Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

I just encountered someone asking for a play to added. Neither list had them. Has anyone else come across plays and what did you do?

Do you mean the text of a play published as a book, or a play performed in a theatre? Or something else?

It appears to be the script from the play.
The request is the oldest one on here. I am guessing the system culls them every year. I was curious what the oldest request was and did a few of those (which were actually from September 2022, but another librarian had bumped them) and then this one was next:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Tawnya wrote: "It appears to be the script from the play.
The request is the oldest one on here. I am guessing the system culls them every year. I was curious what the oldest request was and did a few of those (w..."

There are no details & this appears to be a recording of the play. Those definitely aren't allowed on her.
https://makerson-demand.vhx.tv/produc...

Edit; That's interesting info that the old requests drop off now. I had no idea.

I've encountered a request like that (of a play to be added) in the past, but I can't seem to find it now (the forum search only retrieves results until December 15th).
At that time I asked GR Support about it, and I believe (it has been some time now) their response was that a play, in order o be considered a book, should have been published (well, like a book).

I replied in the request thread you mention, and then, in order to be totally sure of what I posted, I tried to find the previous request, but I found this thread instead.

Tawnya wrote: "The request is the oldest one on here. I am guessing the system culls them every year.."

The older requests are getting cleaned up because some librarians prefer to answer those instead of answering the more recent ones, either because they emphasize with users waiting for one year for their book to be added, or because the older requests are more challenging.

I saw that.

I was actually going ask if we should mark items that cannot be complete as "done" so they leave the folder and people don't keep opening them

For the last 5 days I have been working on December 13. On the first day I went to page 100 assuming I'd be in requests from 6 months ago. Nope. There were "bumps" from that long ago (some from almost 2 years ago!), but most were new. I have winnowed it down to only 16. BTW they are now on page 127.
Anyway only 6 seem actionable.

Of the other 10:

4 had librarians asking for more information and never receiving any (one of those request was from May).
I gotta admit to laughing when I read, "I am currently reading this book, but couldn’t find it on GR". Martine handled it properly, but we should have a little cartoon or something we post for "DOH!" moments. Seriously what are we supposed to do with that!

2 were from authors
One didn't know what to do and was asking for help.
The other has a kick-starter and the book hasn't printed yet, so not eligible.

Carol
One of the others was from the gentleman asking about a banned book. I wound up reading another thread dealing with that and wanted to take a bath.

All of this long-winded post was to ask shouldn't the ones were they are NOT eligible be closed?
We cannot do anything with them.

I have a mild form of OCD. Not being able to finish that date is like nails on a chalkboard. If it wasn't for them shutting down the combining I would have still been in my little bubble of cleaning up accounts.

Tawnya wrote: "I have a mild form of OCD. Not being able to finish that date is like nails on a chalkboard."

I totally relate to that...
Answering your question, Yes, when the book asked to be added in a request can't be added, that request should be closed.

For example, the Kickstarter edition request can be closed, When there is another edition available, the OP may open a new request for that edition. The banned book request can also be closed, that book was removed from GR, so it surely won't be added again (actually I was kinda surprised to see GR banning a book...).

But that's not really all that important, as long as you follow those threads, if the OP later on posts some new information that makes you change your decision, you may solve it as long as you follow the thread.

Thank you Bruno.

BTW is the button saying "done" that new?

I saw where all of the recent books were done by the same librarian and instead of marking them herself she's having the posters change their titles. However doing that means they stay in the main folder blocking traffic. I know we have to do that in folders where the button wasn't added. Maybe she missed where it was announce. I've just been putting "." and using the button. It requires SOMETHING to be put in, so I use the period.

I think Jacklyn creating that folder was really smart. It leaves a more stream-lined process.

Yes, the Mark as Done button is new. I believe it was added sometime in summer 2023 although I don't remember exactly when.

Tawnya wrote: "Thank you Bruno.

BTW is the button saying "done" that new?

I saw where all of the recent books were done by the same librarian and instead of marking them herself she's having the posters change ..."

Possibly that librarian is used to help in other sections of the group, where that button isn't implemented. I'd say that's the reason why that librarian isn't using that button, because the button is really very helpful.

Let me suggest that you shouldn't post a dot in order to archive those requests, as that is not informative and it might bring confusion.
You should state that you're posting in order to close/archive the request, as it is already fulfilled.
Alternatively, you can post the dot, and then delete the post as the thread will remain closed anyway. But I would say this isn't a good solution too, as the people who posted might receive a notification to that 'ghost reply', which might also be confusing.

My typing leaves much to be desired. In high school I typed 17 wpm. Granted that was on an actual typewriter, (my school had just gotten word processors, but only two and we had to take turns using them), but all 17 of those words were correct.
Anyway I am still slow, so I have a cheat sheet that I use to copy and paste from.

This is one of the messages I use:

This was already completed. I didn't do it and am only replying so it will allow me to mark it as "done". I don't wish to take credit for something I had nothing to do with.
The book can be found here:

That is for when the requester hadn't had any interaction at all.


With those today I felt like I would be a heel for saying something, or that it would seem like I was being uppity.

Another phrase you can use is "Completed by someone."

That is so much better. Thank you.
I am trying to make sure I don't offend and I disliked how I was phrasing it, but I couldn't figure what I wanted to say.
This is why I NEVER wanted to be a writer.
I am REALLY bad at it.