Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

*headdesk*

I cleaned up a dozen of these and I just can't take it anymore. Anybody else want to keep working? (I haven't sent a message directly to this user. None of the manual adds looked recent, so it didn't seem urgent.)

http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/...

In the book lists for each author he added books for, I found more unshelved manually entered books by this user, so there's extra work needed there beyond checking what he has shelved -- but they're all lowercased, so they're easy to spot!

Good golly. I've got my hands full this weekend, but if they're still around next weekend I'll tackle those.

I'm pretty busy too but I'll work on a few here and there as long as they're there. I guess we're always going to have some of these manual adders.


Edit: If they're still around I might have a few hours this coming Wednesday to do edits, and I can work on these then if nobody else has felt compelled to do them.

Cait, I can understand the "I can't take it anymore" feeling.

Well, I was going to do a few of them but at every author's page I'm getting the error message


page unavailable


An unexpected error occurred. We will investigate this problem as soon as possible — please check back soon!


so not doing any combining then deleting right now.

Looks as though someone has done most of them.

Whoa- I don't know- I see a bunch still I think. I'll go ahead and check...I'm just sitting here anyway. :)
I will send him a message though and let him no so he can *hopefully* not put another librarian through this!

Okay- I sent him a message and am slowly but surely working my way through his list to make sure they're all okay. I already found about a five or so and I just started.

Eek - I'll chip in a do a few when I can as well. I just came across a new serial adder too, but there's only about 20 or so so far, which I can handle. I know there was talk of a standardized message/template we could use to message users in this situation - did one ever come about?

Hi Ashley- I'm slowly but surely working with this member (the serial adder) to clean them up. It might actually do more harm than good if we have another person helping because we're messaging back and forth trying to get everything right and he wasn't aware of what he was doing.
But thanks for offering to help- I appreciate it!

Hi Eva, no problem! Good luck!

Ashley- I was just thinking- I really don't mind doing the work- I applied for the librarian part for a reason- but if you think you might better at it than me then maybe that might be a good idea?
It's a lot of listings but nothing too too major that I've been able to find yet. A lot of double listings pretty much. If you want to take over let me know- I just don't want to confuse him- he seems to be easier confused. (In a nice way of course....)

Don't leave Ashley! Read my other comment! LOL

I'm sure your doing a great job Eva, it's great of you to work one on one with him to figure things out! If you run into anything that gets you stuck (or you want someone to share the burden with :) ) by all means feel free to let me know!

Also, you can always post here again. I'm sure any librarian with some free time would be happy to pitch in.

Ashley wrote: "I know there was talk of a standardized message/template we could use to message users in this situation - did one ever come about?"

No, but there should be.

No, but there should be.

I agree, but I'm not willing to try to write one, so I was keeping quiet.

Ok, I added something to the Google Doc.

Thank you Rivka. That's good. I wish the search engine were more reliable about being successful, even with misspellings, etc. It is better than it was for a long time so hopefully this will help reduce duplicate editions added manually.

Occasionally that's the issue. But with serial adders, not usually.

I just love the term 'serial adders'...LOL
Thanks everyone- and rivka, adding that was an awesome idea because whenever I message someone detailing whatever was incorrect usually takes awhile and then I always end up going into when to add a book and the right way to do it and so on and so on...it takes awhile each time!
Thanks Ashley and Lisa- I was thinking that maybe you had taken a look and saw something ahead that I didn't see. I'm fairly close to the bottom of the totem pole in terms of librarian knowledge still. But I'm learning! :)

Er, is anyone feeling diplomatic about contacting this user named Leeda? She's been adding short stories as books, giving the binding as "eBook" when entering it at all but usually with nothing but title and author, and it looks like she may have some other bogus entries as well.

I have a message saved for this kind of thing that I can copy and paste and send to her if you'd like. It's very polite and offers to give directions on adding if the member wishes.
Shall I? :)

Oh, please do, and thanks!

No problem- going to do it right now.

Holy Hannah- she has a lot of books. I'll start going through tomorrow sometime but this is going to be a lot of work.
I did just message her Cait so we'll see. Hopefully she listens at the rate she's adding.

FYI, some of these are available for purchase separately in ebook format. I did a few searches in fictionwise and was able to pull up entries for Ivanoff, Robots Don't Cry, and a few others. Many others didn't come up but I didn't bother looking at other sources.

The ones I did run across didn't have ISBNs, covers, etc.

Cait, rivka, another super- care to comment? I was going to start on these soon and I'd rather not make any mistakes if possible.
Thanks Random- for the info.

I think you're doing just fine. :)

okay, thanks rivka, if I have any questions I'll just ask....like usual...thanks! :D

Found another one. I have too many other things on my plate today to deal with this. Anyone else want to tackle it? Please?

I'll send my pre-written very polite message about adding books. And I can start working on the books later this afternoon if no one else gets to them first.

Sent the message to the user. I'll start on the books later - I may need someone else to jump in with the foreign language titles but I'll definitely do all I can and then post about anything I was unable to do.

I'm working on their books too.

Oh man why? Was he/she unhappy with page numbers or something and decided to add a new edition?


I haven't really checked out the "classics" in their list yet, but considering the amount of adds do you think it'll be safe to say that if they have been actually added by this user (as in a new book entry) and they aren't foreign language editions, that they are deletable? Normally I steer clear of those but I think in this case it's justified, but second/third/fourteenth opinions are welcome.

Some are not; I found some no-ISBN editions that were unique and legitimate. (Pre-1960s editions, etc.)

I'll let you handle it then. I'll stick with ones I know are newer.

Additional serial adders for y'all:

Almost done, but I ran out of time to finish: http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/...
Many valid pre-ISBN editions, but not always correctly entered: http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/...

Did you send her a message Cait? Is there enough new listings that you think she needs one?

Cait's first one is done.

I did as much as I could on the second before my eyes started to cross.

♥Eva♥ wrote: "Did you send her a message Cait? Is there enough new listings that you think she needs one?"

I didn't send a message -- I'm often very awkward about that sort of thing, so I am very happy if others are willing to be the spokelibrarians! -- and I'm afraid I wasn't checking the creation dates as I went. Sorry!

Did anyone else message her or should we let it go? I can send her my message if you think she needs it?

Need some help with this one:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/...

Just taking a cursory glance (found him when I found three editions created for the same book), it looks like he added a bunch of ebooks, but without info. So just the ones that have corresponding editions (if he even just put ebook in there I'd probably leave well enough alone...)

Jessica wrote: "Need some help with this one:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/...

Just taking a cursory glance (found him when I found three editions created for the same book), it looks li..."

I'm not sure if someone else has been working on him, but all the non-ISBN items on his list look like e-versions of short stories, which must unfortunately stand alone. Would be nice if he would add some details in when he entered them, but alas, he didn't bother.

The ones that I looked at had corresponding Kindle editions, those were the ones I was worried about. I guess someone did work on them then. Maybe if I get really bored I'll go through and look them up for more info.