When the site selects the author for a work, it should ignore blanks
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1r.orrison
When a work has a number of editions combined, and some of them have an author name, and some don't, is there any benefit to selecting no author as the chosen author for the work?
E.g. http://www.librarything.com/work/2113015/editions
Granted most people seem to prefer to list the 2-volume set as having no author, but wouldn't it make sense for the work to show Paul Lauter as the author?
Extending this idea... perhaps certain "authors" could be flagged (internally, by the staff) as "Never select as work author, unless there is no other choice". I'm thinking of "various", "anonymous", "n/a", etc.
E.g. http://www.librarything.com/work/2113015/editions
Granted most people seem to prefer to list the 2-volume set as having no author, but wouldn't it make sense for the work to show Paul Lauter as the author?
Extending this idea... perhaps certain "authors" could be flagged (internally, by the staff) as "Never select as work author, unless there is no other choice". I'm thinking of "various", "anonymous", "n/a", etc.
3brightcopy
I think the only obvious choice is to invent an artificial intelligence capable of always picking the right one.
Okay, sure, we risk a global machine uprising that might result in the extermination of the human race.
But until then, our libraries will be extremely well organized.
I'd say it's worth the risk.
Okay, sure, we risk a global machine uprising that might result in the extermination of the human race.
But until then, our libraries will be extremely well organized.
I'd say it's worth the risk.
5Nicole_VanK
I see a huge page for author: "some carbon based life form"
6lorax
What makes you think that the site has chosen "no author", rather than that this is an instance of the well-known "blanking a Canonical Name sets the Canonical Name to blank, rather than to 'unset'" bug?
8AnnieMod
>6 lorax:
It's actually a totally new bug. If it was the CN, all books from the author would have had the same issue. It is just the one where most of the copies have no author.
It's actually a totally new bug. If it was the CN, all books from the author would have had the same issue. It is just the one where most of the copies have no author.
9r.orrison
In another thread, lorax said "Is this "2v set" the same as the one entered with no volume information? I see a bunch of v1, a bunch of v2, a 2v set, and just the whole thing; if the 2v set is the whole thing, then in this particular case combining is an easy fix."
Yes, that would work for this work, but I'm hoping to help with the general issue of blank names. I just happened to have that example handy. http://www.librarything.com/work/1264968 is another example.
Yes, that would work for this work, but I'm hoping to help with the general issue of blank names. I just happened to have that example handy. http://www.librarything.com/work/1264968 is another example.
