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Topic: Author listing mistakes

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BeckyA avatar
Subject: Author listing mistakes
Date Posted: 2/19/2008 2:16 PM ET
Member Since: 3/27/2007
Posts: 1
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I have found several examples of a book not listed under the authors full name. One example the site refused to admit one title because it did not have the ISBN in its system.

Another was some Lynne Graham books.

If I Adnanced search Lynne Graham and clicked on the name I got a list for most books through 2008, if I advance searched Graham, "Damiano's Return" (Harlequin Presents) I found a list that only went up to 2003 and had books not listed on the other list.

 I don't know about you but when I type a name in I expect to get all the options presented to me.

Dose anyone know how to fix this problem and combine the two lists?

TXGrobanite avatar
Date Posted: 2/19/2008 3:18 PM ET
Member Since: 2/11/2007
Posts: 38,893
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Hey Becky, feel free to PM me with the corrections and I can (hopefully) help you out, if not I know who to go to lol.

~Keri

hugbandit7 avatar
Book Cover Image Group medalBook Data Correction Group medal
Date Posted: 2/19/2008 3:45 PM ET
Member Since: 5/10/2007
Posts: 5,526
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if you know of mistakes in the name, go to the description on that book and in the drop down menu on the right is one for edit description.  You can make the change there and it will go to someone to be approved.

I agree that it can be very frustrating to not have the full name!

drewsmom avatar
Date Posted: 2/19/2008 4:04 PM ET
Member Since: 5/29/2007
Posts: 13,347
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A similar thing happens with the multiple spellings of Philippa Gregory's name.

royaltech avatar
Member of the Month medalBook Cover Image Approver medalBook Data Coordinator medalFriend of PBS-Gold medal
Date Posted: 2/20/2008 2:49 AM ET
Member Since: 11/14/2005
Posts: 6,421
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This is the whole purpose of the Approve Book Authors project that is linked at the bottom of each page. The author will come up, and you make sure it's spelled correctly, listed correctly, etc. and that the book connected with that author really is one of their books.

Lots of people are trying to spend a couple minutes a day on that page veryifying a few authors each time. But, it can only happen if a lot of people get involved. There are soooo many books with mistakes, and it's a great way to help PBS by volunteering a few minutes on the database, whether it is a complete data overhaul on a book, or just checking some authors, or uploading a few graphics. The more the merrier :)

TxSandMom avatar
Standard Member medal
Subject: Approve Authors
Date Posted: 4/22/2008 12:46 PM ET
Member Since: 9/24/2005
Posts: 151
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I just found this neat feature.  Help me, though.  Sometimes several books pop up.  What I have done is copy the ISBN of one of the books and input that to Amazon to get the correct book.  Then, I correct and approve the author's name or approve it if it is OK.

But that only checks one book.  How do I know that the other books in the list are by the same author and that the name is correctly written?

royaltech avatar
Member of the Month medalBook Cover Image Approver medalBook Data Coordinator medalFriend of PBS-Gold medal
Date Posted: 4/23/2008 10:40 AM ET
Member Since: 11/14/2005
Posts: 6,421
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If I'm understanding your question correctly, Marcia, you would need to research each of the titles presented to you so that you are sure they are right and presented correctly.

vanessav avatar
Date Posted: 4/23/2008 12:31 PM ET
Member Since: 1/12/2008
Posts: 5,297
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I have started the author approval and I'm not sure what I am supposed to do if there are multiple authors for the book given. Also, I was given two books supposedly by the same author but they were not. I can't fix that because the system assumes they are by the same author.

corar avatar
Date Posted: 4/23/2008 2:29 PM ET
Member Since: 4/8/2008
Posts: 111
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I have a question also. What do you do if the sources (say Google Books and Amazon) have different versions of the authors name? For example Amazon has John Doe, Google has J. W. Doe, and WorldCat has John William Doe and the author this site has is John W. Doe. Do we approve the author as is, change the W. to William or something else?

royaltech avatar
Member of the Month medalBook Cover Image Approver medalBook Data Coordinator medalFriend of PBS-Gold medal
Date Posted: 4/23/2008 3:57 PM ET
Member Since: 11/14/2005
Posts: 6,421
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Vanessa, you are only to be concerned with the author listed, not the other author of the book. The other author will get corrected when his/her name comes up on thata book. If one of the books is not by the listed author, click on the title of the book, and submit a correction for it. Please take a moment to fill in anything else that is missing on the book while you are correcting it. This will interrupt your approval of that author, but they will come up again at another time.

Cora, Try to see if you can find a picture of the book, that's the best way to get it correct. Another thing to do, is to open another browser window, and see if you find more books that appear to be by the same author, with the other format. For example, if you are looking at J. W. Doe and put Doe into the Advanced search and feel that the books listed by John W. Doe and J. W. Doe and John William Doe are all the same author, then you should change the name to the most prevalent format. You could also search on WorldCat and Amazon for other books by each of the formatted names, and verify that they are all the same person, and as I said, use the most prevalent format. It's a little more research and work, but helps so much more in getting the database more consistant.

vanessav avatar
Date Posted: 4/23/2008 5:43 PM ET
Member Since: 1/12/2008
Posts: 5,297
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Ok, thanks!