Author names mixed up from adding by scanning (iPhone) and source=LoC

I've been adding some books recently, and one set of new books ends up with a comma after every part of the author name. I've fixed some by editing my own book, but seeing it happen three times suggests that it's not user error. Looking at my library, this has been going on since late March at least.

Example, already fixed:

For Crash test girl, the author imported as "Kari, Byron," which then gave me an author page for "Kari - Byron" (and no works on it). Correct author name is Kari Byron, or "Byron, Kari".

Examples, not yet fixed:

Lives Laid Away. Author imported as "Jones, Mack, Stephen"; should be "Jones, Stephen Mack". (Several recent books have authors with three names; this is the pattern)
Everything's Trash imported as "Phoebe, Robinson," -- should be by "Robinson, Phoebe".

Single title from two sources
That is, the most recently added books in my catalog: Extraordinary popular delusions added twice: first from Overcat and then from the Library of Congress. The Overcat one is fine ("Mackay, Charles"); the LoC one has a messed-up author name ("Charles, Mackay,").

Using LT app on an iPhone 6s running OS X ver. 12.2 (ETA: LT app is up to date.)
(Books added from the Add Books page seem to be fine.)

Seems to be working properly now, hooray.

This is happening again, alas.

Example: https://www.librarything.com/work/22561667/details/168803801

>3 karenb: Looks fixed once again (sorry for not being able to look back in May). Are you still seeing this happen and if so, is it always for books added from the Library of Congress through the App? Or, are there any other similarities you're seeing, here?

If everything's fine, feel free to close again (and re-open as needed). Thanks.

ETA: Never mind re: LoC always being the data source—I just read the Talk topic title in full. :)

It's still happening, occasionally. Is there a way to tell if it's the LoC or the app?

I still haven't seen the problem with any other data sources.

Is this bug why my recent entry of "Anderson Coats, J." got picked up as "Coats Anderson, J"?
See the author name entry here:
http://www.librarything.com/author/andersoncoatsj&norefer=2

I merged the name with the main author when my copy displayed properly but the author pointed to that version, even though the author url was andersoncoatsj.

(See how my copy is different here: http://www.librarything.com/work/19126289/editions/173349059 - I assumed it was a double last name, not a middle name and last name.)

Currently having the same issue. Everything I add via the app adds the author with First, Last (and completely messes things up if they have a first, middle and last) Everything I add via computer adds correctly as Last, First. LoC as my primary source.

Just joining the Chorus here.

Oh, and *bump*

This has also been an issue for me. For example: today.

>7 Synth: >8 jasbro: >9 aspirit:
Could you please link the books where this has happened, so the developers can examine what went wrong? Please? More than a me too would be great...

>10 gilroy:
More examples, not yet fixed manually:
https://www.librarything.com/work/20741868/book/175982678
https://www.librarything.com/work/16299868/book/175982684

>10 gilroy: Gladly! It looks like I fixed most of ours entered that way working backward to mid/late July, but still have dozens more to fix as far back as April and earlier. See for example:

• http://www.librarything.com/work/1741381/171098206
• http://www.librarything.com/work/1859990/169636445
• http://www.librarything.com/work/12248/169636442
• http://www.librarything.com/work/101198/169636387
• http://www.librarything.com/work/16281254/169535157

(Yes, I was inventorying Jimmy Carter's Works at the time!)

I presume these were all bar-code scanned through the app; I wouldn't have entered the Authors this way on purpose, and I don't recall it happening with an "Add books" search on either the app or the main site. If additional examples, the apparent timing of such entries, or anything more would help, please let me know.

ETA: I'll lay off correcting any more for the time being, in hopes of first getting a fix for the app. Longer-term, I'd appreciate any thoughts on quick and easy ways to ID the records with Authors entered in this manner. I can readily adjust those entries with a few quick keystrokes from the "Your books" page, but I have to find them first! Searching for "," doesn't yield results; I'd be surprised if the search function doesn't ignore commas altogether. I don't suppose there's a way to search or select for only records entered by bar-code scans through the app?

>10 gilroy: I've corrected most of my editions already. One I missed and can leave as-is for a while:
https://www.librarything.com/work/book/176290886

In case a comparison helps, below are a few (of the dozen) that have been fixed.

https://www.librarything.com/work/book/176319378
https://www.librarything.com/work/book/176319349
https://www.librarything.com/work/book/176290955

The problem doesn't only occur when using Library of Congress as the source! A moment ago, I added a book from LOC using the LT app. I saw the author's name was wrong so searched without LOC as an option to add the book again, this second time from Bowker.

On both editions, the author's name was added in the Given Name, Surname, format. I haven't edited either book page as of this posting.

From LOC: https://www.librarything.com/work/1334614/book/176351619
From Bowker: https://www.librarything.com/work/1334614/book/176351752

ETA: Both searches were on the title, not a barcode or ISBN. From the title in the LOC search, I'd added all five books in the series; the author's name was in the mixed-up order for all five volumes.

This post is to state that the Bowker Books in Print additions are as consistently wrong as those from LOC in the LT app. I'm experiencing the same problem(s) with all of the Bowker books in the latest batch.

So... I was wrong in saying that I've fixed most of the previous additions with the the Given Name, Surname, format for the author's name. My Wishlist is full of examples, apparently from Bowker in September, when this bug was supposedly fixed for books from LOC.

>10 gilroy:
I left mine for about a week, but since I got no responses to my post at that time I went ahead and manually fixed my entries so I don't know if there is anything the developers can see at this point. I do remember that all my Brian Jacques Redwall books uploaded with author names mixed up. There were a bunch of others before I quit uploading via the app because of this issue, but all of mine have been manually corrected now and I am adding books only via the desktop now to avoid the need to go in and fix the author afterwards. I could likely replicate the issue (if it hasn't been fixed), if needed.

Additional Information: This is not only an issue with the LT app. Now that I'm watching more closely, I can see that the same problem occurring when adding books from the desktop site.

>18 aspirit: please list the source you are seeing it from, so the developers can research what's coded wrong.

>19 gilroy: I've already done that repeatedly. Nothing has changed.

Library of Congress
Bowker Books in Print

>20 aspirit: Yeah, I see your above post.

I'm not seeing problems of this sort with any of the data I'm adding from LoC (Firefox 71.0 (64-bit))

>13 aspirit: https://www.librarything.com/work/book/176290886 adds correctly (with aspirit listed as owning a copy)

>14 aspirit: What might be useful in diagnosing the problem is that the LoC doesn't appear to have a copy of https://www.librarything.com/work/1334614/book/176351619 in its catalogue, in fact they have nothing by Satosumi Takaguchi at all, so I don't know where the data you're picking up is coming from. (I can't find the book by ISBN, title or author via LoC on LT and can't find it in the LoC catalogue https://catalog.loc.gov/)

>22 newcrossbooks: At the moment, I have five copies of Tae Kwon Do Basics that were added different ways. I'm seeing that particular work doesn't have the author name problem when added from LOC on LT's desktop site, but it does when added either from Bowker (site or app) or from LOC with the LT app.

(I'll add a more detailed record after things settle offline where I am.)

For the manga, I also can't find any of the series or the author's work with the direct LOC database search. Weird.

>23 aspirit: I've never used Bowker before (it not used by Worldcat which is where I check for libraries holding titles that the LoC doesn't have) but have now tried entering Tae Kwon Do Basics via Bowker using LTs desktop site.

I can confirm that there is certainly a name problem together with a number of other data 'problems'.
- The book height is listed as 2521cm!
- No language details are given.
- The media is listed as 'Other' rather than 'Paper Book'.
- The publication details are listed in the same way as Amazon - with no place of publication and the number of pages added at the end of the line.

I don't think I'll be using the Bowker source again...

>24 newcrossbooks: LOC as a source in the LT app results in those same errors. I've been having to correct the details on my editions whether I'm using Bowker or LOC as a source.

I'm no longer going to use LOC and Bowker in the app until the name (as well as media and language) data problem is corrected. That leaves me with Amazon for the books it has and manual entry for what it doesn't, as I gave up on Overcat a while back. That's slightly depressing, as I have a bookcase of older books to enter that aren't likely to match with Amazon entries.

Is anyone looking into the problem this month?

>26 aspirit: There are 4900 other resources available for books prior to 1968 (re older books) including many state universities. Just because one doesn't work, doesn't mean others won't.

Also, you did notice the time of year, right? They aren't exactly going to be diving headlong into deep code when trying to prepare for Santa (both home and Santathing). Maybe just have a little patience with the small staff and limited resources they have.

>27 gilroy: No one from the LT team has responded to this thread since September. I'm concerned that it's being deliberately ignored, and I wonder for how much longer. A quick reply to acknowledge that the bug will be adressed again sometime would have been nice.

This is a daily problem for me, so it's disappointing to have been ignored for so long. It's not life-changing or anything, just another disappointment.

I'm not going to dig through 4900 resources to figure out which, if any, work for the majority of my books that remain to be added. I mean, really? Was that a serious suggestion? Not to mention the cleanup that's needed with many of those sources.

Overcat or a selection of libraries might work for you. I've not had better experiences with your preferred resources than I am currently with Bowker and LOC.

Before you get to it, as I feel it's coming: yes, I can manually enter everything. That is a physically painful task for me for a variety of reasons, but yes, it's an option, even for someone with my limited amount of patience.

>28 aspirit: Yes, going to look at how your local universities might hold those books was a 100% serious suggestion, because I don't bother to mention manual entry any more. Everyone whines about manual entry too much.

Having to edit data entry into a database is a standard practice. It's what I do at work almost every day. And it's a common thing. Find a source that gets you closest and requires the least work.

>26 aspirit: Uploading from the LoC source has been giving a few problems over the last few months - though the problems I've seen have been more the fact that LT have been reporting it being down when it isn't.

LT does have a 'TEST Library of Congress' source as an alternative LoC option. If you use this source does it give the same author name errors?

>29 gilroy: I have looked at where I could find the closest data that requires the least work. Those were LOC and Bowker when either functioned as expected. Why else would I have stopped going through the other options? The closest libraries in LT's sources list, the libraries I've known from around the U.S., and the random big libraries that I've checked don't tend to be good sources for my collections.

And, you know, even if there was someplace out there that was a good match for my entries, that wouldn't solve the problems occuring in LT. Whatever is happening to pull data that's not actually available from LOC through the LOC search, for example, wouldn't magically stop for all users.

>30 newcrossbooks: that TEST option isn't available in the app, looks like. I'll check it out on the desktop site when in the mood for further testing.

>31 aspirit: TEST LOC is in the app.

This bug is weird. When you add a book, the record looks right. Then you edit & see the the author is wrong. I don't think this is a source problem. Even using ILCSO produces the reversed name field.

>32 lesmel: Okay. Found TEST Library of Congress within Countries --> USA under the Ts. We'll see what happens when I'm next out of Amazon searches.

>30 newcrossbooks: TEST LOC has the same problems. The arrows in the image below show what TEST LOC added. (It's not the best image, as it didn't show all the problems with the edition; however, I was immediately distracted by the combination errors and took this screenshot instead of digging).



To summarize, we in this thread have confirmed that the name order issue (seemingly tied to other data issues) is currently experienced with several sources:

-- Bowker Books in Print
-- ILCSO
-- Library of Congress
-- TEST Library of Congress

Sidenote: I've started deleting the editions that were being held in my (LT) library solely as examples, as we don't know when in the next year the LT team will be looking at the thread. I've also edited typos out of my posts above. The post dates and links might not be helpful anymore.

A similar problem-- but with missing first names-- is occurring with kb.dk as the source.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/313891

>37 aspirit: Yeah, no. That's something different.

>38 gilroy: Yeah, no, your message provided no new information or any hint of support for fellow members. Please comment with something the developers (or the rest of us) might use in dealing with this bug.

>40 aspirit: If it's a different bug you should open a new bug report for it so it can be tracked properly. That will help the developers deal with it.

>41 jjwilson61: The link in >37 aspirit: is to a different thread in Bug Collectors.

"This bug creates works with wrong author names (i.e. missing firstnames) so it would be nice to have it fixed)." That is different, but similar, to the author name problem here.

>42 aspirit: I agree. Maybe those of us with powers to add/delete/edit library sources should be given powers to edit the z39.50 profile for each library? (Hoping that there is such a thing i.e. that the profile is not hard-coded :-)

Are we making any progress to resolve this issue, or shall I continue to correct my individual records and move on?

>44 jasbro: AFAICT, no one from LT has looked at this. Possibly because it's simply and easily fixed? It's not keeping anyone from using these sources, and it doesn't seem to be messing up any other data.

That's my guess, anyway.

>45 karenb: It is keeping me from using these sources. I'd been looking forward to scanning hundreds of books last month but lost interest at the realization I would need to correct every entry, without Power Edit. Those bookcases will have to wait until I am physically well enough for that many manual entries.

The author's name isn't the only problem. Books coming in from LOC, Bowker, and possibly ILCSO also have other data problems. See the list in >24 newcrossbooks: for an example.

So why isn't anyone from LT responding? My guess is the reason has more to do with the fixes not being any fun.

Sorry for the wait, all. Noting here that this has been seen by staff! I've pinged devs about it again, thanks for your patience in the meantime.

Update: we have a fix in place, but need to test after it's pushed and won't be doing that on a Friday afternoon. There should be progress on this Monday, thanks for your patience!

>47 kristilabrie: >48 kristilabrie: Thanks Kristi for the update!

>48 kristilabrie: Yay! Thank you for tackling this. I'm looking forward to trying out the sources again on Monday.

>50 aspirit: thanks to @ccatalfo, and hopefully the fix will go as expected Monday :)

Tuesday Testing
Test Work: Frommer's Colorado

Source 1: Amazon.com
Method: Barcode scanned in LT app.
Results:
Title Frommer's Colorado (Frommer's Complete Guides)
Author Don Laine (Author)
Publication date 2007
Publication Frommer's (2007), Edition: 9th, 480 pages
ISBN 0470068574 / 9780470068571
Number of volumes 1
Number of copies 1
Pages 480
Dimensions 5.1 x 1 x 7.9 inches
Weight 1.1 pounds
LC Classification F774.3 .L35
Primary language English
Original language English
Summary Frommer's Colorado (Frommer's Complete Guides) by Don Laine (2007)

Source 2: Bowker Books in Print
Method: Barcode scanned in LT app.
Results:
Title Colorado
Author Peterson, Eric (Author)
Publication date 2007
Publication John Wiley & Sons, Limited (2007), 480 pagesRevised edition
ISBN 978-0-470-06857-1 /
Number of volumes 1
Number of copies 1
Pages 480
Dimensions 07 x 12.45 x 3.05 cm
LC Classification F774.3 .L35
Primary language
Summary Colorado by Peterson, Eric (2007)

Source 3: TEST Library of Congress
Method: Barcode scanned in LT app.
Results:
Title Colorado
Author Peterson, Eric (Author)
Rating
Publication date 2007
Publication John Wiley & Sons, Limited (2007), 480 pagesRevised edition
ISBN 978-0-470-06857-1 /
Number of volumes 1
Number of copies 1
Pages 480
Dimensions 07 x 12.45 x 3.05 cm
LC Classification F774.3 .L35
Primary language
Summary Colorado by Peterson, Eric (2007)

Source 4A: Library of Congress
Method: Barcode scanned in LT app.
Results:
Title Colorado
Author Peterson, Eric (Author)
Rating
Publication date 2007
Publication John Wiley & Sons, Limited (2007), 480 pagesRevised edition
ISBN 978-0-470-06857-1 /
Number of volumes 1
Number of copies 1
Pages 480
Dimensions 07 x 12.45 x 3.05 cm
LC Classification F774.3 .L35
Primary language
Summary Colorado by Peterson, Eric (2007)

Source 4B: Library of Congress
Method: ISBN 9780470068571 searched with Add books on LT desktop site.
Results: No results found for "9780470068571".

Okay, this fix was pushed now! If anyone wants to double check and make sure everything looks good, that would be a huge help. Thanks.

>53 kristilabrie: I'd be glad to check, but don't know when I'll have new titles to enter. Otherwise, I'd have to delete and start over with certain Works, which I'd prefer not to do. Questions:

• Is it time to start fixing the prior, incorrect "last, first" name entries?
• Has anybody come up with a good way to zero in on those in a Member-record's Author field, or do I get to look at them all, one-by-one?
• Has anyone identified a earliest-occurrence date that might keep me from going back to 2018, 2014, or 2008?

>54 jasbro: I've already tested the bug on my end and can confirm that the fix is working.

Added the same title from >1 karenb: (Everything's Trash...) from all the reported sources that this was happening to: LoC, TEST LoC, Bowker Books in Print, and ILSCO.

1. Yes, you can start correcting the mistakes in your catalog.
2. I haven't seen a good way of narrowing these down, unfortunately, unless any other members here have found a way.
3. The OP reports noticing the bug as early as March 2019. I would start there, at least.

The author name problem appears to have been fixed. Thank you. I guess the other problems weren't related and should be in their own threads.

>54 jasbro: If I remember correctly, my books were grouped by when I was using LOC or Bowker as my primary source. I sorted by entry date and could see the grouping of works with the wrong author order.

>55 kristilabrie: >56 aspirit: Thanks for your responses. For reference, the earliest instance that I've now found (and fixed) was entered 2/9/2019.

Thanks for that! That's good to know.

I added a few more books with the app, and it all seems good now. Thanks!