Setting to count volumes rather than works

Apologies, if this is a repeated suggestion (I did look beforehand, but may have missed it). I would like to suggest adding a setting that would make the counts of books that show near collections and elsewhere be determined by the number of volumes (sum of the volumes field) held, rather than the number of works (as is apparently done now).

This would allow users like myself who wish to know the size in volumes of particular collections to enter multi-volume works as single works, rather than one work per volume or duplicate works for each volume. (And in a minor way improve both works and bibliographic level data, especially over time.)

Thanks for considering.

I believe there is already a field for number of volumes in your book record.
And if you look in the Charts and Graphs page, under the Physical measurements section, it does offer total number of volumes in a chart just below the screen break

That 'number of volumes' doesnt do anything -- it's not counted or totalled.

However if you give a separate entry to each volume in a multi-volume work (as some users do) then you get what you want.

>3 Crypto-Willobie: It does have an effect in the Charts and Graphs. That's it.

>4 gilroy: Is that new? I hadn't noticed...

Clearly, I have been misunderstood. What I was suggesting is a setting that would change collection size calculations, so in places were one's collections (e.g., Your Library) are listed like "Your Library (####)" the number #### would reflect the the summation of the "Number of volumes" field, instead of the number of Works in the collection.

For example, a 7-volume work cataloged as a work is counted as one item (work), even though there are 7 items (volumes) on the shelf. While one can (and I have) catalog each one separately, it can create a duplicate works mess and it also taints the bibliographic data on export — a really ugly workaround, in my view. I find it useful to know — at a glance — how many books/volumes are in a collection and would like to avoid data issues with bibliographic export and duplicate works. I would be very surprised if I was alone here.

The setting I am suggesting, would give users choice of how to approach their libraries while being relatively easy to implement (a conditional to check for the setting and direct flow control to the correct SQL query) depending on LT internals.

>6 LibrarianLawrence: Oh, something "fiddly" as Tim would call it.

>1 LibrarianLawrence: Ok. I have a workaround for you to consider: In settings, under "Bibliographic," there is a category called "Sort Character." I assumed it had an Excel-like sort formula, and it does. Add it to your Display Styles and save. I place my (Volume # of #) into that column/sort it/, and it gives me the volume number of the title within the series at a glance and sorted for quick reference.
I tried adding the Volume Number before the title using a slash or hyphen. Not only was it redundant, but it was also ineffective. I tried lying to other parts of the program, and this is the only solution I have found so far. It's not perfect, but I hope it helps.
UPDATE: I should add that when I have multiple volumes that define a collection, I create the collection and use the "volume #" Sort Character within that collection. I have been told by another user that I was misusing the Sort Character to a point that it will disrupt the overall sort of my library. I neglected to state I was only using the Sort character within a collection.

>8 Siobhan1953:
The Sort Character is very specific and NOT an excel like formula.
That field is for telling Librarything HOW to sort your particular book title when you sort them. Setting it to a volume number will move them around based on that number. So "Great Books" could sort by the G, the R, the E, the A, the T, the space, the B, etc. And then you'd be asking why does this do such a thing.

Thank you for the assistance. Will this happen when I have it nested within a dedicated collection as I do? It seems to be sorting fine, whether I ask to sort my author, title, etc., WITHIN that collection, as well as within the balance of the library's catalog not isolated into collections.

>10 Siobhan1953: 'Sort character' is specifically for titles. It appears next to title field and is needed for titles if you don't want to sort by an article, but the next word. Say the title is The Grapes of Wrath, but rather than sort by initial T, you want it to sort as Grapes of Wrath, you set the sort character as 5. It is usually set automatically for such common cases.

>11 SandraArdnas: I understand this. I am simply manipulating the script written for Sort Character. It is not a crime. I am not disrupting the order of my entire library. I am attempting to work around a "shortcoming" in the software without damaging my library. I am using Sort Character for an "off-label" work effort within a collection only - not my entire library catalog. It's working. Please provide me with an alternate workaround. Those of us with collections, delineated with numbered volumes, would love to learn of any alternative to the method I'm using which appears to be an affront to program script writers.
BTW I am placing Sort Character category right next to "Volumes" in my Display Settings. At a glance, this order tells me how many volumes are in the collection, and what volume number the title holds. I can than sort the collection relative to the volume number and not the title. It's not perfect, but it does the job. The collections I'm using this method contain 50 books or less. I have one thousand books.
I gather you're thinking the obvious: Why not place the volume number within the title (which I do), or elsewhere in other display boxes? I have attempted many variations, using many display selections. This is the only workaround that accomplishes the task without interfering with the overall construction of the library.

>12 Siobhan1953: No problem. Sort Character only affects your books and your catalogue. I think people were just warning of potential side effects. (I set Sort Character to 1 for all my books, so I'm on your side :-)

Any custom lists I do I base on the TSV export file (treated as a database), so I can roll my own weird sorting. Typically based on something I write in Comment. People with Excel skills can do the similar stuff with that.
As an example:

cat /tmp/lt.rdb | perl /tmp/row Comment mat '/, bind 0-9/i' | perl /tmp/column Comment Title | perl /tmp/headchg -del | sed -e 's/\(^\*, bind 0-9\+\).*\t\(.*\))|(.*)/\1\t\2/' | sed -e 's/.*\\(^\+, bind 0-9\+\).*\t\(.*\)/\1\t\2/' | sort -V | grep Yoko

gives me the list below. I'm currently reading a version of Arabian Nights and I can keep track of which of the stories I haven't reviewed yet.

Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 1 Nærkontakt i jordens indre
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 2 Djævelens orgel
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 3 Budskab til evigheden
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 4 Vulcans smedje
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 5 Vineas tre sole
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 6 Vampyren fra Rothenburg
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 7 Titanerne
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 8 Vindens datter
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 9 Lyset fra Ixo
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 10 Tidsspiralen
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 11 Gengangerens hævn
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 12 Dybets dronning
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 13 Odins ild
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 14 Kanonen fra Kra
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 15 Dragen fra Hong Kong
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 16 De flyvende dæmoner
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 17 Robotterne fra Kifa
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 18 Rhinguldet
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 19 Den sorte død
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 20 Sjælenes port
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 21 Den himmelske junke
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 22 Eksplosiv højspænding
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 23 Tågernes pagode
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 24 Den syvende kode
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 25 Lucifers tjenerinde
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 26 Ametystens forbandelse
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 27 Khanys hemmelighed
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 28 De udødeliges tempel
Yoko Tsuno (dansk), bind 29 Engle og falke

Summa summarum: Have fun with using the Sort Character and similar tricks.

>12 Siobhan1953: manipulating the script written for Sort Character
I don't understand what you mean by this. You are Manipulating the website's base code?

>13 bnielsen: Thank you! I set the sort character to 1 in the main library too! Your script makes sense as well. Thanks for the tip.

>14 gilroy: No. I'm using the script for other than what was intended, with the understanding of the Domino-effect. Since I am using the sort character dialog box only within a collection, its effect on the balance of the collection is mitigated.

>16 Siobhan1953: I have no idea what you mean by "the script" here

>12 Siobhan1953: This is the only workaround that accomplishes the task without interfering with the overall construction of the library.

I don't understand how placing the volume number in the title does not produce the effect you want, unless you are using single digits in double-digit collections (if you have a double-digit collection, you will need to write 01-09 instead of 1-9 to get them alphabetised in the correct order).

In this library, I also make use of the 'other call number.' In sets with multiple volumes (or in novel series) I append the volume number (or book number) to the end of the call number that the set uses, and this works perfectly for me to order these books correctly without altering the alphabetisation of the entire collection by using the sort character in the way you have done.

It's good to read how others manage their library catalog. Thanks.