Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

In the section on Editing author names, I suggest the following addition, since this function does not appear to be noted elsewhere:

Cleaning Quotes When Editing Authors

When editing the author of a book because the work is attached to the wrong author—as must often be done for books by authors who have been disambiguated from other authors of the same name—please first check the work to be edited for attached quotes. These quotes will not be moved automatically to the profile of the author to which the book will be transferred, and therefore need to be edited separately.

You can request assistance with editing such quotes in the appropriate folder of the Goodreads Librarians Group if needed.

Fine tuning of this suggested language is welcomed.

Keith wrote: "In the section on Editing author names, I suggest the following addition, since this function does not appear to be noted elsewhere:

Cleaning Quotes When Editing Authors

When editing the author o..."

+ 1. It never occurred to me to check that.

I have never used the quote feature, either as a user or as a librarian. (I do have one quote on my profile, but I think I just typed it in.) I don't even know where to look for it. And if this is going to be a requirement, either I'll be doing a lot less librarian work, or my librarian status will be rescinded.

I wouldn't worry too much - it's only really an issue when doing disambiguation work. When you disambiguate a title any associated quotes don't follow the book move, so we have to move them manually, or they stay on the 1^ profile. I do a fair bit of disambiguation so I do need to stay on top of this, but if it's not something you do regularly, it's not something you'd need to worry about! It's only a task I would undertake when also working on a disambiguation - at the same time as moving the book records.

Keith, I do think this is worth noting in the manual, but as Elizabeth's reaction shows, the wording needs to be a touch less dogmatic sounding. I'm falling asleep right now so I won't suggest anything as it'd probably be nonsense!

It certainly would be a suggested additional step, not a required one.

Emy wrote: "When you disambiguate a title any associated quotes don't follow the book move, so we have to move them manually, or they stay on the 1^ profile. "

I disambiguate occasionally - have done more so in the last few months - only public domain authors, I think. I have also corrected an author within a book, rather than disambiguate on the edit author page. I move up/down authors regularly. But I still wouldn't know where to see if there are any quotes.

This sounds to me as if it should be done on the developer/programming side.

I would agree with that Elizabeth. My personal preference would be if it could be coded to attach the quote to the book rather than the author, but I understand that may not be possible. That sort of thing would need to go to Feedback anyway I guess.

Emy wrote: "…if it could be coded to attach the quote to the book rather than the author…."

That would produce a problem for books with multiple authors (e.g., a collection of essays or short stories). Proper attribution requires both a who and a where.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "This sounds to me as if it should be done on the developer/programming side."

I agree that this would be vastly preferred by virtually all GR Librarians, and that it is the "right" way to do it. And given the list of such feature/enhancement requests of higher priority that have gone ignored for years, I feel confident that it will never, ever happen. There's simply no business justification for it (i.e., there is no way that such a change can have a positive impact on revenue, and it will cost money to implement).