Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Where did all the Not a Books go?

This can't be good . . . have passed it along, together with some related weirdnesses.

Good question!
Especially since a bunch of items in there were mis-classified before we finalized the standards for NABing. I was going in and cleaning some items up every once in a while...
Maybe there's more than one?

The former "author" has been (accidentally, one assumes) deleted. It should be here.

Does that mean NOT A BOOK author is gone? If so. I assume the many thousands of items that were designated NAB will return to the database with their old authors. I hope not because I don't want to even try to calculate the number of librarian work hours lost or imagine how this will undo so much good work refining the Goodreads database. I hope Goodreads can fix this.

It's being worked on.

rivka wrote: "It's being worked on."

Rivka, Thanks for the update. It's good to hear that this problem might be fixable.

Okay, I just found "not a book2" author profile http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/.... Should this be merged with Not A Book, or is there something I'm missing?

Ok, thanks to Michael, it's all fixed.

Melody, thanks for noticing!

Margarita, that was a temporary step in the fix.

Great!

What had happed to them?

Thank you Michael!!! (MICHAEL?) And, thank you Rivka for keeping us informed. That was scary. Oh yes, and Melody, thank you for noticing. Perhaps Goodreads would not have been able to fix it if NAB had been deleted too long ago.

Okay, thanks for the update.

Melody wrote: "What had happed to them?"

Looks like someone merged it with something else? I'm not exactly sure.

Yes, Lisa, that Michael. ;)

It looks like it has been restored with a new user id # (it's ID# is in the 4 millions which is where new authors are ending up). If anyone had links to the old profile (in places like the librarian manual), they'll probably have to be updated.

This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For wrote: "It looks like it has been restored with a new user id # "

Correct.

I updated the one link I knew of in the manual; anyone catching any others, please let me know.

Wonderful! Thanks!

Um, someone has Not-a-booked a whole bunch of Tom Tierney paperdoll books. Like this one:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15...

These ARE books. They don't have a LOT of text, but they do have SOME. They are not just paperdolls which you tear out and then throw away the "book" part. Many people buy and collect them AS books and keep them whole.

Please stop not a booking these!

I just added the correct author back to that one...

I suggest adding librarian's notes.

I just added a note to the Tom Tierney page, but won't that only be seen on the combine page? It won't be seen if someone is just going through the books individually and nabbing them.

That's why I said "notes" in the plural. Unfortunately, probably because of the recent problem/fix to the not-a-book "author", I can't see who made the edits to those books.

This is nuts. Someone nabbed this too

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/97...

I tend to agree on that one, just as I would on a book of clip art.

rivka wrote: "I tend to agree on that one, just as I would on a book of clip art."

It's a book of designs. It's no different from a book of, say, crochet patterns.

I have never seen a book of crochet patterns without written instructions.

Stitch dictionaries are books. They contain visual representations, on graph paper type grids, of stitch patterns. There might be some minimal text in these books but the entire point is to visually represent a stitch pattern.

Anyway, entire books exist which are nothing but images, and we call them books.

It's gotten a little out of hand when people are Nabbing books like this one:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...

And this one!
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18...

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/64...

Why someone would NAB this just mystifies me.

Maybe tighter controls need to be put on the Nabbing?

Lobstergirl wrote: "Maybe tighter controls need to be put on the Nabbing?"

Unfortunately, I see no way to do that and allow basic book edits. But yeah, none of those should have been NAB'd.

Lobstergirl wrote: "And this one!
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18..."


This one according to the log was Nab'd in 2008, so it's been there awhile and probably predates deep discussion of what should be NAB'd? Just a thought.

Lobstergirl wrote: "It's gotten a little out of hand when people are Nabbing books like this one:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13..."

This one was nab'd in 2009 according to log, again, maybe before serious NAB discussions took place???

I don't see why Paper Dolls are a book myself; even coloring books have a little text, if you call a drawing title text and they aren't.

Many people collect coloring books too I imagine but that doesn't make them books. How often does one read a paper doll book? Just trying to understand I guess where the line is.

Jessie, I agree with you in general. However, the Tierney books are much more than just paper dolls, as Lobstergirl pointed out.

So since we're revisiting what should and shouldn't be not a booked What about this journal?

Sounds like a journal to me from the description; pages to write on that happen to have pictures on them. Lots of journals have something or other on the pages for decoration.

I agree with Jessie. It's no more a book than any other blank journal.

Coloring books that have reference purposes are not to be NABBED, as the NAB page indicates.

I understand that someone wouldn't want a Dick and Jane coloring book for 5 years olds to be considered a book, but a lot of "coloring books" (as well as paperdoll books) are more sophisticated than that and are used by clothing historians and costume designers.

Take a look at the customer images of the inside of this coloring book, for example:

http://www.amazon.com/Queen-Elizabeth...

MissJessie wrote: "I don't see why Paper Dolls are a book myself; even coloring books have a little text, if you call a drawing title text and they aren't.

Many people collect coloring books too I imagine but that ..."

MissJessie, books don't have to be "read" to be books. Some picture books have no text at all.

Sounds like the journal we just discussed. I think I'll just leave the not a booking alone.

"
MissJessie, books don't have to be "read" to be books. Some picture books have no text at all. "


True, LG, I have some myself. Although, mine don't require scissors and crayons to use...... :)