not; it seems that someone combined in the translations at some point.

Church Trails in the St Austell Area

http://www.librarything.com/work/15073297

http://www.librarything.com/work/15073307

need combining please.

Church Trails in Cornwall: The Looe Area

http://www.librarything.com/work/15073300

http://www.librarything.com/work/15073306

need combining, thanks.

Thanks Collectorator :)

https://www.librarything.com/series/Shaman+King+Kanzenban

0 copy versions. Make sure you're combining it with the kanzenban editions (the entries on that series page) rather than the main series (which is what shows up in the potential work combinations).

(Sorry, for most of these it's my fault that they're separated as I combined stuff the wrong way before realising my mistake and correcting it, leaving behind the 0 copy stuff which I don't know how to deal with)

>61 prosfilaes: Done.

>66 kuuderes_shadow: I think they're all combined within the Series now, but would appreciate your checking. Also, the Series appears to be missing (at a minimum) Nos. 17, 19, and 21-25. Thoughts? Thanks!

ETA: Thanks too for the heads-up on keeping the Series separate; otherwise, I'd likely have kept combining suggestions until it was too late!

Hi,

I found a bunch of different copies of this book. Is there a reason they aren't combined?

Normally if there are two copies I'd combine them myself, but with so many versions floating around I wanted to inquire first.

https://www.librarything.com/work/14952688
https://www.librarything.com/work/2522466
https://www.librarything.com/work/1496493
https://www.librarything.com/work/6362779
https://www.librarything.com/work/6494997

Thanks!

Even though anything after the colon is ignored, there are still lots of differences. Different ISBN or none, Waltz capitalized or not. Most of them should be combined, and then similar ones will end up in the main work when they are added.

I am unsure about the work with 2 as subtitle, as the ISBN is for the regular work, and so far I have not found any reference to a second volume.

I've combined all that don't have the 2. The only explanation I can see for those being separate is that someone could have separated them. There is no disambiguation so I really don't know.

Thank you, MarthaJeanne!

http://www.librarything.com/work/4148188 and http://www.librarything.com/work/9208346 should be combined, I think. I'm not sure how to go about it, as the first work is missing the author.

>68 jasbro: Looks good, thanks. And I think the missing volumes are just ones that noone has added - I couldn't find them by searching for the title in all sorts of different ways and they don't seem to be combined into the main series' entries. The person with volumes 26 and 27 doesn't have the earlier ones. The person with volume 20 has intermittent earlier volumes and also put together that series page, so would probably have added any others that she had. And lonychan has 1-16 and 18 but not 17.

>74 Collectorator: Thank you!

please combine
1 done
http://www.librarything.com/series/Horrid+Henry

thanks

>77 supersidvicious: think thats as far as I can go no doubt there are some sweeping lurking in the corners of LT, not sure about 8 the spanish editions seem to have two titles.

>78 SimonW11: ok I will check them
thanks

I'm a combining newbie and am a bit confused about some of the work title inconsistencies I encountered.
An example are the books written by Anne Plichota: http://www.librarything.com/combine.php?author=plichotaanne

While the works are combined correctly the work titles are inconsistent. Some show the original French titles, but two show the titles of the translated German editions.

It's not the first time I noticed something like that. What is the correct work title (original languague or English if available?) and how can it be corrected?

Why are there two sites, one with nothing in it?

https://www.librarything.com/author/klinechristinabaker

https://www.librarything.com/author/klinechristinebaker

I think her name is Christina and the one which spells it with an e ought to be eliminated, not?

@Schmerguls I've combined them - found a few more stray variants too and combined those.

>80 Exlibris_88: LT will normally show the majority preference, and usually this is the best choice. In the rare cases where it should be changed, you do it at Canonical Title in Common Knowledge.

The correct title to use in Canonical Title depends on which site you are using. What you enter should be in the same language as the site you are on. For a series like these, the Canonical Title should be the title of the Book. It should not start with the name of the series. Series information can also be added in CK.

>81 Schmerguls: To answer your question, the reason there are two author pages is that different people entered her books using different names. The solution is to combine the pages, which DuncanHill has already done.

This book, http://www.librarything.com/work/18938, has three authors, E. E. "Doc" Smith, E. E. Smith, Edward E. Smith, who I would think are all the same person. It seems like someone has set it up this way on purpose but I have no idea why.

There is some work needed on those authors. I agree that they seem to all refer to the same person, but the combining, dividing and aliasing seem to have created a mess. I suspect someone (or more) was trying to get the book to show on the various pages without knowing the proper methods.

Could you combine these books, please?

http://www.librarything.com/work/3735

and

http://www.librarything.com/work/11233509/72864014

Thanks in advance! :-)

I presume 楡井 浩一 is the translator?

>88 SimonW11:

Yes, he is the translator, and エリックシュローサー is the author.

>87 Yamanekotei: Not sure who or when, but they're now combined.

Thanks jasbro, I just saw it... but the book title is not in English? I bet people will be comfused with the title "ファストフードが世界を食いつくす." The original title is "Fast Food Nation" so don't we need to stick with that title? IMHO...

>91 Yamanekotei: The work has the English. You see your own title at the top of the page. Check the work title in the book details box.

>92 MarthaJeanne:

Phew I am relieved :-D

>90 jasbro: Nods I combined, I wanted more a info before I assigned a role for 楡井 浩一

My non-abridged audiobook, narrated by Martin Jarvis, and full kindle edition of David Copperfield are showing as being part of the Illustrated Classic Editions and Moby Illustrated Classics series. I assume this means someone has combined one or more of the abridged and full versions and it has carried its canonical name with it. Since there are large numbers of both versions of the titles involved - and I can't see where the 'rogue' book(s) is - could an expert help, please?

>95 CDVicarage: Looking at the changelog it seems https://www.librarything.com/profile/hyades manually added "Moby Illustrated Classics" into the canonical title and to the series common knowledge yesterday. As their library is private I don't know which version of the book this user has so I don't know what to separate if anything.
I changed the title back, though, and removed that from the Series listing.

>96 kuuderes_shadow: Thank you, I hope it is as simple as that!

I also removed the other publisher series from series.

>96 kuuderes_shadow:, >98 MarthaJeanne: So are we just leaving the abridged editions combined with the unabridged, or separating them out -- again? (Not that I relish the task, mind you; but, if it needs doing ... ) Thanks for y'all's thoughts.

ETA: Ah, I see; no, we're not ... 8-)

>99 jasbro: That is just a horrible job, and we never come to the end of it. Sometimes you just do the small thing that you have time and energy for. Also our internet doesn't do a great job on those really long pages. (Our connection is supposed to have gotten better yesterday. Here's hoping.)

Hi all,

Could you please combine

Valour's Trial/Valor's Trial by Tanya Huff
http://www.librarything.com/work/15517479

http://www.librarything.com/work/4362897

I checked Editions (and fixed my others in the series), but here it's not showing up as a potential combination and not sure what to do to fix...

Thanks!

>101 Caramellunacy: done.

You can do combining from the author's page.

Hi, I'm new at this so am asking pardon now in case I'm mistaken.

I noticed that there are two works pages for one of last month's Early Reviewer books: The William Shakespeare Detective Agency: The School of Night by Colin Falconer, also shown as The School of Night: The William Shakespeare Detective Agency. One has 2 reviews and shows the cover art; the other one has 3 reviews (including mine) and shows a blank cover.

https://www.librarything.com/work/15449465 and
https://www.librarything.com/work/15390486

I could be wrong, but I'm thinking this should be fixed. Not having done this before, not even being sure if one needs authorization to combine, I don't think I should be handling it. Please let me know if I'm wrong about that. Thanks!

>103 Storeetllr: Done. There is no reason why you couldn't have done it. This one was straightforward on the author page.

>103 Storeetllr: More important, we depend on each other (and YOU) to note such things, and to fix them as you or we can. That's one of the beauties of LibraryThing: not only does it make on-line cataloging of our various collections (whatever that means to each of us) possible, but it's adaptable and user-friendly enough to optimize for everybody's benefit. Any questions you have, please ask. And you needn't ever apologize for it, especially not for being new to the task! If I ever don't respond well, shame on me. (We also have private messaging, if you ever need to set me straight ... ) Welcome to the Club!

Many of us are happy to walk someone through their first combination or two.

Thanks! You are both very kind. I wasn't sure but will love to learn. It's just the first one I noticed. When/if I see another, I'll know whom to ask for guidance for my first fix. :)

Hi all,

I was combining some stray editions on Mrs. Henry Wood's page. When I went back to her author page her most popular book, East Lynne, had disappeared -- all 400 + copies. I hit recalculate and nothing happened. Any advice?

http://www.librarything.com/combine.php?author=woodmrshenry

This is an empty site:

https://www.librarything.com/author/romerjohnelizabeth

Here is the link where the book appears:

https://www.librarything.com/author/romerjohn

I presume the trouble is with the joint authorship of book on the Seven Wonders of the World. I have no idea how to make the jump from the authors of the book to the right listing ot the book under the authors.

But there must be away to make the book be with its authors.

110>

As it should be.

As to #111:

They are the authors of the book shown at the second link shown in #110.

>112 Schmerguls: John & Elizabeth Romer is not a valid author. The author field should only contain single individuals (or corporate authors like Disney or The Red Cross). You will need to decide which author to list as the primary Author (people often make the first author listed on the title page primary) and list the other one as an Other Author.

112>

Yes, which is why the book appears at the second link, and both authors appear on the work:

https://www.librarything.com/work/21016

You need to edit your own book record to list the authors separately, or live with your author link going to an empty page.

http://www.librarything.com/work/21016/book/12130054

OK. I have listed John Romer as the author since his name appears first on the title page of the book and show Elizabeth as an additional author. That is how I learn... Thanks.

I have a problem. This book (http://www.librarything.de/work/13739032) is written by Barbara S Johnson (http://www.librarything.de/author/johnsonbarbaras) but can be found only under the author B. S. Johnson (http://www.librarything.de/author/johnsonbs).

Could please someone put this book to the correct author? Thanks so much.

>116 Ameise1: Done.

>117 henkl: Thanks so much :-)

Ack! I split the author Mary Holmes. There seemed to be two modern writers and a book by Mary J. Holmes. But when I combined Mary Holmes (2), author of Family Pride with Mary J. Holmes, they all came over. So the disambig page isn't around anymore. There are two gender titles that belong to Mary Holmes (1) and a couple of Nature titles that go with Mary Holmes (unknown)

http://www.librarything.com/author/holmesmaryj

I've never had this happen and I'm too flustered to correct. Help!

AND Family Pride is now on a seperate author's page Mary Jane Holmes

Of minor importance, for such old, not much read book, but could someone combine
https://www.librarything.com/work/15542028/book/114540144
with
https://www.librarything.com/work/3812777/editions/114540223

Obviously one book has an improper author entry (last name first name)

>120 juniperSun:
Done.

>119 2wonderY: It looks like somebody's already fixed this for us. Is that right?

>122 jasbro: Yes, lilithcat got on it right away.

http://www.librarything.com/work/11733844/book/114616770

I'm out of practice & can't figure out/remember how to sort this: When author Warren Bernard is clicked, the author page for Bernard A. Warren--a different person altogether--shows. Cheers.

124 better?

Much. Cheers.

I can't figure out how to combine these books since two are author-less. Can one of you help?

Thanks!

https://www.librarything.com/work/14902972
https://www.librarything.com/work/15441536
https://www.librarything.com/work/15228423

>127 sparemethecensor: done. You just add the author on the works that lack it, and then combine from the author's page.

Thanks!

http://www.librarything.com/work/9589234/workdetails

The title should be 告白, as shown in English version page.　(http://www.librarything.com/work/4870358)

I think I hit a wrong button accidentaly. :(
Could someone fix it please?

You mean like this?

http://www.librarything.com/work/9589234&titleauthorredo=629417011

All you need to do is cut and paste into canonical title.

Thank you!!

So, should it combine with The Reluctant Communist? If so, canonical title should reflect the english title. I don't see the book in your collections.

>133 2wonderY:

Oh, I haven't added yet, but soon I will. Do you want me to do it now?

And yes, The Reluctant Communist is the original title. Isn't it reflected both English and Japanese? When I open English one, it shows Japanese ver. cover.

http://www.librarything.com/work/9379120

0 copy
http://www.librarything.com/work/15554557/editions

>135 MarthaJeanne: Done.

Thanks.

http://www.librarything.com/work/12349756 Too Many Cooks A Nero Wolf Mystery (1966) and
http://www.librarything.com/work/42287 Too Many Cooks by Rex Stout.

I've adjusted the Authors on the first, but huge author pages don't always respond quickly.

>138 prosfilaes: Done

Could someone reverse my combining of two books by Rhys Bowen, _In a gilded cage_ and _A royal threesome_: http://www.librarything.com/work/6107065/editions

I tried to separate them back out, but the series and "contains" data is now hopelessly muddled.

>140 shmjay: It only took a few minutes to sort it out. Does that look correct now?

Should this be combined with something:

https://www.librarything.com/author/mandelanelsonr

Like this, maybe:

https://www.librarything.com/author/mandelanelson

As you lot have invariably been helpful & patient for me, here's a little gift for ye: http://www.librarything.com/search.php?search=plan+9+ed+wood&searchtype=work....

I looked into it, & seems to me this might be result of incorrect entry of a particular book title. I shall look no further and certainly shan't try to correct it. It's one of those hidden LT treats.

>143 bluepiano: If you type ed wood proust into Google, it responds:
Did you mean: edward prout
ed wood port

The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove (https://www.librarything.com/work/6467640/summary) and a book containing The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove and Fluke were all combined together as one work. Which was quite confusing because Fluke is not a part of the Pine Cove series but it was looking like it was.

Should they be separate works (1. The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove; 2. The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove/Fluke)? I thought so because omnibuses are usually separate.

I tried to separate out the double-novel copies but now work-to-work relationships are all wonky and I don't know how to edit the title so it only shows The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove. I suppose I should have turned this over to more savvy users here instead of trying to tackle it myself.

The first thing that needed doing was removing two canonical titles.

You seem to have done a good job of separating.

I have combined the various works of the double book together (all in German), and corrected the work-to-work relationships. I see no reason to enter an English canonical title onto https://www.librarything.com/work/15566949/summary as long as it is only in German. I have also not listed it in the English language series.

Next time you will know to check and remove canonical titles in cases like this. You obviously did a good job in recognizing the problem and separating out the editions that didn't belong. We all get in over our heads at time, but a) that's how we learn, and b) there is always someone to help tidy the ends up that we can't handle ourselves.

Thanks so much!

BTW it helps that I read German fluently.

Sacred Monsters by Daniel Farson.

www.librarything.com/work/3331902

and

www.librarything.com/work/15048552

need combining please.

>149 DuncanHill: 0 copy edition not in potentials

#149 by @DuncanHill> Done

Thank you :)

I was happy to find some interesting Ace Doubles at my favorite bookstore, and proceeded to add them to my collection. I've noticed, now and then, the "work-to-work relationships" area, but it hasn't been important to me, and I've mostly ignored it. I'm now seeing an error on one of them, and I'd like to understand it, and fix it, but I prefer knowing how before I start fumbling around and break things.

Ace doubles often get listed on LT by favorite author, rather than by original title, and that may be causing the problem. Here's the book (Threshold of Eternity / The War of Two Worlds):

http://www.librarything.com/work/2604995

Here's the entry on ISFDB:

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?51259

The error says:

Is contained in

ERROR Threshold of Eternity / The War of Two Worlds by John Brunner
Contains

The War of Two Worlds by Poul Anderson

ERROR Threshold of Eternity / The War of Two Worlds by John Brunner

What's weird is that if I select "Add/edit work-to-work relationships" I get nothing to edit. I'm wondering if someone added this relationship on "The War of Two Worlds" and that's how this is being affected? I'm so confused.

BTW, because I am pedantic, and cannot help it, I added the article "the" to the title of Anderson's novel on both the disambiguation notice and the canonical title.

ETA: I see that this relationship is indeed there, on "The War of Two Worlds" (http://www.librarything.com/work/2406953).

Various french titles from Michael Buckley's Sisters Grimm serious have been combined into Book 1.

Please separate: http://www.librarything.com/work/2114929

>153 Lyndatrue: Does this look better?

You have to click on edit to get the things to change.

I also separated a few editions of Threshold of Eternity out and added that relationship in. Looks like someone did a bad combination.

>155 MarthaJeanne: Thank you very much. I read through the wiki bits on how the work-to-work operated, and never even thought about that one. On the other hand, I don't know that I've have had the understanding on how to fix it (and am grateful you did so).

>156 Collectorator: I think I'd leave the publisher's series as it is, myself. Ace made hundreds of doubles, and that's a pretty complete list. I only own nine, currently (not everything in that series is worth revisiting), but I've owned many more, in the past.

Please combine:

http://www.librarything.com/work/15380720

and

http://www.librarything.com/work/13370371

Thanks

>158 Canadian_Down_Under: Done.

This work
http://www.librarything.com/work/9728723

does not show up on Petzold's author page:
http://www.librarything.com/author/patzoldsteffen

Am I missing something? Thanks!

>160 MissWatson: That is Other Authors on the work page. This is an extra step that someone has to do. (Good thing, too as there can be a lot of weird stuff in other authors.)

> 161, >162 MarthaJeanne: Thank you Collectorator and MarthaJeanne, I didn't realise that!

Yes, thanks.

Oh help...this all started because I bought a new edition of A Christmas Carol and instead of having the facsimile edition (its own work), I separated and combined my copy into the unabridged work... but it's a mess with various abridged editions and things mixed in. Anyone want to jump in with separating/combining the right ones?

Edited to add:
Actually, as I continue to look at it, I think someone has been going through quite methodically and it's looking good. I separated a few out and wasn't sure if/when to combine so I still wouldn't mind someone else who'd like to taking a look through...

Please combine Sally's Family Gwendoline Courtney; Illustrator-Jennetta Vise with Sally's Family Gwendoline Courtney. If you can figure out the edition, I guess it'd be nice to add Jennetta Vise as the illustrator.

Done, I think, but it is much better to have the links.

Please could someone combine

http://www.librarything.de/work/13690712/book/114959498 (German version)
with
http://www.librarything.com/work/7415

Thanks so much.

>168 Ameise1: The Disambiguation Notice reports, "This is the short story 'Ballad of the Sad Café' only; please don't combine with any story collections!" I would not combine them.

>169 jasbro: Is the German edition the short story or the English one?
Thanks a lot for informing me and in this case don't combine.

Please separate

http://www.librarything.com/work/2996
from
http://www.librarything.com/work/1016354

Is there a simple way to do this that I'm missing?

Excuse me. They are different works. They are separate.

However 10 people (at least) seem to have entered the Iceberg book with the ISBN of the other work. That is why the cover of the other shows up and they are listed as potential combinations. Nothing we can do about the bad data.

>172 MarthaJeanne: Oops - my bad - a temporary aberration on my part seeing it in the potential combinations. I've uploaded a new cover, which should stop my copy annoying me.

>170 Ameise1: I wrote the disambiguation notice. The German version of the book does indeed contain the one story only, while the English ones contain more than one. It looks like some work needs to be done on the latter, but I don't have much time for combining at the moment, so if anyone feels up to it, please have a go!
Happy New Year, everyone!

>170 Ameise1: Thanks so much for the information and Happy New Year.

A couple of zero-copies to combine with the main entry.

www.librarything.com/work/6249212
www.librarything.com/work/6249211

into

www.librarything.com/work/13149475

>176 DuncanHill: Done.

Thank you :)

Also www.librarything.com/work/6249217

To br combined with

www.librarything.com/work/9323027

Is there some special trick to doing these?

>178 DuncanHill: Done. I used a script -- some call it a "hack" -- provided by another LT Member some time ago, for specifically coding combinations. I know it works, but honestly don't know whether I can find the instruction again. Alternativey, if we had changed the Author name (about half-way down on the Work's Main Page) from "Odhams" to "Odhams Press," and then recalculated Title & Author (a bit down on the right-hand margin), I think it would (eventually?) have proposed the combination for us on the respective Editions pages.

I generally just add in the matching author, use that author page, and then go back and clean up the other authors. This doesn't work for 0 copies. But your suggestion might.

Thanks Jasbro.

One last one from the same series.

www.librarything.com/work/6249203

into

www.librarything.com/work/9870466

>181 DuncanHill: Done; I used the secret method.

Thanks

I identified two books that need to be separated (I think), but I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by the task and not sure where to start.

The two books are :

Exercices spirituels et philosophie antique (Philosophy as a Way of Life: Spiritual Exercises from Socrates to Foucault) which is a collection of essays by Pierre Hadot

La Philosophie comme manière de vivre (Philosophy as a Way of Life) which is a series of interviews of Pierre Hadot

Although I have read neither book, I'm pretty sure that in the French editions they are separate. I am less sure about the translations. I suppose it's possible that in some editions both books are combined, especially since many of them combine both French titles into one.

What should I do? I have never separated books before, and I'm a bit scared to make a mistake.

Some zero-copy editions to be combined with the main entry please.

www.librarything.com/work/15615802
www.librarything.com/work/15615822
www.librarything.com/work/15615824

with

www.librarything.com/work/15615764

Thanks in advance.

I hesitate to pull this particular loose thread but can someone explain why we have two works both described as 'both' in the series The Golden Bough Two Volume Set?

>184 FlorenceArt: I think the first rule of Combining! should be "Don't be scared." If you've never separated a record before, try it with something obvious -- or maybe something you know you can recombine. (Pick a record with fewer than 200 entires; otherwise, you could run up against what we fondly call "too much love" limits on recombining.)

I've done what I can that seems apparent here; please see Philosophy as a Way of Life and The Present Alone is Our Happiness, and let me know if you still see a problem.

This one seemed complicated enough that I wasn't sure what to suggest you do first; originally, I even doubted that there were differences. Instead, I tackled it myself. First, I separated out subtitles that referred to interviews with Carlier and Davidson (but note that Davidson also edited the essay anthology). That highlighted the similarity between titles of French & Italian editions of the interviews and English editions of the essays. Once that became apparent, I referred to cover images, ISBNs and WorldCat records to add Common Knowledge for Canonical Titles (in English), Original Titles, Original Publication, Disambiguation Notices, and Book Descriptions. If I did it right, these details will hopefully help us keep the Works distinguished.

For future reference, please note that it helps us most to have links to any Work or Author you would ask about, whether URLs (like http://www.librarything.com/author/hadotpierre ) or Touchstones (single brackets for a Work title, or double brackets for an Author name, as described on the right side of each new message box for a Talk thread). That way, we can go directly to the Work or Author page in question, and generally see the problem right away -- unless somebody else has already started or completed fixing it.

Most important, thanks for bringing this one up, and let us know of other questions or how we can help.

>185 DuncanHill: The zero-copy combining that you requested is done.

Can we distinguish between and among:

http://www.librarything.com/work/15615764
http://www.librarything.com/work/414718
http://www.librarything.com/work/15616094
http://www.librarything.com/work/12976038 and
http://www.librarything.com/work/12976024 ?

(Or are you working on that, or have already done so?)

Thank you.

>186 TheoClarke: Each of these appears to be a different abridgement. I think the LT Member who set it up was indicating that each one-volume abridgement covered the same scope as volumes 1 and 2 of a two-volume abridgement (which might be the same as one or another of the one-volume abridgements).

Personally, I don't find it to be very helpful as it stands; perhaps it's mid-stream for a Combiner's work-in-progress. I'd rather see the abridgements in the context of a "Series" that includes the complete, unabridged Work. At a minimum, we should have "abridged in/abridgement of" Work-to-Work Relationships noted on each related record's Main Page.

It may help if you would clarify or elaborate on these distinctions that somebody else started. Thank you.

Thanks Jasbro.

I've been working on these, and seem to have got as far as I can.

www.librarything.com/work/15615764 is the selection by Norman Kemp Smith.

www.librarything.com/work/414718 is the selection by Anscombe and Geach.

Both of the above have appropriate disambiguation notices.

www.librarything.com/work/15616094 is an Open University set book - I suspect it is the same as the Anscombe/Geach but can't be sure.

www.librarything.com/work/12976038 I can't tell if it belongs with any of the others, or should stay on its own.

www.librarything.com/work/12976024 is published in a Nelson series - I don't know the editor or if it is the same as any of the others.

When I started on them the Kemp Smith and Anscombe/Geach editions were rather jumbled up.I think I've separated them correctly.

Update - have found a review on Jstor for the Nelson edition - it is the Anscombe/Geach edition, so I shall combine those two.

Further Update - more searching confirms thst the Open University set book is also the Anscombe/Geach selection, so I have also combined that.

>186 TheoClarke: The disambiguation notice on the first one states that it is for a grouping of editions where the combiner couldn't tell if they were just one or both volumes and asks that they not be combined with the work containing known two-volume editions.

Could please someone combine

http://www.librarything.de/work/15616465/book/115230689 (German version)
with
http://www.librarything.de/work/10923042 (original)

Thanks so much.

>192 Ameise1: Done.

>193 henkl: Thanks so much :-)

>194 Ameise1: My pleasure (I love combining)!

>187 jasbro: Thank you for fixing it! I think what I was afraid of, rather than making a mistake (which can be fixed) was getting stuck in the middle with a mess I no longer knew how to fix. And sorry for not including the link, with hindsight that was pretty stupid.

I have done some tidying of the various editions of The Golden Bough. It is still in need of love and attention. Thanks for the advice and guidance.

I just recently added One World, by Wendell Wilkie, and noticed this edition off on its own.

http://www.librarything.com/work/8481890/editions

I have very little German (and even less Swedish), but certainly enough to know that "En värld" is just Swedish for One World, and it ought to be folded into the others. Sadly, I do not remember how to handle something if it doesn't suggest combinations for me.

http://www.librarything.com/work/1484432 is where it belongs.

As an aside, I note that the orphaned edition above has Swedish is the original language, and wonder if that's why LT doesn't point it out as a candidate for combining?

I'd be grateful for the instructions on *how* to do this (and I promise I'll save them off). Thanks in advance.

>198 Lyndatrue: Both those and presumably the french translation "Le monde est un" can be combined through the author page, I've left them for now if you want to do it as an exercise.

>198 Lyndatrue:

Go to the other page and hit "combine/separate works" a bit down in the right-hand column. Find and check the to-be-combined works, hit the combine button.

>198 Lyndatrue: Until at least one copy of the Swedish has been combined in, the poor computer has no way of knowing that the Swedish is the same as the English. Same with the French.

>199 Jarandel: Uh oh. I broke something, and rather than make it worse, I'm begging for help. I *separated* "En värld" from itself. :-(

No, that's not what I meant to do. Yes, I even clicked on the menu item that said:

Separate the book/edition
En värld by Wendell L. Willkie

from the work
En värld by Wendell L. Willkie ?

Yes, I'm sorry I did it, and I can't figure out how to put it back. I had just figured out what @Jarandel had meant by combining from the Author page, and was about to do so, but I'd already broken it (by separating it) 30 seconds before.

Help?

>199 Jarandel: Uh oh. I broke something, and rather than make it worse, I'm begging for help. I *separated* "En värld" from itself. :-(

No, that's not what I meant to do. Yes, I even clicked on the menu item that said:

Separate the book/edition
En värld by Wendell L. Willkie

from the work
En värld by Wendell L. Willkie ?

Yes, I'm sorry I did it, and I can't figure out how to put it back. I had just figured out what @Jarandel had meant by combining from the Author page, and was about to do so, but I'd already broken it (by separating it) 30 seconds before.

Help?

ETA: Either LT is self-healing, or someone fixed it for me. I've now combined the French and Swedish versions into the English one, and thanks for everyone's help and education.

Please combine/merge the two pages for Jim "Good to Great" Collins:
https://www.librarything.com/author/collinsjim-6
https://www.librarything.com/author/collinsjamesc

The latter contains his bestsellers.

>204 feldamundo: Seems to be done. What is done in cases like this is called aliasing. The page for Jim Collins 6 stays active, but those books also show up on the other page.

With that, this thread is now CLOSED. Please continue our discussions at Combining/Separating (Please Fix This Book!) Request Thread #66 -- http://www.librarything.com/topic/186484. Thank you!