Add ability to reset work author

I would like to have a button that resets the work author to the one LT calculates.
I just came across a series of books where someone has edited the main work author on quite a few works to the ambiguous "Div." Now, I can change the author to what I think is the right author out of several options, but it would be better to let LT decide. That way, the author will also be recalculated when editions with 'better' information are added.

There is a 'Recalculate title/author' option on the work page that does exactly this.

>2 lorax: Nope, it won't override a set canonical author, which is what the OP seems to want. The ability to revert back to a situation with no set canonical author.

Which books are you talking about?

>3 Jarandel: Exactly!
>4 MarthaJeanne: Some of the Merian travel books. I can give you links to a few a bit later, have to go now.

I didn't understand that the OP was talking about a Canonical Author, since she didn't actually use that term, I do (of course) understand that Recalculate won't override that, though Canonical Author can always be blanked. I thought she was actually referring to using the "Other Authors" feature to edit the main author.

Blanking the Canonical Author and using the Recalculate Title/Author buttons should do what the OP wants, right?

Blanking ? Trying to enter nothing or a space as the main author gives a "not a valid author" error message.

Yes it is the Other Authors feature that has been used. Since the Div. has then been aliased to Merian http://www.librarything.com/author/merian it seems very silly.

Example http://www.librarything.com/work/8744105
5 Copies, 6 editions. One manual entry has an author entered, probably the author of the first article. But it has also been done one one where I had found an editor. http://www.librarything.com/work/9862312

Yes, recalculate doesn't work. And you can't just blank the Primary author to get rid of it. You get an error message saying that that is not a valid author.

In this case I would probably go for changing the primary author to Merian, but the suggestion the OP makes would be a good idea.

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For those who don't know the series, it is actually a monthly publication you can subscribe to. Each issue is about the size of a National Geographic, and is dedicated to a place people (Germans) might travel to. There are various articles, a map or two, shopping hints.

For the Aachan issue linked to above, the first page when you open it has a letter starting 'Liebe Leser' and signed Andreas Hallaschka, Merian-Chefredakteur (Merian Chief editor).

On page 114 the left hand column gives short detals about authors and photographers. The left hand side is the Impressum, required by German law giving the details of those responsible for the work. This includes

Herausgeber Manfred Bissinger (Publisher)
Chefredakteur Andreas Hallaschka (Chief editor)
...
Verantwortlich für den redaktionallen Inhalt Andreas Hallaschka (Responsible for the editorial content)

>8 Jarandel:

Blanking the Canonical Author (which is an author-level field), not the Primary Author.

There's a lot of confusion in this thread between those two. I'm still not sure which one you actually are talking about someone having set.

Primary Author has been set. I just upgraded Andreas Hallaschka to main author on all editions, but I can't get the iPad to let me enter him as primary author. That works sometimes, but apparently not today.

Message >9 MarthaJeanne: and >11 MarthaJeanne: have it right. I'm talking about the Primary Author, sorry for the confusion.

Since it's a related question, what does "Div." stand for that someone would put that as an author?

>12 SimoneA:

Thanks. Jarandel mentioned "Canonical Author" in #3 and you affirmed it, so after having originally assumed "Primary Author" back in #2 I switched gears.

>13 gilroy: My bet is on "Divers", "Various".

>14 lorax: Maybe that's not the correct designation but they're both dominant, enforced forms of the author name (and hopefully the most precise or established and correct form for that author in a given language), just not at the same place. And we were obviously speaking about the work page. A primary author can quite well not be set and be let to emerge from the collective data.

>13 gilroy:, >15 Jarandel: yes, Divers, German for Various.

Yes, please. Occasionally I've run into one of those works that can't really go w/ anything else because it's just a group of title-only editions, something ambiguous like My Life, that can't really be reliably be combined w/ more specific editions, yet somebody decides to add their copy's author as Primary Author on the whole work. Ugh.

Okay, you can now delete inappropriate primary authors. This forces a recalculation. It only works if the primary author was added or confirmed, not calculated.

Do you want to fix your example yourself, MJ?

>19 timspalding: Woohoo!

Go to "» Add/edit other authors (2 possible)" and edit.

>23 Collectorator: http://www.librarything.com/work/9862312 see other authors - you can x the primary author. I think that's what this fixes? Could one not do that before?

>25 JerryMmm: Nope. Primary authors could only be edited, not removed completely. This is definitely an improvement.

In principle, this sounds great. However, what if the re-calc offers the 'Smith' rather than the 'Smith, S.' option because of the re-calc rules - in a small number of cases the person would then have to figure out the correct selection and make another change. Perhaps that's a bargain we're prepared to accept for the overall benefit?

This is great, I applied it to the Merian works mentioned earlier in the discussion and it worked well. Thanks!

>20 JerryMmm: Not particularly.

>27 Noisy:

Well, it returns it to the calculation. The calculation may not be right. If there's a better answer, manually add it.