Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Due to the discussion here, I'd like some clarification on the

... definitions of "Radio play" "Audiobook" and "Theatrical production"

so that the manual on NAB'ing of same can be better understood.

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I asked questions about this before and never got an official answer.

I've asked about Comedy Albums in the past, just to add to the list of things. The answer I got is that they are not books. I'd asked because I'd seen comedians write books, then do audiobooks of them; and seen comedy albums of theirs on here as well, and wanted clarification.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

It would be good for more clarification about this. What do we do with audio versions of plays? We include audio versions of other books - novels, non-fiction etc. - so we should include plays. Personally I would like to see audios of plays, such as those from BBC Radio 4 and LA Theatre Works, allowed.

Made me curious to see if there were audio versions of the plays I've read and marked as such on there.

What is allowed, what isn't? Like, here's the play in book for - as in, what's handed out to actors to study (A Streetcar Named Desire); and here's an audio for that play that, if you listen to the sample, says that it is 'the full cast from the 1973 revival in 1973' - A Streetcar Named Desire. Since it's 'the full cast' does that mean that it should not actually be on GoodReads?

Here's one where you can actually hear the performance instead of someone introducing the audio (like above). Play - Private Lives; Audio - Private Lives performed by Paul Scofield & Patricia Routledge. (actually, it's a version not currently on Goodreads that shows the audio performance - https://www.amazon.com/Classic-Radio-...)

Mike Briggs wrote: "Made me curious to see if there were audio versions of the plays I've read and marked as such on there.

What is allowed, what isn't? Like, here's the play in book for - as in, what's handed out t..."

Performances are clearly not a book according to the manual.

These items are not books:
...
* movies (DVD or VHS)
* television episodes
* theatrical production recordings

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Mike Briggs wrote: "Made me curious to see if there were audio versions of the plays I've read and marked as such on there.

What is allowed, what isn't? Like, here's the play in book for - as in,..."
Yeah, but it isn't always easy to tell if the audio is an audio book with multiple narrators with bells and whistles, or if it's a recording of an actual theatrical production. Like the ' A Streetcar Named Desire' one above that mentions 'full cast', it didn't say that it was a recording from the 1973 revival, but that the full cast from that revival worked on the audio. So, is that a recording of a theatrical performance therefore should be removed? Or a recording with a ton of people involved?

How much is too much? I can't tell what's involved with the Streetcar example, because the audio example just plays the intro without any of the audio from the play; the Private Lives one, though, includes a rather large sample of the audio on Amazon - and you can hear the audience laughing - so that one is a theatrical production recording (though the audience was, presumably, at a radio production of the play, since that's what the page says - that it's a 'radio theatre' recording). And therefore, I guess, should be removed (I say 'I guess' because it's the version not on GoodReads that allows you to play the audio on Amazon, the audiobook on Goodreads seems to be the same recording, in a different format, but doesn't allow you to play anything on Amazon to check).

So if an audiobook lists more than two narrators, it should be presumed to be a 'theatrical production recording'? 3 narrators? 4? Sure, if the Amazon entry is nice, it'll say 'theatrical production recording' and that'd be that; but they don't always say stuff like that.

Mike Briggs wrote: "so that one is a theatrical production recording (though the audience was, presumably, at a radio production of the play, since that's what the page says - that it's a 'radio theatre' recording). And therefore, I guess, should be removed "

You guess? The description says it is an edition that isn't allowed. Just NAB it. They aren't being deleted. The reviews won't be lost.

If a book is NAB'd, can narrators still be listed? I don't see anything about it in the manual. It just says the primary author should be 'Not a book', nothing about secondary ones.

Jim wrote: "If a book is NAB'd, can narrators still be listed? I don't see anything about it in the manual. It just says the primary author should be 'Not a book', nothing about secondary ones."

You have to click through to the actual page for the NOT-A-BOOK-section of the Librarian manual: https://www.goodreads.com/help/show/1..., to find that secondary authors should be removed: * Any secondary authors should be removed from all books' records.

(And no idea why there is a difference between the general Librarian Manual page, and this page. Why would you go to that specific page when all instructions are already on the first page?)

Jim wrote: "If a book is NAB'd, can narrators still be listed? I don't see anything about it in the manual. It just says the primary author should be 'Not a book', nothing about secondary ones."

What does it matter? If an item is NAB'ed, it "is disappeared" from the catalogue. It cannot be found through search anymore.

ETA after reading Arenda's reply: perhaps that is why they should be deleted. Otherwise they could still be found?

lethe wrote: "What does it matter? If an item is NAB'ed, it "is disappeared" from the catalogue. It cannot be found through search anymore."

It does matter. When the narrator is attached, the book is still showing in the list of books by that narrator, and can be found that way.

Yes, I added an ETA after reading your reply :)

Arenda wrote: "You have to click through to the actual page for the NOT-A-BOOK-section of the Librarian manual: https://www.goodreads.com/help/show/1..., to find that secondary authors should be removed: * Any secondary authors should be removed from all books' records. .."

Darn. OK, thanks. Obviously, I didn't look far enough, but thought I had gone through that section thoroughly.

I wanted a narrator so I could still find the author of lectures easily in my export & also to look them up here by clicking on them. I thought it would be a good compromise while they got sorted out.