QUESTION: how do I combine a manually added book to a work?

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QUESTION: how do I combine a manually added book to a work?

1justchris
Dec 24, 2020, 5:16 pm

So I am adding/updating some smaller items in my collection, specifically The Compleat Anachronist series. I find that others have done a fantastic job of creating a series for it, and many people have uploaded covers, etc. That's all great!

However, I am finding that I am having to manually add a handful of items because although other LTers found them through an Amazon search, I am coming up zeroes. So once I've created my new manual entry, how do I combine it with the other existing editions/entries for the given work?

Case in point: here's the one I just did:
https://www.librarything.com/work/25863213/

Here's the work page with all the other editions already combined:
https://www.librarything.com/work/334612

Open to advice/pointers.

Thanks!

2amanda4242
Dec 24, 2020, 5:21 pm

You can use the workbench feature, located in the Advanced box on the right side of every work page. Just add your copy and the main work to the workbench and follow the onscreen instructions.

https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/Book_combining#Workbench

3justchris
Dec 24, 2020, 5:57 pm

I tried that earlier and couldn't make it work. But I got it now. My original reading of the instructions didn't parse that I needed to open the work pages for my edition and the combined work and individually add them to the workbench, then open workbench. I kept opening the workbench and seeing only 1 item in it and was very confused.

42wonderY
Dec 24, 2020, 8:16 pm

The workbench is a HUGE improvement for combining works. So glad it exists.

5lilithcat
Dec 24, 2020, 8:53 pm

I generally combine works from the author page, but if that option isn't available for whatever reason, I'll use the workbench.

6MarthaJeanne
Dec 24, 2020, 10:25 pm

I usually try the edition page first, then author page, and use the workbench mostly for 0 copy editions.

7justchris
Dec 25, 2020, 12:39 am

Thanks for the additional input! I will keep that in mind for future work.

This is my first time combining, and it was pretty good, once I got over the initial hurdle. I ended up manually adding 32 books today, then combining 31 of them with others' entries; the 32nd was completely new to LT.

The frustrating bit was when 16-20 people ended up manually entering the same item because it can't be found in any online sources. That ends up being a lot of duplication of effort. Made a lot more sense when only a handful of people shared something. But I've seen from other threads when trying to find an answer that this really can't be solved via LT. Those online sources just need to do a better job or something. Or I just need to accept the ephemeral nature of newsletters and suchlike, even when professionally published.

8jjwilson61
Dec 25, 2020, 9:18 am

If you entered the title author and ISBN exactly like another member's then it should automatically combine with theirs.

9melannen
Edited: Dec 26, 2020, 9:42 am

>7 justchris: Ephemeral items like newsletters are usually really hard to find in the sources, yeah. Most of them just don't show up. And without an ISBN manual adds usually need a manual combine. (Even libraries that have large collections of ephemera often don't catalog them in ways that are useful for LT.)

Most books and a lot widely-distributed pamphlets and well-established periodicals (even small press ones) can be found in a library source *somewhere*, but it's not always easy.

The best way I've found is to go to worldcat.org and find your item there, then see if any of the libraries that list it on Worldcat are available on LT's extended list of sources (available through the tiny link on your "add books" page that says "Add from 4,967 sources".)

It's not usually worth it for just one book, but if you have a bunch of hard-to-find entries on similar topics, you can often use Worldcat to find a library that has a good collection of them, and add that to your LT search list. For example, Wordcat says University of Utah libraries seem to have a good run of the Compleat Anachronist cataloged (can I say here that I'm jealous of your collection? :), so searching University of Utah on LT lets you add them from there.

Once something has been added by anyone from a library source anywhere, LT indexes it on the search source "Overcat" and other users can easily find it that way and not have to manually add and combine- if overcat isn't your first try for adding items, you should try it.

10justchris
Dec 26, 2020, 10:48 pm

>8 jjwilson61: That's exactly what happened when it was items with ISBNs, and even some of those without that looked like they were manually entered by others too.

>9 melannen: Oh yeah, I definitely need to use Worldcat more. Thanks for that tip. I tried adding a bunch of USA sources from that "Add from 4,967 sources" but no luck. I think maybe despite clicking on that, I didn't actually get the full range of potential sources.

What killed me were the items where other LTers used amazon as a source whenever it was they added it, but nothing for me this week. Ah well. Reading is an adventure.

11melannen
Dec 27, 2020, 12:24 am

>10 justchris: There's an "All sources" link at the top of the add sources page - that gets you a whole bunch more US ones than on the first page.

Unfortunately you can't go right from Worldcat to LT, but it's a helpful step in between.

Yeah, one of the (many) downsides of Amazon as a source is that listings from Amazon change all the time. And Amazon isn't included in Overcat's index either.

12justchris
Dec 27, 2020, 2:20 pm

>11 melannen: Thanks for the pointer--I will definitely look for the "All sources" link next time.