Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Why is the description of the book, Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67... which was an Ace book in English (I have the original edition) in some other language?

A librarian made that the default description (which they shouldn't have). I have seen this done on several other books, myself. If you have a good description in English, Sue, I would upload it (or ask a librarian to do it for you if you're not one).

Looks like the only edition with a description was the Italian edition, so it was automatically set as the default for all the editions.

The edit log shows that a librarian made it the default description.

I have added the tranlation in Italian http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12... of a French book http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67....
I know is only a tranlation, but combining the editions, the new one (italian) has become the first one.
What can I do?

The Italian edition is more popular than the French edition, so it is the first one, that is how it works.

Renske wrote: "The Italian edition is more popular than the French edition, so it is the first one, that is how it works."

Thanks!

I'm a new librarian and I'd like some advice regarding a non-English description of some foreign edition mistakenly set as the default one for a work that is originally written in English. This appears to be the right thread.

I'll give you a concrete example to be more clear. I'd like this book to use the default description, which the edit page shows to be in Spanish. Indeed, the librarian change log says that a fellow librarian set the Spanish description as the default one, which of course doesn't make any sense for a book that is originally in English.

What is the right thing to do in this case? I thought I would edit the Spanish edition that is now providing the default description (how can I find out which one it is?) and untick the "set this as the default description" checkbox. Then, I guess the description of the most popular edition will be used as the default, is that right?

you can make sure by ticking the "set this as the default description" tickbox of the correct edition. :)

Paolo wrote: "Then, I guess the description of the most popular edition will be used as the default, is that right?"

No, as Nenangs said, you must check the "set this as the default description" box on one with the description that should be the default.

I see. Thank you both for the advice.

Is there any way of discovering from which edition the previous (English) default description was taken? I'd like to put that one back in place of the current Spanish one, but I don't know where to find it. Do I have to look for it by hand?

Oh, I just realized that Nenangs has put an English description as default (thanks!). However, it's not the one that was there before (I mean, before it was changed to the Spanish one). Is there a way to get that one back (see my previous post) ?

From what I can see you could copy the old text that was there from the change log.

Gerd wrote: "From what I can see you could copy the old text that was there from the change log."

Sure I could do that, but I don't know on which edition to paste it. I don't want to overwrite the custom description of my (or someone else's) specific edition. That's why I'd like to identify from which edition the previous default description was taken.

I don't think that's possible, but if you don't mind spending a bit of time you can see when opening the edit page for a edition which one only uses the "default description" (i.e. has none of its own), you could paste in then on to that.

Gerd wrote: "I don't think that's possible, but if you don't mind spending a bit of time you can see when opening the edit page for a edition which one only uses the "default description" (i.e. has none of its ..."

I also think so and I had the same idea, though it could be very time-consuming (that's what I meant in some previous post by "look for it by hand"). But I guess that's the best we can do given the circumstances.

can't the "undo" option do the trick?
usually at the bottom of the edit log there is an "undo" button.
i don't know if this is applicable though.

Nenangs wrote: "can't the "undo" option do the trick?"

That only works on certain items, and only ones that are edition-specific.

i see...
thanks for the explanation, rivka.
one can always learn something new everyday. :)

The description for some of the English-language editions of Patrick O'Brian's The Thirteen Gun Salute (example is at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/95...) is in Spanish. One edition with an English-language description is at http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76.... I'm not a librarian, so I don't believe I can correct the example I gave or any others.

I changed the default description to the English version. That should address the issue.

Oops. I posted this thread in the wrong place.
www.goodreads.com/topic/show/767826-s...
But others have now posted on it.