Combining/Separating (Please Fix This Book!) Request Thread: #5

This thread is for LT'ers or thingamabrarians, or members, or their designees, to post combining or separating problems with their books.
**If a book has been combined with a book that is extremely different from the original.
**If a book won't combine with the other books just like it.
**There is a problem with the entry & it is just too overwhelming to deal with.
________________________________________...

It has been suggested many times that there be a single thread for LT'ers to post combining & separating problems so that;
** they can learn how to do it
** they can get help when needed
** just want someone else to do it (usually, they can't understand how to do it... which is normal... or don't have the time)
**and finally, those LT'ers who "enjoy" combining can have a place to look to first to see what fun can be had helping LT be the best place to catalog books.
________________________________________...

WHEN YOU POST:
Please give us HYPERLINKS, not touchstones. Hyperlinks to the pages where the problems exist are much more accurate than a touchstone when there is a problem.
Give us the title & author, plus any other information you think we might need.

Then you can just wait, "and someone will be with you shortly."

________________________________________...

Tim's Guidelines for Proper Etiquette for contacting members about their book records:

"For this topic, I still feel strongly that I'd like to consider it bad form. Many others agree with me. But a few thing I'm dictating and are angry about that. So, fine. Let's just write some guidelines up. I propose that the guidelines be something along the lines of:

*Remember that LibraryThing is used for many different reasons. The way you use and enjoy the site is not necessarily the way others do.
*Be sensitive to how the member is using LibraryThing. Approach members who show no interest in the social side more cautiously.
*Try to provide helpful information and ask questions rather than dictating.
*If the user indicates displeasure at the request, let it drop.
*When in doubt, raise the issue in the Combiners! group before sending a message."
________________________________________...

My note: I would like to add that we should ALWAYS use private comment when we absolutely must contact a LT'er, even when their response isn't private.

and yes, this thread is similar to putting all of our problems together for people to see & say, "oh, no!! LT isn't perfect!!" or "Look at all of the problems that LT has." That isn't the case here. This is a place to gather "challenges" together to make it easier & faster to "fix" them. Let's just remember that "bad" data comes from people... people who make mistakes.. WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES! (ok, there are a couple of perfect people around here) Instead of complaining about the problem, let's fix it.
________________________________________...

When this thread reaches approximately 200 posts, DO NOT POST HERE, but go to POST #6. This thread will be easier to handle if we keep it under 200. (faster loading) Please copy any notes or instructions to the new thread.
Thank you.

Feel free to add comments &/or suggestions... not just "challenges"

OK, maybe this is a cache issue, but as these books have been on my LT account for months, or even years, I don't think so. It concerns 3 little comic book biographies (Abe Lincoln, Geo. Washington, Ben Franklin) by Academic Industries. When I click on Academic Industries to see if anyone else has books by this "author", I only see ONE book listed -- even though I know there are at least three, since I own them and have listed them, as well as dozens of other LTers who own the Lincoln & Washington titles at any rate.

Abraham Lincoln - 18 copies
http://www.librarything.com/work/166058/editions/9934261

Benjamin Franklin - 1 copy
http://www.librarything.com/work/6294116

George Washington -- 17 copies
http://www.librarything.com/work/1700070/book/9934243

If this isn't a combining issue, I'll try the bugs group.

Abe is actually listed on the X-S Books author page

http://www.librarything.com/author/incxsbooks

I've combined the different "academic industries" author pages... & will work on other challenges as I find them.

This baby: http://www.librarything.com/work/597415
and this baby: http://www.librarything.com/work/3992615
are t'same. I've had a bit of a ham-fisted go at combining them, but there's nothing doing. Could you guys work your magic?

#5:

Combined.

The "trick" I used for this is to add additional copies of the book that has the "wrong" author. I then add enough copies of that edition/ISBN to over-ride that author with the "correct" author. Then I combine those books, hoping that the "correct" author comes on top. When it does, I can then combine all books via the "correct" author page. Then I remove all of the "temporary" copies & hope that no one un-does my work.

This trick usually only works on books with ISBNs.

More complete directions are in another thread in the combiners forum & I haven't woken up sufficiently to find it. That is one reason to read most of the threads in the combiners forum...

msg 6: I started a response earlier than backed off. Which author do you think is the wrong author? I can see this going either way -- unless we do have more than one work here.

ETA one point of view for ISBN 0573690464

http://books.google.com/books?id=77Uq_4oRaesC&printsec=frontcover&source...

but the LOC MARC record for ISBN 0413551601 on the bottom of the Editions page shows the other.

WorldCat libraries go both ways.

I use the term "wrong" and "correct" in quotation marks because I sometimes dispute what is correct & what is wrong. I combine by what is requested (mostly... or I don't do it if I strongly disagree)

The impression that I got from the request is that they wanted the Chekhov citation as the "correct" author. If you disagree, then using the same methods that I used, you can bring the "other" author to the top.... just separate the authors first (although I think you already know how)

When combining/separating due to a request, I try not to make judgments or decisions... just combinations & separations. Remember that I'm an LTer who would prefer to see Samuel L. Clemens rather than Mark Twain.

>6 skittles:, 7, 8

It's definitely just the one work. 'Correct' author is difficult in this case, as Frayn both translated and adapted Chekhov's work, but from what I know of the situation, I feel having Chekhov as the canonical author is the best solution. Thanks for fixing it skittles :)

#2, #3 Thanks for your help, Skittles.

Should Academic Industries and X-S Books be combined as one author, do you think? Well, I think they should be so I tried my hand at combining them.

#6 And I decided that Academic Industries Inc. would be the author's canonical name, thereby bringing it to the top of the page as the most correct version of his/her/its name.

This is fun.

#9 You are most welcome!

#10 Be very careful!! Combining & its associated activities can be extremely addicting. You'll know it is a really bad addiction when you search out & find books that aren't even close to being in your library & would never be in your library... but you know that they need combining (correctly, of course)... and you combine them &/or clean up the listing(s).

I find it extraordinary how much time can be wasted combining which really should be better spent reading. :(

> 11 Now that I'm down to a couple of dozen cover pictures left to add, I was wondering what I'd do with myself. Gladly or sadly, I exchange one drug for another.

It's already too late for me. I find myself doing exactly that, busily combining titles that I could care less about. It was only a matter of time before I got into heavier stuff, I'm afraid.

Maybe LT should have a warning label.

Just the Combiners Forum...

There should be a warning along the lines of:

If you go down this road, there is no turning back... and your life will never be the same!!

I'm blanking on where this analogy comes from... but I'm sure someone will know.... if they can stop combining long enough to post.

15> Looks like, but is still pretty different from:

This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

Which is from "the Matrix".

Yes, good... not the one that I'm thinking of, but really really good. Thanks. (liked the movie & should get/borrow it again & rewatch it.... should buy it, but money is tight right now)

There are two works, which I think ought to be combined, since, to my knoweldge, they are the same book. I own one, and the information in both work pages appear to be pointing to the same work. However, they do not have potential work suggestions listed for each other, so I'm not sure how to go about combining them.

The book is 3 Dozen and One Bookmarks published by Annie's Attic, and the first listed editor is Deborah Levy-Hamburg, and the two URL's are:
http://www.librarything.com/work/3696667
and
http://www.librarything.com/work/4994961

Help?

>18 masterdeski: done

Hi,

I was looking at books by David Allan Cates because one of them was recommended on my home page. I noticed that one of them is titled "A grower's guide to..." (http://www.librarything.com/work/6518045). I separated them all out and tried to combine the plant books with Margaret Hanks and the Hunger in America with Cates, but somehow the plant book is still coming up with the Amazon's description of Hunger in America. I separated out all the plant books and some of them still come up with a picture of the Cates book, but the ISBN is for the plant book. I know this is not a very coherent description. Just wondering if there is anything I can do to straighten this out.

Thanks, k4k

>19 PortiaLong:
Sweet! Thanks so much!

>20 krazy4katz:: Sounds like a caching problem. Anyway, NEVER automatically believe the system when it comes to potential combining - it sometimes makes the weirdest suggestions.

I have two work combination requests in the different author/no ISBN category.

These two are the same work:
http://www.librarything.com/work/354680
http://www.librarything.com/work/3157448
And I think this is a third: http://www.librarything.com/work/4225173

I believe all four works that appear on this page are the same as well: http://www.librarything.com/search_works.php?q=little+pischna

though I'm not sure if the Alfred Masterworks edition is different from the Carl Fischer edition in some significant way.

It's beyond my skill to clean these up, but I'm sure one of you can! Thanks so much!

#23: I think that I got them all... I need to wait for the cache to settle....

if you or someone else could check them later, please.

>22 Nicole_VanK:: Thanks, Barking. I guess the trick is to wait 24 hours and then see if everything is OK. I will try to be patient next time.

>24 skittles:: Thanks, skittles! I'll make a note to myself to take a look tomorrow.

ETA: Yup, that worked out great. Thanks!

I need help again:
I'd like to have "Risk" http://www.librarything.de/work/5791000/book/33133461 combined with the original english edition "Run the risk" http://www.librarything.de/work/2784702.
Further I'm wondering if "Riding the bullet" http://www.librarything.de/work/194690 and "Riding the bullet" http://www.librarything.de/work/5790979/book/33133349 should be combined. I did it some time ago but somebody separated them again and I'm not sure if I should combine them again... In my opinion it's the same book but another edition.

Thanks for your help!

Just this afternoon I encountered some problems with combining...tried 3 different authors/book combinations, and not one went through. It is not a cache issue, checked that. Anyone else having issues?

Disregard previous post...something I hadnt encountered before, but appears to be a temporary glitch in the system. WOrking now apparently

#28 The same thing happened to me two days ago - I'd combine something, but it wouldn't stay combined, and it was immediately apparent that it hadn't "gone through". I'm glad to hear it's cleared up now, as I haven't tried to combine anything since then.

>27 AngelWitch: Clicking on the links in your post takes me to the sign-in page for a foreign language version of LT (don't ask me why - I don't understand computers) - Perhaps you could provide the links for the US version of the site?

Portia, the link takes you to the German site. The works should be the same on your normal .com site, either search for the particular work numbers or if you copy the URL from post #27 and substitute .com for .de, you should get want you want.

Ernest Hemingway's short story collection The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories has been combined with several editions that don't have the same content. Wikipedia says that there are ten stories in the English collection. There are four stories in one of the French collections (ISBN 2-07-041869-3) and 21 stories in the Finnish collection Kilimandsaron lumet. I separated the Finnish collection, but I am not sure what to do with the rest. There are so many of them and not all of them have ISBNs.

>32 bernsad: Thank you - cutting and pasting the URL from the post and replacing the .de with .com works perfectly - now I know in case it ever comes up again.

>33 Anneli: - wow, so frustrating - my instinct is to separate out the "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" from the "The Snows of Kilimanjaro & Other Stories" and then sort out the foreign language translations but without ISBN info it looks like a rather Herculanean task.

Argh. I wandered into Flannery O'Connor's combine/separate page (http://www.librarything.com/author/oconnorflannery&norefer=1) this afternoon, and I really wish I hadn't. Is anyone here an expert on her? There appear to be two different books entitled Three, each containing Wise Blood and The Violent Bear it Away, along with either A Good Man is Hard to Find OR Everything That Rises Must Converge.

I think I may have accidentally bitten off more than I can chew, but here's what I've done: I'm working to separate and recombine everything so that there are just two work pages for Three, one for each version. On each, I posted a disambiguation notice (http://www.librarything.com/work/3615 and http://www.librarything.com/work/6540349). If anyone has suggestions for how to make the disambiguation notices more helpful, please let me know. The combining and separating is a huge task, because some editions don't have ISBNs, and others don't state in the title which works they contain, and some ISBNs that are identified with one work on WorldCat and Amazon also appear in LT as the other work, and some ISBNs are identified with one work by WorldCat and with another by Amazon. (I'm treating WorldCat as authoritative in those situations, but please let me know if that's not right.) If I can't definitively put a work in one group or the other, I'm leaving it where it is for now, but if anyone has suggestions for how I can do a better job of identifying what's what, I'd be grateful. I'm going to take a break, and then go back to it in a little bit. Thanks!

You should also put a disambiguation note on the author's page - a lot of combining goes on from those as well.

>37 Nicole_VanK:: Done, thanks!

Edited to add: I have Flannery O'Connor as straightened out as I can get her, for the moment, though I have no illusions that the project is actually complete. If someone who speaks more than one language is looking for a project, I suspect some of the translations could use combining, but I did not want to fool around with those, given my nearly complete ignorance.

Something's weird with my copy of Intelligence Gathering, a Star Trek comic book.

http://www.librarything.com/work/5455260
http://www.librarything.com/work/6537301

When I'm in catalogue view, it indicates the work has 0 reviews... but the little speech bubble is still green! And sometimes the cover I uploaded disappears.

>39 Stevil2001: I combined the 0 copy work with the 3 copy work - what does it look like to you now? I saw that there was 1 review when I clicked on the 3 copy work and none when I clicked on the 0 copy work (pre-combining). In your library now I can make it show me the review.

Of course... I have the added weirdness that on the author page it reports that it has 65535 reviews - so THAT clearly is wrong.

> 40

It still just had a "3" below the people icon in my library; there's no indication of reviews. Obviously this isn't a huge deal, but I've never seen anything like this before. I hadn't noticed the author page; that is BIZARRE.

Somehow both my copies of the "Poetic Edda" got uncombined when I added original language info. They don't even show up as potential combinations of the main work (though I did manage to find a couple of extra copies for one of the translator/editors).

Please combine:
http://www.librarything.com/work/4642363
http://www.librarything.com/work/3686590/book/25143638
http://www.librarything.com/work/6546720/book/25140725

(Don't combine with the "Prose Edda", which may also show up in your efforts - it's a very different work).

42> Combined.

Thank you.

http://www.librarything.com/work/721068 is another poetic Edda

And here's the Swedish translation of the poetic Edda. Could this one be joined to the others, please.

http://www.librarything.com/work/2992707/editions/21481874

>45 MarthaJeanne:/46 done.

I have no idea how possible this is -

http://www.librarything.com/work/4454444/editions/36421618

If you look at The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, the authors full name is Jennifer 8 Lee.

In my mind, it seems she should have an author page of her own that's leejennifer8, but you click on it and it's simply leejennifer with a disambiguation notice - but you can search and get a 0 member result for her:

http://www.librarything.com/search_author.php?q=jennifer+8+lee

In reality, she's here -

http://www.librarything.com/author/leejennifer

Mixed in with another Jennifer Lee that wrote things she didn't write. This is purely selfish, as I'd like to get Jennifer 8 Lee her own author page and send her the photo permission/LT author invite and make sure that her author events end up on her own page. She's a rather funny and insightful writer and has made it so I really can't look at that Panda soy sauce the same way again!

I found one Icelandic Edda
Eddukvaedi ( saemundar-edda), 2 Vols. and
two German Die Lieder der älteren Edda: (Saemundar edda). Hsg v. K. Hildebrand.
Die Lieder der Älteren Edda : Sæmundar Edda.

It is terrible that Caroline Larrington gets the authorship of this work.

48>

They may be stripping non-alphabetic characters from the authorname URL. Spotchecking a couple authors with hyphenated names this appears to be the case.

I agree it's terrible Caroline Larrington - just one of the many translators / editors - gets authorship. But at least they are getting combined. Sure, there are some differences between the various editions - every editor makes choices - but essentially it's still the same work.

>49 Anneli: - your three combined with the others.

I'll see what I can do about getting someone else to "float" to the author position (so don't go crazy if things look wonky for a bit) - anyone in particular that you would like to see there?

ETA: Looks like LTs second choice is "Lee M. Hollander" is that in any way preferable?

>50 lorax: Well, boo then! I figured it was something system-related and not people-related when I didn't see Jennifer 8. Lee under the "This entry includes..."

>52 PortiaLong:: Lee Hollander is just another editor / translator - Bellows is another popular one. Neither of these are really preferable. The work really is by "anonymous" - but of course none of us like that option either.

>52 PortiaLong:

Sæmundr Sigfússon (Sæmundr fróði) was at least Icelandic...

edited the tempus

>55 Anneli: Well since only 26 of 521 entries are credited to any version of "Samunder" I don't think floating that is within my limited powers.

Your choices are pretty much Larrington, Hollander, or (possibly) Bellows.

I recall reading in these forums at some point that Tim was contemplating an author fix that would address the "multiple authors with the same name" problem and that he thought this might also be applicable to the various "Anonymous"s - perhaps this would also address the Jennifer 8. Lee issue.

That's why I never even attempted to change things. All those people are 'merely' translator / editors and none of them is really entitled to claim authorship. Changing it from one of them to another really isn't worth the trouble.

A bevy of combination requests:
1st pair
http://www.librarything.com/work/1007042
http://www.librarything.com/work/2104459

2nd pair
http://www.librarything.com/work/2093779/
http://www.librarything.com/work/3787557

3rd pair
http://www.librarything.com/work/book/23586072
http://www.librarything.com/work/6269688

4th pair
http://www.librarything.com/work/3722240
http://www.librarything.com/work/3422668

5th pair
http://www.librarything.com/work/2717129
http://www.librarything.com/work/2108387

6th pair
This one's odd because they have the same ISBN but don't show up on each others' edition pages.
http://www.librarything.com/work/2015242/editions/
http://www.librarything.com/work/2095610/editions/9586156

7th pair
http://www.librarything.com/work/1007042
http://www.librarything.com/work/2104459

8th pair
http://www.librarything.com/work/2099604
http://www.librarything.com/work/1375977

Thank you to anyone who helps.

{edited to fix mis-entered links}

Please could you combine

1-http://www.librarything.com/work/3206255/38108671

2-http://www.librarything.com/work/136011

3-http://www.librarything.com/work/3805543

Thank you

>59 Moloch:
I think there may be two different works here:
Inside the Body (Lift-the-Flap Book) by Giuliano Fornari
and
Inside the Body: Fantastic Images from Beneath the Skin by Susan Greenfield

The latter should probably include http://www.librarything.com/work/2726161 but I don't know how to do no author, no ISBN combining.

Then there is Moloch's own copy which is also no author, no ISBN. I separated it from the Fornari work. I, personally, can't add it to the Greenfield work, but if you are willing to add Susan Greenfield to the primary author field it could be easily combined.

> Done - 7th pair was actually a repeat of the first pair. The reason that the 6th pair didn't show up on each others list was probably the extra ":" in one of the titles - I think they have to share 2 out of 3 of title/author/ISBN but the system requires the Title be exactly the same

>59 Moloch:/60 -
sorted out now to:
Susan Greenfield
http://www.librarything.com/work/136011/editions/
(including Moloch's copy)

Giuliano Fornari
http://www.librarything.com/work/6571272/editions/

I'm not sure how the combining project works. I have a couple of questions. I listen to a lot of audio books, therefore I have added a number of titles with the information for the audio book. Are these then combined with review/common knowledge information with other versions?

If so, here are a couple:

http://www.librarything.com/work/3044703
http://www.librarything.com/work/5003945

http://www.librarything.com/work/5461049
http://www.librarything.com/work/4064672

>62 sharlene_w: - The consensus is that if the audio book is a complete (not abridged) version of the real book then it is the same work, just in a different format (like large-print).

The first set that you listed was combinable from the Editions page. The first work in the second set does not appear to have any copies associated with it.

So would the protocol be to post unabridged audios here so they can be combined, or is there a tutorial I should get to learn how to combine them myself?

You can certainly post unabridged audios here to be combined. The best places to start to learn combining for yourself are:

1.) On the "Editions" page - sometimes it helps to look at the Editions page for EACH copy that you find because they aren't always two-way. If there are copies that LT thinks MAYBE should be combined they will show up under the ones that are already together and there will be a link "Combine/Separate" potentials. Be careful though - not all of LTs suggestions are good ones.

2.) On the Author's "Combine/Separate" page - if you go to the Author's page - there is a link above and to the right of the list of works (in the "Books By" title bar). You can then look through the author's books and combine from there. LT won't necessary know that two titles are the same so for instance:

How to Combine (A LT combiners guide)
and
How to Combine: An LT combiner's Guide

will show up as two different works (which you may of course combine - once I have gotten around to writing it ;-)

There is no tutorial (that I know of - you might want to check WikiThing) but reading this group can be helpful.

This book, http://www.librarything.com/work/3627073, was actually written by Michael Morrison, according to World Cat. It is probably a translation of this: http://www.librarything.com/work/645544.

I posted a disambiguation notice, but I wondered if there is anyway to combine them, thus removing the incorrect one from Toni Morrison's page.

Thanks,
k4k

>66 krazy4katz:: I can confirm it is a Dutch translation of the other work.

>66 krazy4katz: Combined!
>67 Nicole_VanK: Thank you for the confirmation!

67 & 68:

Thanks to both of you!

k4k

http://www.librarything.com/work/6523953 and http://www.librarything.com/work/6523961 are the same book, with the same ISBN even, but they have different authors and the automatic combiner refuses to offer them as combination possibilities. Thanks.

#70. Done

http://www.librarything.com/work/4483677 and http://www.librarything.com/work/4551232 are the same issue, but with different authors. Automatic is a no go.

Thanks in advance.

http://www.librarything.com/work/76796 and http://www.librarything.com/work/3666420 are the same work, one with and one without an author.

(I found these because someone has put them into a series - and portialong implied in an earlier message that this should help with combining them. But I admit I can't see what to do, sorry.)

>72 khrister: and 73 - done

Series helps with combining mainly in making it obvious that a combining is required - for instance, the fact that you found this pair. Also, if I am working on combining for a particular series it generates a honed down and ordered list I can work from that is easier to re-access than the results of a "Search." It doesn't necessarity make an individual "combining" any easier to accomplish (i.e. it doesn't make it any more likely that a work will show on the related work's "potentials" page.)

http://www.librarything.com/work/2384531 should be merged into http://www.librarything.com/work/5245342

>75 owen1218: done

Is this common amongst the classics?

http://www.librarything.com/work/7489/editions/28343489

I was wondering how my Illustrated Classics got lumped in with the main book - after all, this is NOT the same thing at all. This is pretty much a version I've had since the 2nd or 3rd grade that's less than 50 pages and is illustrated on every other page.

In tracking down my particular edition (which is pre-ISBN), I noticed a ton of volume 1 & volume 2s scattered throughout - was there some happy combining that should be de-combo'd?

It looks a bit daunting...way above my basic, "hey, these are the same thing and they can be combined" skill set.

>77 stephmo:: What a mess. Unfortunately it's very hard to keep adaptations separated, especially if they are still attributed to the original author. The volume 1 & volume 2 thing also happens all over.

>77 stephmo:: Okay, did my best and things should have improved considerably.

> All : Unfortunately, it seems like ALL of Dickens is in a similar mess. Way too much for me to handle by my self.

>79 Nicole_VanK: Wow, I can't believe how much cleaner it already looks...and yes, much of Charles looks to be a hot mess...

:(

Anyone know what to make of this?

http://www.librarything.com/work/3227130/editions/

Just entered an opera programme - Elektra. No author*. It got linked to 2 kick-ass feminist superhero DVDs, one under Robert Bowman (director), the other authorless. I have separated myself from the Bowman work, but I don't know how to split from the other - any ideas?

http://www.librarything.com/work/book/38325132
or at:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=abbottthomas&deepsearch=elektra

*maybe I should make up an author - Royal Opera House or similar? I have seen other organisations as author, e.g. Bodleian Library.

You may want to tell me to take my programmes elsewhere - that would make me very sad. I see the programme as a 'work' separate from score, commentary, CD, etc.

This is the companion: http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=howie&deepsearch=elektra

>82 abbottthomas:, making up an author seems like a good idea. Your program(me)s aren't likely to have ISBNs, so without an author there's nothing to make the distinction obvious -- not just for the sake of automatic combinations, but so that later combiners will be less likely to confuse something from the Royal Opera House with an issue of the comic.

Yeah, any info about authorship is better than none at all.

> 81

Some of them may - just may - be bad data from Amazon, which then gets combined with other similar-looking stuff. Two ISBNs there do correspond to Ian McEwan's "Saturday", the book pictured. amazon.co.uk brings up a record for a second-hand copy - binding "unknown". Is it possible that some data transfer glitch caused this to end up in the title field instead ?

Other editions there are manually-entered books with title "unknown" and author blank. At least one has nothing meaningful except in the comments field, and even that doesn't say very much. And I can't say much about the japanese texts that have ended up there.

But it looks as if it should be possible to tease out some of them and recombine based on ISBNs alone, leaving a few less things in the list.

>83 sabreuse:, 84

Thanks for the advice. I'll do it.....slowly ;-)

http://www.librarything.com/work/6609762 and http://www.librarything.com/work/6609761 are the same book, one with the actual "author" (photographer, really), and one with the publisher as author.

>87 khrister:: Done.

>88 Nicole_VanK:

Hmm...something looks to have gone wrong.

As far as I can tell, http://www.librarything.com/work/6609762 got combined with http://www.librarything.com/work/28287 instead of http://www.librarything.com/work/6609761.

http://www.librarything.com/work/6609761 (and http://www.librarything.com/work/6609762) is a 100mm x 82mm selection from http://www.librarything.com/work/28287, which is pretty much a coffee table book. Not that most people would leave it on the coffee table...

Anyway, they're definitely not the same book.

>89 khrister:: Oops, I had no idea. Silly publishers, using the same title and picture for different works. Separated those out again (+ a couple of postcard books which could hardly be the same then either).

Which leaves 6609762 and 6609761 to be combined I think. Correct? Confused here!

81> WOW!

I agree with 85 that some of it may be sortable, but part of me wants to just leave it as a monument to bad data.

>90 Nicole_VanK:: Anything with the ISBN 3822881708 is the mini book. That includes, as far as I can tell right now, these:

Author Benedikt Taschen
http://www.librarything.com/work/6610838
http://www.librarything.com/work/6610836
(when combined, these made up 6609762, I think)

Author Eric Kroll
http://www.librarything.com/work/6609761

This book:

http://www.librarything.com/work/details/38362874

needs to be part of this work:

http://www.librarything.com/work/68650

but I don’t seem to be able to make it so…

>93 JamesBoswell:: Weird, that work doesn't show on the author page.

Because it doesn't have an author.

If you look at the main work page, there is no author listed.
http://www.librarything.com/work/6612566

When you look at the specific book it does have an author. http://www.librarything.com/work/6612566/book/38362874

Perhaps user JamesBoswell edited the information after entry and the db hasn't caught up yet??

93>> Got it. I just changed the author on the "book" and changed it back again. Then it showed up on the "work".

> 91

Someone already has stripped out the copies of "Saturday", it seems. So the monument isn't quite as imposing as it was.

Found another interesting looking editions page:
http://www.librarything.com/work/23069/editions/37247457

Anyone know what the d-number things could be? I'm assuming they should be separated out, but then I'm not sure what to do with them...rather odd.

This copy of The Future Is Queer (http://www.librarything.com/work/6397836) is separated from it's siblings (http://www.librarything.com/work/1780155).

Also...I'd like to learn how these can be combined, if they can.

98> I separated one out, and the member concerned has a whole bunch of these, all tagged Film, DVD, CP.

Some have this author, some have publisher info. Most don't have a lot of other info except ISBN matching these wierd titles.

I've taken some more out, but there are still more left.

#99: The Anthologies are combined.

Warning: This method does not always work!!!
NO GUARANTEES ARE GIVEN OR IMPLIED!!

The Labonté editions had ISBNs.
The Schimel edition did not.
So they would not show up as potential combinations.

I combined them by adding an ISBN edition to my library (temporarily).
I then changed the author to Schimel.
I then combined the two Schimel editions and hoped that the Labonté editions would show up as potential combininations to the Schimel editions...
They didn't.
So I separated the two Schimels & the edition with the ISBN showed up as a potential combination with the Labonté edition...
So I recombined the Schimel editions & the Labonté edition finally showed as a potential combination.

So I was able to combine the Labonté edition & the Schimel edition.
Then I deleted "fake" copy from my library.

In other words... combining is frequently a lot more work than people think it is....

and aren't you sorry you asked how to do it.

Thanks skittles. I've heard this method mentioned before, but have never had it completely explained to me. I generally just stick to "easy" combining, but am looking to expand my skill-set.

I started trying to "fix" something in my library but soon realised I wasn't just editing my own book, but (I think) the listing for the work. So I'd appreciate advice on what I should do.

This is the book in my library I am talking about: http://www.librarything.com/work/324523/book/11903577

I was exploring LT and came across the Series list (from my Statistics page or something, I think?) which had this book listed under "101 Essential Tips" series or something. I believe the information from this book was at some point re-published/re-badged under the 101 Essential Tips series by a different publisher (and with a different ISBN), but the book I have is NOT part of that series.

I deleted the reference to the 101 Essential Tips series from the screen.... and it was then that I started to wonder if I had done the wrong thing. Do I perhaps need to uncombine the works, instead? Seeing as the other works' covers are still listed as "cover options"... ?

If I have to, I will delete the book from my library and re-add it manually, since I do not want my book to appear linked to the 101 series. Is this perhaps my only (or best) option?

Cheers, folks.

>103 global.hobo:: Maybe people just don't understand, but series info effects all of a work. This is exactly why publishers series should not be entered. For example, you may have a "Penguin Classics" edition of Don Quixotte, but not ALL copies of Don Quixotte on LT are "Penguin Classics".

The way you describe it, you did it right. The "101 Tips" series is apparently a publishers series and that info should not have been entered in the first place.
But yes, by removing that series information you have deleted it for the entire work - not just for your copy.

No your book should not be separated, assuming that the text is the same. It will probably just end up being recombined by somebody anyway.

Whether your correction will stick is an entirely different matter. I have, for example, given up on correcting "The Annotated Alice" - people insist on adding "Norton Annotated Series" for it, even though there are several other editions. :-(

This is a request for multiple fixes, all from a single series. And also one request for some advice.

I've been adding CK information to put Wisden Cricketer's Almanacks (an annual publication) into a series, and combining as many of them as I can. There are some left that I don't know how to deal with, mainly ones where the author information is radically different.

The series page is here:
http://www.librarything.com/series/Wisden

1952, 1953, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1979, 1987, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2007, along with the anthology "a century of wisden" all require combining that's beyond my skills.

Some years have multiple entries, but some of the entries lead to books with no members (1948, 1960). This may be a result of my combining. In these cases, should I just delete the CK information from the books that nobody owns ? It doesn't seem worth someone spending the effort to combine them. Do the un-owned records eventually disappear from LT ?

Grateful for any advice and/or assistance.

>104 Nicole_VanK:

Thanks for that. My understanding of "series" wasn't (possibly still isn't) quite crystal clear, so your explanation helped. I see your point (and frustration) about publishers series.

Just for my own interest, re your third para: For argument's sake, assuming the text was in some way different - for example, if the information that was in "my" version of the book was rewritten/reformatted into actual dot-point "101 tips" format - would that then constitute an actual separate work? And in the same vein but a different example, if a book is updated (eg a reworked chapter, or new foreword added), is that considered a separate work? Or just a different edition of the same work?

Sorry for the finicky questions. I'd like to get into helping out with combining/separating sometime, but I probably should understand this stuff first.

>106 global.hobo::

Yes, that is tricky. Especially in non-fiction new editions are very often somewhat updated. Exactly when does that start to become a new work? Views on this differ.

Generally I would combine revised editions. But if a work gets really rewritten to fit some series, then I would be inclined to see it as an adaptation - which should not be combined. Sometimes it's impossible to tell if you don't actually have both editions to compare.

Ok, I'm guilty of entering a lot of publisher's series. I've been going on the theory that the books were originally created as part of that series, even if particular volumes get re-published otherwise, or if the name of the series get's changed. It's part of the history of a work, even if it only marginally applies to a particular edition.

>108 PhaedraB:: Yeah, I can see how there would be exceptions - where it would be helpful to know what series a book was originally designed for and there are very few other editions.

The (Yale UP) Pelican History of Art http://www.librarything.com/series/The%20Yale%20University%20Press%20Pelican%20H... for example. Originally by Penguin Books, later taken over by Yale UP (who added some new volumes) - so strictly two series perhaps. But a real series, and it says something about any volume that it was written for it, even though some volumes later on got translated and published by other parties.

>105 kevinashley:: I've combined each year in the series, except where the works have zero owners (which the system should delete after a decent interval), and 2006, where I didn't know whether the 'Special Edition' is in fact a different work.

> 110: many thanks. Good to know that unowned book data does eventually go. I'll keep an eye on it, though.
I'll see what I can find out re 2006 editions.

Another, unrelated, request. These:

http://www.librarything.com/work/1570137

http://www.librarything.com/work/328395

are the same work, one credited to the author of the text, one to the illustrator (Guy Peelaert, mentioned in another thread here.)

Despite ISBN linkages, neither shows up as a potential combination for the other, so please could someone with greater combining knowledge combine them. Thanks.

#111:

I think I've combined all of the Rock Dreams by Peellaert (& Cohn) together.

Post again in this thread if you find any stray copies or editions that haven't been combined.

**worldcat.org lists Peellaert as the 'first' author, so that is how I "pushed" it.**

> 112

Thanks! I have no opinion as to who should be the first author, so what you've done is fine by me.

Not sure if I'm using this board correctly, but here goes anyhow. I just added Essex County Volume 1 Tales from the Farm to my library, and I was surprised to find that I was the only member who owned it. Then, I searched LT and found that, no, actually there are 76 members with this book. I attempted to combine the works by clicking on the author's name, but I didn't see my copy listed. Not sure where to go from here... I just want my copy to show that other people have this book too!

Mine: http://www.librarything.com/work/6636900/book/38496103

Should be combined with: http://www.librarything.com/work/2995205

Does this make sense? If so, would someone mind explaining how I would do this?

Done -- but I think someone else was doing it at the same time too!

unihighlibrary, since you asked how to do it: it probably took a couple of minutes to show up, but when I clicked on the author's name there were indeed two versions of this work -- one for each of the urls you provided. On the author page I clicked 'combine/separate works' (on the right-ish above the list of works) -- then I picked yours and the main one and clicked combine (after carefully checking things like name, author, and ISBN... it's far easier to combine than to separate afterwards, so be careful!).

You could also do this from the 'Editions' page (link on the left of the book's work page) -- you get a list there of potential combinations with your book.

114> Done.

This is how I did it:
From your copy, I clicked on "Editions" (at the bottom of the left column)
Fortunately, the other work was listed under the "Potential work combinations"
I clicked on "combine/separate potentials" (this currently doesn't show, since I already did it and there aren't any other potentials right now)
Checked the works to be combined
Clicked the "Combine works" button
Clicked the "Combine" button
Ta da! :-)

Wow, that was fast. Thanks so much! I guess I should have refreshed the author page. I kept wondering why my book wasn't on the list! Thanks for the edition info too; I feel better knowing there are multiple ways this can be done.

Okay, here's another one. I've added Tom Strong Volume 1 to my library, and I'd like to combine it with all the other TSV1s out there, but I get this muddled work in my list of potential work combinations:
http://www.librarything.com/work/82859

I'm not sure if this work was supposed to represent only Volume 1 or if it's a catch-all for all Tom Strong volumes, though it seems that the latter is in practice. Is there a way to separate these so that each volume lives as its own work?

I don't really want to lump my copy (http://www.librarything.com/work/6636789/book/38496009) in with the above work unless it's really supposed to represent just Volume 1. And I wasn't able to find another work that was in fact Volume 1. Any ideas?

>118 unihighlibrary:: I've separated one out (that said it was # 1-16). For the rest, it seems like it's all the same Tom Strong Vol. 1 to me - just a couple of different editions (including some foreign language - but those should be combined).

I separated out any that had other volume numbers in the title.

>120 DaynaRT:: Thanks so much! I was beginning to think I was seeing things...

>119 Nicole_VanK:: Thank you also... see above comment. :)

> 105, 110

The 2006 ordinary and special editions appear to be the same work, so should be combined - thanks.

>122 kevinashley:: Done

I have no idea if this is possible, since one of these has no ISBN or author, but:

http://www.librarything.com/work/197818

and

http://www.librarything.com/work/30693

>124 Katya0133: - done

>114 unihighlibrary: - welcome to combiners and YES you are using this board correctly (right down to providing the URLs - thank you!). Just wanted to say it outright, though I am sure you knew that from the helpful responses you got :-)

This author National Festival Association has been some how combined with National Fire Protection Association

Can someone please fix it.

Thank you in advance.

Edit to fix Touchstones

The touchstones don't appear to be working.

Here are the links;

http://www.librarything.com/work/6645130/book/4177175

http://www.librarything.com/author/nfpa

Please combine these two books

http://www.librarything.com/work/6608521

&

http://www.librarything.com/work/6025804 (no author on this one)

Thanks

126>
The list at nfpa looks fine. Clicking on the author from the work certainly does take you there, though.

Just guessing, but could it be that the author code only recognizes 10 characters? That seems awfully short to me.

I'm going to post this over in bugs.

126>128> More than 10 characters

Association, National Festival
Association, National Fire Protection

This forced last name,first name is the form of the name entered from Amazon sources and sort with the A's in member library catalog view. Entries from Library sources sort in the the N's.

Tim says it has to do with the initials. Still don't see what is going on.

Found another one: http://www.librarything.com/work/5175110/editions/

Here's three more:

http://www.librarything.com/work/451842

http://www.librarything.com/work/2165996

or better still

http://www.librarything.com/work/4059892

I like your second one best.

Thanks. It does make sense now, even if there isn't a lot that can be done about it.

This one is bugging me and I hope someone out there has a solution

http://www.librarything.com/series/Cassell%27s+History+of+England

I have managed to Tag books as being in the series so they show up on the list, but from this their are obvious combinations to do (From my research there are a few editions of this series, but all essentially the same work i.e. no revisions etc..., it is amazing how much you learn about a book when trying to find the missing one but with the correct cover). I can not find a suitable method for combining these books.

Help Please

>127 Mercenary_Roadie: - combined, along with some other 2003 editions.

My question - how different are the different year editions of this book? Are they different enough to warrant being separate works?

>134 oybon: - obvious combinations on series page completed

That was Quick, Now is there a guide on how you did it so if the problem comes up again I can do it myself.

Also

I have spent several hours on

http://www.librarything.com/author/giles

and am nowhere near complete.

The non Giles (aka Giles, Carl) books need removing yet more combining needs doing, and breaking up of incorrectly combined books (often obvious by the ISBN numbers). Basically the problem is caused by there being over 50 books with the same cover title (`Giles') but longer series and year title on the inner page.

I was considering making a common Canonical Title (i.e. Giles: 24th (1970) ) or something more in that ilk to make sorting through the list easier. Any suggestions.

And, there are a whole host of books with the wrong author as many of the giles books come with a forward by a `media-type' that is incorrectly registered as author. Billy Connelly is one example.

135> Yes, Please don't combine different year editions.

These are nation standards that change on a multi year cycle.

I have been creating series for each standard with the different edition added to each series with the edition year as it's number in the series.

Here is an example series:

http://www.librarything.com/series/NFPA+101%3A+Life+Safety+Code+Handbook

Still trying to figure this stuff out, but until I do, here are the ones I was working on yesterday that I can't get to combine:

Mine: http://www.librarything.com/work/6638314/book/38496009
Combine with: http://www.librarything.com/work/82859

Mine: http://www.librarything.com/work/6636772/book/38495969
Combine with: http://www.librarything.com/work/641676

Mine: http://www.librarything.com/work/6637994/editions/38496035
Combine with: http://www.librarything.com/work/27185

When I click on editions and try to view potential work combinations, I only get two works for Tom Strong. When I click on Alan Moore and go to his works, I also do not see my book on the list of potential combinations. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance!

Alright...I think I've got it sorted out, but the database apparently still needs to catch up. I have to go to lunch right now, but I'll be back to explain in about an hour. :-)

Okay, I'm back. :-)

This is what I observed:
Your copies, for whatever reason, were showing up with "0" members despite the fact that you obviously had the item in your catalog. I find that this sometimes happens when a change is made to the title. When a work has no members, it doesn't show up on lists on combine/separate pages. Looking at the edition pages for your work, I clicked "separate" which thankfully released your copy back into the wild. Then I was able to combine as usual. Sorry I can't offer more technical reasons as to what was going on because I'm not sure exactly what was going on. I just happen to have discovered a way around it a while back. :-)

Oh, and you're not doing anything wrong. It's an LT quirk that sometimes gets in the way.

Thanks for the explanation. I do often change the titles of books because I don't like the way they show up. :x Hopefully, I can try your method out on my own!

I'm just learning how to link things, so if the links below don't work, I apologize.

I entered a book titled Alabam' -- the link is http://www.librarything.com/work/6640750/book/38505797

There are two additional copies in LT with the name entered as follows:
"Alabam' (Vintage Avon)

Yes, the name as entered includes a single bracket within the parentheses.

Anyway, not only do I not yet understand linking, I don't yet know how to combine books.

Could someone look at this? Thanks.

144> Done. I combined from the author page. You made the link fine. :-)

those potential combinations should be reviewed:

http://www.librarything.com/author/sartrejeanpaul

with

http://www.librarything.com/author/carusopaulo&norefer=1
http://www.librarything.com/author/frechtmanjeanpaulsar&norefer=1

141> You can actually get around the 0-problem by clicking the number of members a few times. If you do that it'll eventually update to the correct number - which is well-known.

I guess you solved the problem by separating the work from itself?

147>I guess you solved the problem by separating the work from itself?

Yup. Pretty much. :-)

I've tried the "click on the number of members" method before (not in this instance), but have never got it to work for me.

>136 oybon: Now is there a guide on how you did it so if the problem comes up again I can do it myself.

Well, I did a "basics" in message 65 in this thread - beyond that - different combiners have different tricks they have come up with including:
* adding "ghost books" with various combinations of titles/authors/ISBNs to force suggestions and then deleting them when the combining is done,
* finding outliers that match one or the other of things trying to be combined until you hit on some magic combination that generates the correct suggestions,
* checking suggestions from either end (If A doesn't show on B, see if B shows on A),
* forcing works to show up under a specific author so combinings can be done on the authors page, etc.

All of them can be very time consuming and have to be done carefully to make sure you clean up any messes that you make. Not every combining will yield to every trick so we offer up stubborn ones here for others to try THEIR bag of tricks on.

>137 Mercenary_Roadie: - Just checking to be sure these were really different works and not just different editions.
It would be a good idea to put a disambiguation notice on the individual works "These are national standards that change on a multi year cycle - please do not combine different years' editions." So they don't get combined in the future.

>146 zarathoustra:
In general, multi-author mashes should not be combined with single authors - ideally the author should be listed as the author and the translator or author of the intro should be documented in the "Other Authors" section of CK. IN the examples you gave - for the second one I was able to combine the works listed with the appropriate works - so now that author has no works and doesn't really need to be combined with anything. For the first one - I don't speak French, but if you post which works the works listed under that author belong with we can try to combine those.

Oh mighty combining gurus, I need your help/comments, please. :)

I've been trying to combine several author versions of "Millennia Corporation" (original url here, although it now redirects: http://www.librarything.com/author/millenniacorporation). All is good until I try to combine the last version in, which is called "Millennia Publishers" (http://www.librarything.com/author/publishersmillennia). Once I do that final combine, the overall author name automatically changes to Millennia Publishers, which is incorrect.

I've tried this a few times already, in different combinations. On the last time (which I haven't reversed yet), I changed the Canonical Name on both entries to read "Millennia Corporation"... but it still chose the Millennia Publishers as the main entry (see the url of the overall author page now), although the author name on the author page is now per the Canonical name.

I think I should just let it stay as it is, but the fact that the url directs to ..../publishersmillennia instead of..../millenniacorporation sort of bugs me.

Is there another way you would have done it, or a trick to use, that would have made the Millennia Corporation entry become the main one? It had the most works / members with books etc, so I expected it to be dominant...

Please combine these:

http://www.librarything.com/work/197817
http://www.librarything.com/work/197819
http://www.librarything.com/work/197816
http://www.librarything.com/work/197820
http://www.librarything.com/work/197815

with this:

http://www.librarything.com/work/30693

>150 global.hobo:
I found one more to add but don't see any "Millenium Publishers"

>151 Katya0133:
done

>152 PortiaLong:

I was more just explaining how I did what I did in case someone had a better way of doing it. It's really not a big deal, so feel free to ignore my added attempt to explain below. :)

Author A = Millennia Corporation
Author B = Millennia Publishers

- Author A is the correct name. I was trying to combine Author A and Author B. Author A had more works and more members.

- Despite several attempts, the author being made dominant after the combining was always Author B (note the url for the author page).

- The only way I could get it to NOT display Author B's name was to type Author A into the Canonical Name section of Author B (now the main author), which changed the display name and so, for all intents and purposes, fixed the problem.

So technically everything is ok, just the fact that the url still mentions Millennia Publishers was bugging me. I'm over it now. :)

Sorry for the long-winded confusion. Although, if there's a trick to getting one author to stick as the main author when combining, I'd still love to know it for future reference.

#153: read previously posted messages in this thread... specifically #6 & #8.... they "might" just help you in your quest for author dominance.

>154 skittles:

Thanks for the referral - I'll read those posts and try it that way next time. Appreciate your help.

I have tried to combine these two, but failed.
Different author listed, but the same work:

http://www.librarything.com/work/3690972
and
http://www.librarything.com/work/3674338

>156 FAMeulstee: done

Thanks, Portia! Here are some more:

http://www.librarything.com/work/197814
http://www.librarything.com/work/1316614
http://www.librarything.com/work/1779527
http://www.librarything.com/work/1190851
http://www.librarything.com/work/4625473

with

http://www.librarything.com/work/30693

>158 Katya0133: done
You're welcome Katy - thanks for finding them.

Anyone any ideas why this work -

http://www.librarything.com/work/2977020/book/15127906

- doesn't feature on the author's page (A. C. Brown)?

http://www.librarything.com/author/brownac

Because it features on this page http://www.librarything.com/author/brownannc (Ann C. Brown). If that's the same person - and if there's no other A.C. Brown - you can combine the authors.

How do I combine a single work under an author's name with works under a second author's name while leaving some works under the first author's name intact and separate? For example: The work Silverwolf is listed incorrectly under Roger Emerson and correctly under Roger Edmonson. (FYI: the error might have started with Amazon.com which lists the author incorrectly even though the book cover picture clearly shows the correct author name. Several bibliographies list only Edmonson)

Roger Emerson is a distinct author with other correct books listed so I don't want to combine authors. I would not want to hassle other LT users and suggest they correct their postings.

http://www.librarything.com/author/edmonsonroger&norefer=1.

http://www.librarything.com/author/emersonroger

I am sure this is an old question but I am new at this and unable to figure it out on my own so thanks for your advice and patience.

Several of the Out and About with Pooh books need combining but aren't showing up on the respective editions pages.
It may be a caching issue as I've only just added the series information and Canonical titles to a lot of them but I think the lack of author and/or ISBN is going to be the bigger issue.

I'm a coward. I would very much like my book

http://www.librarything.com/work/6687532/book/38624731

to be combined with

http://www.librarything.com/work/3665195
(which I also have)

but I can see so many problems on the combine/separate page there, that I don't dare touch it. Quite outside of the fact that my first one doesn't show up at all.

Edits:
I changed the author in the second, and now both are in the first and not int he second at all.

Realized dthat the ISBN of the second book was missing, and now they have combined nicely. There are still iditions in
http://www.librarything.com/work/120931

that belong in the other one, but mine looks fine, and I'm going to ignore it.

And if you want to stay sane, don't look at this page either:

http://www.librarything.com/combine.php?work=2449742

I'm going to bed.

I must say that I would rather like one of my copies of Gawain and the Green Knight to be returned to Simon Armitage -
http://www.librarything.com/work/3665195/book/15551880

Not the 'onlie begetter' perhaps, but I think there is enough of him in it to give him precedence over this Gawain Poet bloke.

I wouldn't be so fussed about my other version -

http://www.librarything.com/work/2550492/book/15130472

- which is much more a straightforward rendering of the text into modern English.

#162: Combined under the author name "Edmonson"

Note that the touchstone "Silverwolf" DID NOT link to the correct book, but another with the same title.

It helps combiners if you give LINKS to the correct books & authors (which you did give us).

It makes the job much easier to post the LINK to the pages where the information/book is located.

but the books you asked us to combine are combined AND under the author Edmonson.

#166:
Thank you for the advice. As I said, I am new and didn't realize how the touchstone worked until after I sent the message and read the actual posting. So, I am glad I provided the author LINKS.

I assume you made the correction. Can you please explain how or direct me to information on the site that explains so that I can learn to make such corrections myself? Or is it protocol for "combiners" to be a limited group? I would hate to experiment on my own and make a mistake.

Thanks again for the help.

combiners is not a limited group. anyone can combine. we just request that you do so carefully & thoughtfully. We have cleaned up many messes & just ask that you combine carefully.

my suggestion is to read this thread & other threads to get ideas & suggestions... they do get posted.

what I did was similar to what I did earlier in posts #6 & 8, so read those posts & the posts requesting help.

If you are unsure whether or not you should combine something, ask in this thread (or in the discussion thread for general questions.)

The only time I get upset with other combiners is when I haven't had enough caffeine or when the question has already been asked & answered a million-trillion times... and the member's excuse is that there is too much to read!! (does that mean we still have to answer it again after answering it a million-trillion times? just for that one member?? AGAIN?)

Now my excuse for sarcasm isn't lack of caffeine, but lack of sleep... G'night!!

165> If yours is an adaption, and not a straight translation, why don't you separate it out and put a disambiguation notice on it. Now that might help keep it out. Mine are the original text and a modern translation. (Let's be honest. I keep the origiinal because it associated with Tolkien. I never read it and probably won't.)

>165 abbottthomas: & 169: There are other translations than that by Tolkien, and I think they are (pretty much) all combined now. However, if they really are translations, instead of adaptations, even though they no doubt are somewhat different, I think this is correct according to the spirit / rules of LT combining.

Not knowing the Armitage version I can't comment on the specific edition. But if it really should be separated, please try to get all of this version / edition and - as MarthaJeanne suggested - please leave disambiguation.

Here are more for Portia (or whoever):

http://www.librarything.com/work/1515484
http://www.librarything.com/work/1650637
http://www.librarything.com/work/3285725
http://www.librarything.com/work/6404557
http://www.librarything.com/work/4747387

with

http://www.librarything.com/work/30693

Thanks!

-Katya

>171 Katya0133: - done
Thanks Katya - just an amusing coincidence that I happen to read this thread next after you have posted some more!

>163 Avron: - obvious combinings on series page done.

>172 PortiaLong:

Excellent! You come when I call! :)

http://www.librarything.com/work/5986704
http://www.librarything.com/work/5782502
http://www.librarything.com/work/462470
http://www.librarything.com/work/4146689
http://www.librarything.com/work/2481932

with

http://www.librarything.com/work/30693

You rang?
>174 Katya0133: - done

HELP!! I combined an isolated volume of 1066 and all that with the 900 odd mass of copies and they have now disappeared from the author combine/separate page.

http://www.librarything.com/combine.php?author=sellarwc

They are still counted on the author page. Where are they? I can see I'm going to be stripped of my badges ;-)

I've had that happen on a smaller scale today too. I think there's a thread in Bug Collectors where they're collecting examples of combining issues over the last few days ....

Don't panic! All is not lost - you have not broken anything.

I have noticed this happen intermittantly in the past (not just recently but over the past few months). It can be annoying if you are in the middle of a combining project but oftentimes I will have the work reappear on the author combine/separate page later (minutes to hours - depending).

Perhaps now that the LT staff is alerted to it we will see an improvement.

>176 abbottthomas:-178
I combined a few more random copies with the main one and now it shows back up on the author combine/separate page where it belongs.

>179 PortiaLong: Phew! Thanks, Portia.

Are you sure it's the same author page? I've seen cases where, after separation when it gives you the options about which page to go to, the combine/separate page you came from isn't listed, but a different one for the "same" author (under an alternate name) is, and that has only a subset of works. E.g., if you go to http://www.librarything.com/author/readersdigest it actually loads http://www.librarything.com/author/editorsreadersdigest and the combine/separate link goes to http://www.librarything.com/combine.php?author=editorsreadersdigest which lists more works than http://www.librarything.com/combine.php?author=readersdigest - sometimes when you separate something on the former page, it sends you back to the latter and works appear to have disappeared.

>181 PaulFoley:
You are correct that if you separate and the work is attributed to one of the "alternate spelling" author names the link you are given after separating is to the "alternate spelling" author's page.

In the case of "1066 and all that" I can confirm that it had disappeared from the "Main" author's combine/separate page (W. C. Sellar) and reappeared after some other miscellaneous combining (that did not revise author attribution).

#176: chuckles to myself at mental image of being frogmarched before Tim with a "Please explain"

Dear forum,

I own two books by the same author, one of which I already included in my Library: http://www.librarything.com/work/6699345/book/38657051 .

The other one I did not yet include in my personal library, but many people have the same book. It is this book: http://www.librarything.com/work/504711/editions/ .

I cannot seem to combine them. How can I make it work?

Also, the books mentioned above, are by the same author as are a few other books. I can see books by this author listed here: http://www.librarything.com/author/nooteboomcees&all=books .

However, http://www.librarything.com/work/504711/editions/ is not among them. How come? All books refer to the same (combined) author, but not all books appear in the authors' books list. Am I missing something here?

Cheers,
René.

It's a bug. Sometimes books temporarily don't show up under combining / separating from an author's page after somebody has done some combining on that title. It seems to be a caching problem. They simply show up again after some time - but unfortunately that "some time" can sometimes take hours.

Thanks. I love bugs: I make a living of them :-). I'll try again later.

René.

Portia!

http://www.librarything.com/work/2979329
http://www.librarything.com/work/4452437
http://www.librarything.com/work/6394441
http://www.librarything.com/work/6507364
http://www.librarything.com/work/6441616

with

http://www.librarything.com/work/30693

please.

Also:

http://www.librarything.com/work/387866

and

http://www.librarything.com/work/3735005

#188 - done

>187 Katya0133: - done, a pleasure as always katya

I edited the ISBN in my book
http://www.librarything.com/work/6745032/book/38784982

and it uncombined from
http://www.librarything.com/work/4032226 and isn't appearing as a potential work combination. Can someone help, or do I need to add the same author as everyone else (actually the editor) for it to work?

>done
Your copies, and the others, can be found at:
http://www.librarything.com/work/1888246

You do not HAVE to enter anything you don't want to in your library. Potential work combinations seem to depend on an algorithm of ISBN, title and author (the title and author may have to be exact in order to generate potential work combinations). This is the correct place to request combinations of items that do not appear as "potentials."

It is often easier to combine works that have SOME author listed and so many people (myself included) will enter the "most likely" author. For instance, I will enter the author of anthologies as:
(Editor), Lastname Firstname
and then combine that "author" with
Lastname, Firstname
so it shows up on the "author" page.

You are BY NO MEANS required to use this (or any other) scheme. If you post your "authorless" combining here we (or at least, I) will be happy to combine them for you - they just won't happen automatically, so it takes a little effort on your part.

Thanks, I know how to do my potentials/from the author page when I get wrong singles. I was pretty sure you combining geniuses could do it otherwise, but wasn't possible. Thanks for fixing it for me!

Could someone please combine these two works:
http://www.librarything.com/work/642761
http://www.librarything.com/work/72692

They are the same work and written by both those authors, but I don't know how to combine (without maybe the noodle torture result) these two when it IS written by both. I am assuming it is separate as they show in the series page http://www.librarything.com/series/Trillium as two works.

Truthfully I don't even know how to check if they are, except they show different numbers of members on each work...so I assume they are not combined and they should be.
ETA: thanks and to check links...

194> done

Thank you - any chance of learning how??

I'm assuming that this should be combined with this even though it has the same ISBN as this.

>197 PhoenixTerran:
I believe you are correct, and so - DONE

>196 Lman:
There are twists and tricks to this combining thing - not every combining problem is solved the same way.
Basics are outlined in message 65.
Some additional info in message 149.

Total newbie, but noticed this weirdness:

This:
http://www.librarything.com/work/96319/book/6417872
is not the same as this:
http://www.librarything.com/work//book/6416110

I added the listing of what stories the 1998 version contains, and the same data showed up on the 2005 version. The title on both books is the same, but the 2005 version also says "Fourth All-New Collection" on the title page.

Good catch...I've separated them.

These two should be combined...there might be a few other copies out there, too:

http://www.librarything.com/work/1202863
http://www.librarything.com/work/2971353

> 201
Well, no, maybe they shouldn't be combined. The 2nd work appears to stand for one of the short stories inside the first book... the person who entered it apparently has one record for each and every story author. Any general opinion about the proper way to handle this?

It looks like someone has combined them already. Kate Bornstein is a contributer, but that was the title of the book and not Kate's contribution.

THIS THREAD IS NOW CLOSED!

Please take any open problems to the new thread located at:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/51063

Thank you!!