I get recommendations for books already in my collection

I'd say at least half a dozen of the books on the first page of the recommendations given to me are books already in my collection. In one case, the Lutheran Book of Worship Pew Edition, it's recommending a book that, in another feature in Library Thing, the program is telling me I have duplicates of the work. (I have various other editions -- Minister's Desk edition, Accompanist edition, etc., but I do have a Pew Edition cataloged, too!)

I imagine that the "works" connection just hasn't been made, say, that my blue-covered United Methodist Hymnal is the same work as someone else's red-covered United Methodist Hymnal. I can understand it. But it's really kind of annoying.

If you post the specific books in question to Combiners, someone will be happy to fix them for you. The "works" data is only as good as what people have done to it.

It's probably a works issue. It's inevitable. If something hasn't been combined, but you have another work of it, well, you're almost certainly a good candidate for the uncombined work.

Thanks, I'll get word to the Combiners.

>1 tymfos:. I imagine that the "works" connection just hasn't been made, say, that my blue-covered United Methodist Hymnal is the same work as someone else's red-covered United Methodist Hymnal.

I remember when the "new" United Methodist Hymnal was released because our church had to decide whether it was worth the funds to switch from the "old" hymnal (which happened to be red) to the "new" hymnal (which happened to be blue). There was also a bit of a political debate as there were new-fangled songs in the new book and several of the old-fashioned songs were omitted. (Also the "new" version omitted a number of the "Amens" at the end? - I may be mistaken here.)

The compromise was that we would buy a limited number of the new books but would leave the old books as well. So each pew book holder had two "old" red hymnals, one "new" blue hymnal and a bible. The bulletin would list the hymn number with a designation as to whether it was in the old hymnal or the new hymnal.

The old hymnal was the 1966 "Book of Hymns" and the new hymnal was published in 1989 (apparently they are once again contemplating a new "new" one). I don't know if the colors were universal...

Here's a link to an article about the 10 year anniversary of the "new" UM hymnal:
http://www.wfn.org/1999/05/msg00165.html

Just today I had an automated recommendation pop up for a book I already had cataloged. I went to that works page and it confirmed that it knew I had a copy that was properly combined in.

Now, it is true that the book is in a Collection which I've designated to not use for recommendations (my "Removed - not liked" Collection). At the same time, I have related books which are used for recommendations, and so it's not surprising on that basis. But the book is in my catalog, yet was not excluded from recommendations.

Is this how recommendations are supposed to work with Collections, or is this a bug?

The book in question is http://www.librarything.com/work/18975/book/43939134.

6> I don't think it's supposed to work at all right now. As far as I experienced it simply bases your recommendations on what is in the 'Your Library" collection.

Ah, it may be using the same list to recommend as to exclude from recommendations. I'll take a look. Give it a little time.

My point was that I thought recommendations weren't supposed to give back books which you already have cataloged, regardless of why it wants to recommend it.

8> You mean it is taking note of the check boxes?

Yeah, I knew I saw this thread somewhere. It's definitely not a combining issue.

Tim, the current functionality (using the same list to recommend as exclude) is my preference. It allows LT's recommendation engine to recommend unread books I already own, for example. Is there some way to use collections to specify recommendation result exclusion lists in addition to recommendation process inclusion lists?

I'd be able to say this more politely if I were fully caffinated, but I'm not.

I added Pride and Prejudice to my "read but unowned" collection, so why is it still showing up at the top of my member recommendations? I've read it already. And I doubt it's recommendations being slow: an unread book I decided to destash showed up in my automatic recommendations, and I only deleted it last night.

13: Yes. That's the problem that I'm seeing. It's annoying.

Very. Still is, even on 100% of caffination levels.

I think I've only noticed this since Collections went live but out of the Automatic Recommendations I get on my Home Page more than 90% (roughly) are for books that are already in my library. They are books that are in Collections that I have included for Recommendations. I haven't seen recommendations for any books that are in Collections that are not included for Recommendations. Is this a bug or have I misunderstood whether to tick the box or not?

I've looked more closely. The new automatic recommendations I've received since 11th June have all been books that are already in my library. Older recommendations are for books that I don't have except for the usual problem with books in omnibus editions. And some of the new Member recommendations are for books that are already in my library, but not all.

Give me some very concrete examples. I'm going to dig into it this afternoon or evening. I'm sure it's easy to solve.

But, hey, it shows the recommendations are good, right? You already have the books :)

Of the four automatic recommendations showing on my home page I have all four, and of the member recommendations I have the 2nd and 3rd but not the 1st and 4th. If I look at the 55 new automatic recommendations I have the first 30 on the list (all added 11 June) but from there onwards I already have some but I have only added them to my books in the last few days.

The Member Recommendations seem almost random. cransell recommends me The Worst Witch because I have Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and recommends me Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone because I have The Worst Witch. I do already have both of these and for some time. Further down the list I get the same reversible recommendation from allenmichie for Jane Eyre and Villette. These two recommendations were dated 17 April and I added Villette to my library on 5 June but Jane Eyre has been there since 23 March.

Hey Tim I'm having this problem too . From what I can tell its recommending books I've recently added in the last few months .

If you look at my Automatic Recommendations list, there are 667 recommendations. Yesterday there were only 337. Of the 100 titles on page 1, all but about 4 of them have been in my catalogue for several months. So if you pick almost anything on that page it will be a book in my catalogue. And I have not been doing anything with those books with collections.

For example I just did 'add new recs'

Suggested these :-

Diamonds Are Forever by Ian FlemingNEW!
859 copies. 20 reviews. Average rating 3.34. Recommended Jan 12, 2009.
No thanks! | Why? (close why) Recommendation based on:
The Fourth Protocol by Frederick Forsyth
Doctor No by Ian Fleming
Goldfinger by Ian Fleming
The Spy Who Loved Me by Ian Fleming
Thunderball by Ian Fleming
You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming
The Man with the Golden Gun by Ian Fleming
The Deceiver by Frederick Forsyth
Colonel Sun by Robert Markham
Tomorrow Never Dies by Raymond Benson
Never Send Flowers by John Gardner
James Bond, the Spy Who Loved Me by Christopher Wood
Win, Lose or Die by John Gardner
Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks
Octopussy and The Living Daylights by Ian Fleming

Legend by David GemmellNEW!
775 copies. 13 reviews. Average rating 4.06. Recommended Jan 12, 2009.
No thanks! | Why?

I have both of those.

>17 timspalding:
Tim, not only do I have a concrete example for you, I have a flock of them. The first is that Pride and Prejudice never left my member recommendations, even though it was one of the first books I added to "read but unowned" on Tuesday. Second, also on member recomendations is made so obvious in the picture I posted in this thread*, it will knock your socks off (knitting pun not intended -- really). And third, I had a whole bunch of books I had cataloged as r.b.o. show up in my autorecs the other night.

If that isn't concrete enough for you -- especially the second one -- well, perhaps I should keep my trap shut and my size one double-pointeds firmly in my knitting.



* I was in a rush to get out of the house, and didn't have time for a search.

Ok, one more example. (I'd get a screenshot but I have lunch in front of me.) I'd say all of the first 2 dozen books in my automatic recs are books in my catalog, and it continues on and off down the page. This did not appear yesterday.

For a very concrete example, the first book in my recommendations is GURPS Basic Set (GURPS: Generic Universal Role Playing System) by Steve Jackson, which is in my library, has always been in my library, and has never had its collections touched (it's still in Your Library and only Your Library).

17>

Tim, I've got a whole flock of examples for you. I had 600 "new" automatic recommendations today, all of which (at least the first 200 of which, which is when I stopped checking) I own, and many of which I've had in my library since I joined in 2005. I haven't moved any of these to new collections; they're just in "Your Library". When I click through on these titles they correctly show as being in my library.

Some specific titles are The Mismeasure of Man and The Dubious Hills.

I also have 349 "new" automatic recommendations, nearly all of which I have.

Here also, today is the first day when the majority of automatic recommendations are all books which I already own and have already catalogued.

tim,

i can offer no concrete examples except for my recommendations page, located at http://www.librarything.com/profile/lmedgerton/recommendations. There are 357 new recommendations, and after a cursory glance, I see perhaps only one or two that are truly new recommendations. The rest are already books in my library. And just so you know the status of my library, I have not changed anything in collections and do not tag my library. I also don't change any of the status such as reading now, etc.

in regards to >28 lmedgerton:, the books that are appearing in my recommendations that are already in my library are some of my most long-standing books in my library.

I'm having this difficulty too - of my 407 new automatic recommendations, only a few are new, the rest being books already in my library. On my first automatic recommendations page, I own all but three of the books recommended.

392 new automatic recommendations, most of which already are in my library. Definitely a bug.

Examples? Fine:

http://www.librarything.com/work/41311
http://www.librarything.com/work/8288 (I have several copies...)
http://www.librarything.com/work/18534
http://www.librarything.com/work/1409389
http://www.librarything.com/work/42644
http://www.librarything.com/work/11868
http://www.librarything.com/work/1409786
http://www.librarything.com/work/22890
http://www.librarything.com/work/1900964
http://www.librarything.com/work/154893
http://www.librarything.com/work/28640
http://www.librarything.com/work/7958
http://www.librarything.com/work/7860
http://www.librarything.com/work/15625
http://www.librarything.com/work/12957
http://www.librarything.com/work/2243188
http://www.librarything.com/work/235581
http://www.librarything.com/work/12544
http://www.librarything.com/work/1409809

And that's just from the top 25 recommendations.

p.s.: not meant to put you guys down, just hoping this will give you enough to go on to squash that bug.

I've just logged in this morning (I'm in Britain) and the 55 new automatic recommendations have been replaced by 536 recommendations all of which are in my library already.

I am also having this problem. The automatic recommendations I get are for books I already own (and they're all in the same collection called "My Library.")

As such, the recommendations are displaying circular reasoning. For example, the second automatic recommendation I get is John Adams by David McCullough. The cited reason is, in part, that I have Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis in My Library. However, my third automatic recommendation is for Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis. The cited reason is, in part, that I have John Adams by David McCullough.

The truth is that I already own both of these books, and they are both in "My Library" as well as "All Collections." I've scanned down the list of automatic recommendations and the vast majority are books that I already own.

OK, concrete example.

The set of recommendations (automatic recommendations tab, not member recs) I had before checking it yesterday was pretty stable. I had previously checked it within the last few days but can't be more specific.

Yesterday (Saturday 14 June), the top 7 books recommended were all things I already own, and that the system knows that I own. I checked - these aren't combination problems; the system knows I have these. (#8 used to be the #1 recommendation.)

Going down the first page of recommendations, the books I own that are turning up in the recommendations list (and which don't have combination issues) include:
#10, #14, #15, #19, #20, #22, #23, #26, #31, #32, #36, #37, #39, #40, #41, #43, #45, #47, #51, #53, #55, #58, #64 - #66, #70, #71, #76, #77, #83, #86, #88, #91, #94, #95, #100

None of these are recent acquisitions (the most recently acquired was acquired in early March). A few are cases where I have multiple editions.

There are more further down the recommendations list (the last page is also studded with works I have owned for a long time).

Last night (after seeing the recommendations confusion described above) I told collections which of the books I had cataloged were in my library (all except a dozen or so; the exceptions aren't among the works turning up here). It doesn't seem to have affected the recommendation result but I don't know how many hours / days the recommendations program needs to catch up with that sort of thing.

I have mostly owned books in my automatic recommendations too. This is from my home page, I don't visit the recommendations page. Yesterday it was only member recommendations that were owned, the automatic were books I didn't own. Today both are filled with books I already have.

Recent recommendations - All below are owned.
Automatic (711 new)

* The Kite Runner
* A Dirty Job
* On Blue's Waters: Volume One of 'The Book of the Short Sun'…
* The Wine of Angels (A Merrily Watkins Mystery)
* Stone of Farewell
* The Twelfth Transforming: A Novel
* Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days
* The Healthy Dead: A Tale of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach
* The Damned
* The Horse Goddess (Celtic World of Morgan Llywelyn)

ETA:

None of these are new books for me. All are in Your Library, Don't know which are in To Read. Some are old enough that I haven't tagged them yet, except with the date of import.

Although this seems to be widespread, in case it's a member pattern, I'll add that I'm experiencing this problem as well, and it's not a combining works issue. The recommendations from June 10 and prior were all works I have not cataloged, while recommendations from June 12 and after are all works I've cataloged. There were no automatic recommendations for me on June 11.

I have moved very few items around as part of collections.

If you have more specific testing requests a la examples, please let me know. I'd be glad to help troubleshooting on this one. Thanks!

Today I received 2 new Member Recommendations for books already in my catalogue. They are looped: Anne of Green Gables for Little House on the Prairie and Little House on the Prairie for Anne of Green Gables.

I'm looking into it. Thanks for the examples.

Member-to-member recommendations are fixed. I'm working on the automatic ones now.

Correction: They're fixed going forward. I still need to fix them in the past.

And in the far, far future, with Eloi.

Who's Eloi?

>42 Nicole_VanK:

Guess you haven't read The Time Machine?

And thanks much, Tim. It will be great to have this fixed.

Not in 40+ years. Might have to again I guess. But Douglas Adams will have gave me some idea of the linguistic intricacies of time travel.

I think it's all fixed. Also for Unsuggester.

I can sort-of see the system continuing to suggest books that are on your wish list. But, ATBE*, probably not.

*I'm going to start making up internet abbreviations. I use "all things being equal" more often than "Oh my God," "For the win" or "In my humble opinion."

Sometimes I watch a movie in the background while I work. Usually it's a movie I know well, so that, basically it's just background noise. But I watched the modern Time Machine recently. Super-blech. Then again, I don't actually think the original's plot was that good.

Yay, recommendations seem to be back to normal!

Thank you, Tim! That looks much better.

The recs problem seems to have gone away; thank you.

My Recs page seems to be fixed . Thanks for the hard work Tim !

I notice I still have one problem with recommendations - if I go into the details the "why" button seems to be disabled - or rather: it starts loading something but isn't giving any results. (Of course most of the time I can guess, so I don't see this as a huge problem.)

From this page?

http://www.librarything.com/profile/BarkingMatt/recommendations

Why is working for me, although it takes a second to happen.

Forget I spoke, it seems to have recovered...

Seems like my list is free of books that I already have. Thanks for fixing this :)

Ah... The original problem is fixed, but now Automatic Recommendations is acting bizarre in another way.

On my home page, the Auto Rec module shows different titles every time the page refreshes. When I go to the Auto Recs page, and select "recommendations by date", I get a different set of recommendations each time, and they also keep rearranging themselves. I haven't really investigated beyond the first 20 titles or so, so I don't know how deeply into the list this goes. And the number of recs at the top of the page varies from about 290 to 320 with every refresh.

If I select "show x new recommendations", it tells me "no recommendations at present".

For the recommendations that wander in and out of the list, if I select "why?" it just says "recommendation based on:" and gives no title.

Why is still not working for scattered books.

http://www.librarything.com/profile/infiniteletters/recommendations (new automatic recommendations)

1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 12, 30.

You don't get them for "Below the Surface by Marie Harte"?

No, I don't get them for the new recommendations.

My recs list just updated again, so the previous #s are wrong.

Current problems with why are:

1 The Yellow Wallpaper
2 End in Fire
3. Hero by Joel Rosenberg
4. Ties of Blood and Silver by Joel Rosenberg
5. Grass by Sheri S. Tepper

6 does work - Spells of Binding (Liavek bk4) by Will Shetterly

Just wanted to say that for me recommendations is now working like never before. Way better than before collections. Only possible "complaint" is that I get so many interesting recommendations now, I can't possibly keep up. ;-)

Yay Tim.

Thanks.

Fixed. See http://www.librarything.com/topic/68089