1VintageBookLady
Hi, I am trying to add my home library (about 800 books) to the site to get organized but I'm having some issues. If anyone can help I'd appreciate it.
1) When I upload a cover image to my books (The Warden and the Wolf King by Andrew Peterson and Little Women) the cover does not show up. There isn't one on the site to choose from that matches the book. I also have A TON of very, very old books(like Little Women) that I will be uploading my own covers for to show condition for my records. How do I resolve this? I have tried to upload multiple times and it doesn't show on desktop or app. The image for the Warden book is a .jpg and its 1.66MB (its from my Samsung phone camera)
2) I need to organize by series and be able to search by series. I added two books (so far) to a series called "Epic Order of the Seven". When I click into the series it only shows one of my books check marked and then shows a book labeled "mission accomplished" check marked which isn't even a book in the series or in my library. It doesn't show the second book. Additionally when I search the series in my library it shows no results. When I search another series like "Wingfeather Saga" I do get the correct results.
3) What is the best and easiest way to create my own series for sets of books I have without using someone else's series information. I collect vintage children's series books such as The Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, The Happy Hollisters etc. There are original and revised versions of a lot of these books some with title name changes some without and all with different cover formats and contents so I want to put them each in their own series to be able to differentiate easily which books I have and do not have.
4) How do I get consistent results for all of my 800 books when searching? I am very hesitant to spend the hours it will take to upload everything manually if it isn't going to work right. I'm hoping this is user error but I need to resolve my issues before really putting in the effort on the rest. I do not want to search books from the existing site because as I said most of my books that I will be uploading are vintage and I need to correctly document format, cover style, year, edition, condition, etc and I do not want to use someone else's information just my own.
Edit to add:
5) For my Wingfeather Saga series of 4 books the site says I have multiple editions of the same books but I do not. I only made one entry for each book and each has a unique barcode/ISBN/title. How do I fix this?
The amount of time I have to invest in figuring out everything myself is limited unfortunately so thank you for any help you can provide!
1) When I upload a cover image to my books (The Warden and the Wolf King by Andrew Peterson and Little Women) the cover does not show up. There isn't one on the site to choose from that matches the book. I also have A TON of very, very old books(like Little Women) that I will be uploading my own covers for to show condition for my records. How do I resolve this? I have tried to upload multiple times and it doesn't show on desktop or app. The image for the Warden book is a .jpg and its 1.66MB (its from my Samsung phone camera)
2) I need to organize by series and be able to search by series. I added two books (so far) to a series called "Epic Order of the Seven". When I click into the series it only shows one of my books check marked and then shows a book labeled "mission accomplished" check marked which isn't even a book in the series or in my library. It doesn't show the second book. Additionally when I search the series in my library it shows no results. When I search another series like "Wingfeather Saga" I do get the correct results.
3) What is the best and easiest way to create my own series for sets of books I have without using someone else's series information. I collect vintage children's series books such as The Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, The Happy Hollisters etc. There are original and revised versions of a lot of these books some with title name changes some without and all with different cover formats and contents so I want to put them each in their own series to be able to differentiate easily which books I have and do not have.
4) How do I get consistent results for all of my 800 books when searching? I am very hesitant to spend the hours it will take to upload everything manually if it isn't going to work right. I'm hoping this is user error but I need to resolve my issues before really putting in the effort on the rest. I do not want to search books from the existing site because as I said most of my books that I will be uploading are vintage and I need to correctly document format, cover style, year, edition, condition, etc and I do not want to use someone else's information just my own.
Edit to add:
5) For my Wingfeather Saga series of 4 books the site says I have multiple editions of the same books but I do not. I only made one entry for each book and each has a unique barcode/ISBN/title. How do I fix this?
The amount of time I have to invest in figuring out everything myself is limited unfortunately so thank you for any help you can provide!
2MarthaJeanne
Please give URLs for your books so that we can look at your problems.
Epic Order of the Seven
Wingfeather Saga
Epic Order of the Seven
Wingfeather Saga
3norabelle414
>1 VintageBookLady: Are you using the app or the website to upload cover images?
Some of your copies were mixed in with other books in the same series and I've separated them and combined them with the correct works. That should solve a few of your problems.
Manually entering books takes longer initially, but at least you will know all of your personal data is correct. Collective data, like combining books into the correct work and adding series, can be easily fixed after the fact as long as your personal data is accurate and specific enough. Other users can do it for you or teach you how.
Some of your copies were mixed in with other books in the same series and I've separated them and combined them with the correct works. That should solve a few of your problems.
Manually entering books takes longer initially, but at least you will know all of your personal data is correct. Collective data, like combining books into the correct work and adding series, can be easily fixed after the fact as long as your personal data is accurate and specific enough. Other users can do it for you or teach you how.
4keristars
>1 VintageBookLady: re: Series
The thing with the Stratemeyer revised editions is a real headache. If you look at the editions page for The Secret of the Old Clock, it's basically impossible to know if any particular copy is the original or revised text unless the member has added an ISBN or indicated it in the title. (We can't see what cover image someone is using, and sometimes members choose a cover they like, not the one on their copy - especially for books they don't have in hand. I'm guilty of this with my pre-ISBN reads via scans.)
At some point, especially now that we've reached 1930 with the public domain books, we need to split out any obvious original text... The Bobbsey Twins is a little easier than Nancy since so many got new titles (as I recall from when I was working on the series data 15+ years ago).
You can help by indicating in the title field if your copy is revised or original text. For example, I catalogued the first Nancy Drew as "The Secret of the Old Clock (1930 Text)" so it's obvious at a glance.
There are several active members who collect such series, and hopefully one of them can share their method of tracking. I only have a handful of original text Bobbsey Twins myself and have been focusing on 19th century series lately, so I haven't looked at the ones you mention.
That said...
The Series pages are shared data, like the Common Knowledge sections of work and author pages, and apply to everyone's copies. It's not meant to be used for personal checklists or for edition/printing-level details. (though the original/revised texts should be not lumped together)
To track series and your collection yourself, you would need to use the various fields available on the Edit Book page, in any combination, such as Collection, Tags, Publishing Information, Comments.
You can use "Other Author" to indicate the ghostwriter or illustrator, if those are important.
The thing with the Stratemeyer revised editions is a real headache. If you look at the editions page for The Secret of the Old Clock, it's basically impossible to know if any particular copy is the original or revised text unless the member has added an ISBN or indicated it in the title. (We can't see what cover image someone is using, and sometimes members choose a cover they like, not the one on their copy - especially for books they don't have in hand. I'm guilty of this with my pre-ISBN reads via scans.)
At some point, especially now that we've reached 1930 with the public domain books, we need to split out any obvious original text... The Bobbsey Twins is a little easier than Nancy since so many got new titles (as I recall from when I was working on the series data 15+ years ago).
You can help by indicating in the title field if your copy is revised or original text. For example, I catalogued the first Nancy Drew as "The Secret of the Old Clock (1930 Text)" so it's obvious at a glance.
There are several active members who collect such series, and hopefully one of them can share their method of tracking. I only have a handful of original text Bobbsey Twins myself and have been focusing on 19th century series lately, so I haven't looked at the ones you mention.
That said...
The Series pages are shared data, like the Common Knowledge sections of work and author pages, and apply to everyone's copies. It's not meant to be used for personal checklists or for edition/printing-level details. (though the original/revised texts should be not lumped together)
To track series and your collection yourself, you would need to use the various fields available on the Edit Book page, in any combination, such as Collection, Tags, Publishing Information, Comments.
You can use "Other Author" to indicate the ghostwriter or illustrator, if those are important.
5VintageBookLady
>3 norabelle414: I was using the app to upload the cover photos as the photos are on my phone. I appreciate you fixing the issues you saw. Is there a way to make it to where no one can edit anything I have input/created? I would like my library to only be my information and not change if someone else decides to make a change.
6AnnieMod
>5 VintageBookLady: Noone can edit your personal data so your personal fields will never be changed by anyone.
However Community data is public and shared and everyone can fix and update at any time. That includes the book/work relationships, series, all information on the work level and so on.
LT operates on the principle of works and books. Books are separate records (your data). Works are combined entries for all versions of the same "book" regardless of language, format an so on. Books belong to the user who added them and noone else can change a thing in them. Works are always shared and everyone can change the data in them.
There is no way to make Series, Common Knowledge, authors on the work level and so on your own. For authors, you can specify the authors on the book level which is your own. For series, it is always shared. If you want to have the series for something else, you can use tags for example (or any other field that is not shared). But you cannot change a series and expect noone to touch it.
However Community data is public and shared and everyone can fix and update at any time. That includes the book/work relationships, series, all information on the work level and so on.
LT operates on the principle of works and books. Books are separate records (your data). Works are combined entries for all versions of the same "book" regardless of language, format an so on. Books belong to the user who added them and noone else can change a thing in them. Works are always shared and everyone can change the data in them.
There is no way to make Series, Common Knowledge, authors on the work level and so on your own. For authors, you can specify the authors on the book level which is your own. For series, it is always shared. If you want to have the series for something else, you can use tags for example (or any other field that is not shared). But you cannot change a series and expect noone to touch it.
7VintageBookLady
>4 keristars: Thank you for the reply. So there is no way to make the series private to where no one else can edit it? I can imagine it would cause me a major headache later to input the couple hundred series books I have in various editions and formats only to have information changed by someone who doesn't know what I've done or why. The more I'm reading answers and looking up things about this site I am thinking maybe it isn't quite what I am looking for. I know for some the collective knowledge/information is nice and helpful but for me I don't want any of that I just want to be able to accurately record my collections of books in my personal library and the specific details about my exact copies and be able to search it on the go for book sales or if family wants to know if I have a book or not.
8VintageBookLady
>6 AnnieMod: thanks for clarifying. I don't think this site is going to work out for me based on all this information.
9Bookmarque
>7 VintageBookLady: You say - "I just want to be able to accurately record my collections of books in my personal library and the specific details about my exact copies and be able to search it on the go for book sales or if family wants to know if I have a book or not."
This is what LibraryThing was made for. As AnnieMod says, your record is yours, but it does roll up to a work that is made up of all the editions in all the catalogs here on the site. The things you have no interest in, such as Common Knowledge, don't affect your book and neither does Series much either if you choose to ignore it. If you don't you will have to be part of the collective effort to structure and organize a series. But the series info as it exists separately from your record is the only part that can be changed - not your particular entry. Does that make sense?
This is what LibraryThing was made for. As AnnieMod says, your record is yours, but it does roll up to a work that is made up of all the editions in all the catalogs here on the site. The things you have no interest in, such as Common Knowledge, don't affect your book and neither does Series much either if you choose to ignore it. If you don't you will have to be part of the collective effort to structure and organize a series. But the series info as it exists separately from your record is the only part that can be changed - not your particular entry. Does that make sense?
10AnnieMod
>8 VintageBookLady: You can create a Catalog view showing only the fields you care about (i.e. your own) and just ignore everything else.
The site is designed to allow you to do as much in detail in your cataloging as you want and to have your own data as much as you want while connecting you to community data. As long as you do not try to change/remove work level data just because you do not like it, it is all good.
Maybe look around some more and see if you can find a better way to look at it? But if you need your own series and that's a deal breaker, then it won't work indeed. I use tags when I want to do something like that: call the tag "series:NAME" for a NAME series so these tags are visible on the tags list and using Comments or Private Comments for the series number. Or you can just use one of the comments fields for series and number.
The catalog search can search in all the fields.
The site is designed to allow you to do as much in detail in your cataloging as you want and to have your own data as much as you want while connecting you to community data. As long as you do not try to change/remove work level data just because you do not like it, it is all good.
Maybe look around some more and see if you can find a better way to look at it? But if you need your own series and that's a deal breaker, then it won't work indeed. I use tags when I want to do something like that: call the tag "series:NAME" for a NAME series so these tags are visible on the tags list and using Comments or Private Comments for the series number. Or you can just use one of the comments fields for series and number.
The catalog search can search in all the fields.
11VintageBookLady
>9 Bookmarque: The series is very important to me as well though. I have many different series and some series in revised vs unrevised or different binding formats. I need to be able to see the complete series and have it remain unchanged. No one adding books or removing books to the series etc. I track which books I have and do not have in each series and format and I don't think personally that just adding a tag or description in one of the other boxes is going to work out. I actively collect books and need to be able to reference the series to see if I do or don't have certain books in certain formats etc. Sorry if I was unclear.
12Bookmarque
Well, you could always put the books you want to put into a series into a collection instead, this way it is all yours. Or, instead of just throwing everything out immediately, why not try it for a while and see how it works for you.
13jjwilson61
It doesn't sound like LT Series is the right fit for what you want to do. But there may be another way using tags, collections, or maybe lists.
14bnielsen
>13 jjwilson61: FWIW I use Comments for series information like that. I take the TSV export file and run through a couple of scripts, so I can get stuff like:
Doonesbury, bind 1 Jeg forstår ikke et ord af det her...
Doonesbury, bind 2 Et forbandet snedigt folkefærd
Doonesbury, bind 3 Nogle varme tips til dine fans, Rollie?
Doonesbury, bind 4 Det bliver over mit lig!
Doonesbury, bind 5 Reagans hjerne under lup
Doonesbury, bind 6 Desværre tog hun også samtalen på bånd
Doonesbury, bind 7 Læg primadonnanykkerne i garderoben
Doonesbury, bind 8 Det her må være mit livs værste tømmermænd
Doonesbury, bind 9 Det er bare TV, sir, ingen kan se forskel
Doonesbury, bind 10 Jeg gav dem tørt på! Jeg gav dem tørt på!
Doonesbury, bind 11 Bruger du dextrose i din koffein?
Doonesbury, bind 12 Jeg dækker dig, mens du hydrerer
Doonesbury, bind 13 Ren livskvalitet på highway 1
Doonesbury, bind 14 Hvem er manden med cigaretrøret?
Doonesbury, bind 15 Jeg var da med i Woodstock, ikke?
Doonesbury, bind 16 Han er søn af en lokal stripper, sir!
Doonesbury, bind 17 Virtuel, min elskede
Doonesbury, bind 18 Forræderi! Forræderi!
Doonesbury, bind 19 Dick?! Er det dig?!
Doonesbury, bind 20 Han bliver en helvedes god guvernør
Doonesbury, bind 21 Vi gør det for fredens skyld
Doonesbury, bind 22 Jeg havde ikke et økonomisk forhold til den kvinde
Doonesbury, bind 23 Det er ikke nogen bombemand, det er Sharon!
Doonesbury, bind 24 Se! Letland er også på vores side!
Doonesbury, bind 25 Velkommen til Irak
Doonesbury, bind 26 En helt igennem beroligende gang kirurgi
Doonesbury, bind 27 Kritik? Har der været kritik?
Doonesbury, bind 28 Velkommen til Fessorfabrikken
Doonesbury, bind 29 Hold dig til ludere og betal altid kontant
Doonesbury, bind 30 Mine underhylere kryber op. Forslag?
Doonesbury, bind 31 Blev Jesus måske afkrævet en fødselsattest?
Doonesbury, bind 32 Mit folk tilbeder mig! Revolution er utænkelig!
Doonesbury, bind 33 I er altså villige til at dø for at opnå skattelettelser?
Doonesbury, bind 34 Da jeg var ung, blev Jesus født foran et posthus!
Doonesbury, bind 35 Plantehviskeren
just by putting a single line like
Doonesbury, bind 30
in the Comments field somewhere.
This also allows me to have one book be in several series if I want..
I'm sure you can roll something similar with collections or tags.
Doonesbury, bind 1 Jeg forstår ikke et ord af det her...
Doonesbury, bind 2 Et forbandet snedigt folkefærd
Doonesbury, bind 3 Nogle varme tips til dine fans, Rollie?
Doonesbury, bind 4 Det bliver over mit lig!
Doonesbury, bind 5 Reagans hjerne under lup
Doonesbury, bind 6 Desværre tog hun også samtalen på bånd
Doonesbury, bind 7 Læg primadonnanykkerne i garderoben
Doonesbury, bind 8 Det her må være mit livs værste tømmermænd
Doonesbury, bind 9 Det er bare TV, sir, ingen kan se forskel
Doonesbury, bind 10 Jeg gav dem tørt på! Jeg gav dem tørt på!
Doonesbury, bind 11 Bruger du dextrose i din koffein?
Doonesbury, bind 12 Jeg dækker dig, mens du hydrerer
Doonesbury, bind 13 Ren livskvalitet på highway 1
Doonesbury, bind 14 Hvem er manden med cigaretrøret?
Doonesbury, bind 15 Jeg var da med i Woodstock, ikke?
Doonesbury, bind 16 Han er søn af en lokal stripper, sir!
Doonesbury, bind 17 Virtuel, min elskede
Doonesbury, bind 18 Forræderi! Forræderi!
Doonesbury, bind 19 Dick?! Er det dig?!
Doonesbury, bind 20 Han bliver en helvedes god guvernør
Doonesbury, bind 21 Vi gør det for fredens skyld
Doonesbury, bind 22 Jeg havde ikke et økonomisk forhold til den kvinde
Doonesbury, bind 23 Det er ikke nogen bombemand, det er Sharon!
Doonesbury, bind 24 Se! Letland er også på vores side!
Doonesbury, bind 25 Velkommen til Irak
Doonesbury, bind 26 En helt igennem beroligende gang kirurgi
Doonesbury, bind 27 Kritik? Har der været kritik?
Doonesbury, bind 28 Velkommen til Fessorfabrikken
Doonesbury, bind 29 Hold dig til ludere og betal altid kontant
Doonesbury, bind 30 Mine underhylere kryber op. Forslag?
Doonesbury, bind 31 Blev Jesus måske afkrævet en fødselsattest?
Doonesbury, bind 32 Mit folk tilbeder mig! Revolution er utænkelig!
Doonesbury, bind 33 I er altså villige til at dø for at opnå skattelettelser?
Doonesbury, bind 34 Da jeg var ung, blev Jesus født foran et posthus!
Doonesbury, bind 35 Plantehviskeren
just by putting a single line like
Doonesbury, bind 30
in the Comments field somewhere.
This also allows me to have one book be in several series if I want..
I'm sure you can roll something similar with collections or tags.
15GraceCollection
I also think it is important to note that if the series you need are legitimate, ie you are not making up series and relating books that the average person would not consider to be in a series, then chances are good that either A) someone has already made the series, with an accurate list of titles and order, or B) if it is has not been made, and you include all the correct titles in the correct order, no one will alter it.
Just because anyone can edit series, doesn't mean it's very common for series to be edited, unless there is something missing or incorrect about it.
It has been a while since I checked in with the situation regarding the original publication of Nancy Drew, et al, so I can't say if those series have been created, combined with the rewritten books, etc. (someone in the Combiners group may have more information), but in general a series is the same for everyone because that's the correct information for the series, and you won't need to worry about who will change it because on the off chance someone does mess it up, someone else will likely correct it before you even notice.
Just because anyone can edit series, doesn't mean it's very common for series to be edited, unless there is something missing or incorrect about it.
It has been a while since I checked in with the situation regarding the original publication of Nancy Drew, et al, so I can't say if those series have been created, combined with the rewritten books, etc. (someone in the Combiners group may have more information), but in general a series is the same for everyone because that's the correct information for the series, and you won't need to worry about who will change it because on the off chance someone does mess it up, someone else will likely correct it before you even notice.
16keristars
>11 VintageBookLady:
I use a "series:name" tag like >10 AnnieMod: does. When i go to https://www.librarything.com/catalog/keristars and then switch to the Tags view, I can see every series I've catalogued with that prefix. (You can click the link and do the same thing.)
I also use a Collection to group ALL the girls' series books - https://www.librarything.com/catalog/keristars/girlsseries
And there's one for the girls' series books I want but haven't got to yet - https://www.librarything.com/catalog/keristars/seriesreadinglist
You could use a combination of collections and tags to track what you do or don't yet have.
If you look at https://www.librarything.com/work/38536/editions/284025333 (and sort the list by title!) you can see how some members have added the printing details to the title.
Ex. "001 Secret of the Old Clock Digger Endpapers"
"Nancy Drew #1, The secret of the old clock, 1942A-39"
You could use the Physical Summary field or the Publication fields to record those kinds of details, too, and use them to sort/filter your books page.
Finally, another option is to create a personal List - one that only you can modify. You could add the printing details to the comments for each work to track what you do/don't have. But each work can only be listed once and other members can thumbs-up works, so this isn't ideal.
I think some of the advice we can give you will depend on what your collecting goals are, too. Do you want one of every printing variation, one of each major cover/format change, etc.
But there are definitely ways to use LT for this that are much more useful than a bunch of spreadsheets. :)
I use a "series:name" tag like >10 AnnieMod: does. When i go to https://www.librarything.com/catalog/keristars and then switch to the Tags view, I can see every series I've catalogued with that prefix. (You can click the link and do the same thing.)
I also use a Collection to group ALL the girls' series books - https://www.librarything.com/catalog/keristars/girlsseries
And there's one for the girls' series books I want but haven't got to yet - https://www.librarything.com/catalog/keristars/seriesreadinglist
You could use a combination of collections and tags to track what you do or don't yet have.
If you look at https://www.librarything.com/work/38536/editions/284025333 (and sort the list by title!) you can see how some members have added the printing details to the title.
Ex. "001 Secret of the Old Clock Digger Endpapers"
"Nancy Drew #1, The secret of the old clock, 1942A-39"
You could use the Physical Summary field or the Publication fields to record those kinds of details, too, and use them to sort/filter your books page.
Finally, another option is to create a personal List - one that only you can modify. You could add the printing details to the comments for each work to track what you do/don't have. But each work can only be listed once and other members can thumbs-up works, so this isn't ideal.
I think some of the advice we can give you will depend on what your collecting goals are, too. Do you want one of every printing variation, one of each major cover/format change, etc.
But there are definitely ways to use LT for this that are much more useful than a bunch of spreadsheets. :)
