HomeGroupsTalkZeitgeist
  • LibraryThing
  • Book discussions
  • Your LibraryThing
  • Join to start using.

Hi! I'm new and I have a question!

Welcome to LibraryThing!

Join LibraryThing to post.

This topic is currently marked as "dormant"—the last message is more than 90 days old. You can revive it by posting a reply.

1Lymiss
Apr 6, 2012, 4:57am Top

Hi. I'm Lymiss. I just found this site from watching a video from the vlogbrothers. I am in love with this website. I haven't been able to find a website where I can have a catalog of all my books. Anyways, my question is when I place a box set onto my library does it count as one or how many books are in the set? Thanks!

2MarthaJeanne
Apr 6, 2012, 5:04am Top

If you make one entry as the box set it will count as one. If you enter each separately it will count as that many. There are advantages and disadvantages to both, so I have done some one way and some the other.

Always after entering box sets, whether together or separately, make sure which 'work' each entry got into. (Look either at the work details page or the bottom line of the book information box on the main page.) If there are problems, let us know and we can fix it. Box sets often have a single ISBN for the whole set, and they are therefore more likely than other books to autocombine wrong. It's easy enough to fix, but you first have to notice a problem.

3Booksloth
Apr 6, 2012, 5:15am Top

Hi Lymiss - welcome to the site! The quick answer, I guess, is that it's up to you and depends on how you enter them. Sadly, I seem to have got rid of all my boxed sets so I can't actually check this but I'm sure someone else will confirm or deny - however, my guess is that if you enter your books using the ISBN and there is an ISBN on the box, then it will count as a single 'work'. OTOH, if you enter each book separately using the ISBNs that are on each individual book, then each book will count separately. Unless it's especially important to you for some reason, it doesn't really matter as far as the site is concerned since the important thing is to have a record of what you own/read. I would suggest, though ,if you decide to enter every book separately, you might want to note somewhere that the books are part of a boxed set, as that knowledge should make it easier for you to find them on your shelves. Hope you continue to enjoy the site!

4jjmcgaffey
Apr 6, 2012, 6:05am Top

The major reason, for me, for entering a boxed set separately would be so that I could review and rate the books separately (and mark reading dates, and so on). It would also help with recommendations - so far, LT doesn't notice books-contained-within-others, so if you enter your boxed set of, say, The Lord of the Rings, you're very likely to get recommendations for The Two Towers. I actually enter the individual books that I have in omnibuses, putting them into a separate collection called Inclusions, so that I can review them separately and so that recommendations and the like know that I _have_ those books. YMMV.

5Africansky1
Apr 8, 2012, 4:04pm Top

Hi there, I have found that when entering a set, say of 2 volumes ,that one needs to go in via "the edit the book " option and ensure that in the box for the number of volumes that you then amend to 2 instead of the automatic 1 volume. I am still trying to figure out whether the 2 volumes then count as 1 or 2 volumes in total list of books. also anew member but learning fast how to make the most of the site. I find the series function v useful.KAM

6jjmcgaffey
Apr 9, 2012, 3:11am Top

No, the "number of volumes" doesn't count in the number of things you have cataloged - that's for if you want to treat a multi-volume set as one object. None of the physical data stuff directly affects your catalog - it shows up only on the Stats/Memes>Pages, Dimensions and Weight page (as far as I know). Well, it shows up in your catalog, if you choose to display those columns, but it doesn't affect anything.

7Africansky1
Apr 9, 2012, 3:56pm Top

thanks. I have an idiot level question > I see I have a 50 or so discrepancy between the Your Library total and the all collections total (total books catalogued now over 6 500). I think I have put all books entered into Your library and then in 1/2/3 collections . Can anyone explain the difference? Should 'your library" tally with "all collections"? Is it good practice to put a specific book into more than one collection? comments welcomed thanks.

8Collectorator
Apr 9, 2012, 4:34pm Top

From your Stats/Memes

6,573 Number of books
6,479 Number of distinct works*
That means you have 94 dupes, which you can see from the See Work Multiples link beneath.

You may find some help here
http://www.librarything.com/profile/Africansky1/stats/collections
but it always hurts my head to look at that page.

If you find you just need to add some books to the collection Your Library, try the lightning bolt button in your catalog.

9Foretopman
Edited: Apr 9, 2012, 4:53pm Top

On the page that Collectorator pointed to (
http://www.librarything.com/profile/Africansky1/stats/collections) down at the bottom where it says "books not in collections", the first link is a link to the 53 books that are not in your "Your Library" collection. It is perfectly good practice to have books in multiple collections, and it is perfectly good practice to have books that are not in the "Your library" collection.

Keep asking questions, it's the best way to learn.

(ETA: looking more carefully at your library, I find that I am very envious of your "Saturday Book" collection.)

10hailelib
Apr 9, 2012, 4:50pm Top

A lot of the books I've cataloged in the last few years are in more than one collection. I find a mix of tags and collections works well for me.

11Collectorator
Apr 9, 2012, 4:58pm Top

9, I saw that after I had posted, and came back to edit. One false keystroke and my puter rebooted itself. Thanks for finishing up for me. :)

12jjmcgaffey
Edited: Apr 9, 2012, 9:25pm Top

There are some collections that _should_ overlap - if you put a book into Currently Reading, for instance, you shouldn't take it out of Your Library or wherever you have it.

Note that the "meaning" of Your Library differs for different people - some consider it only the books they physically own (and they make other collections to hold other books - Read but Unowned can be used, or a user-created Borrowed, or whatever). Some consider it to be all the books they have a real relationship with - own, or read, or used to own, or whatever they consider important to them. And some people consider Your Library merely an annoyance, and actually deactivate it - I think such people mostly use All Collections, but there's probably some that use other collections.

Personally, I put books that I physically own in Your Library, and consider All Collections to be the books I have a connection to. I have a separate collection for ebooks and one for "inclusions" - meaning books that I own in omnibus form, but I want to have the individual books so I can rate & review it, and so that recommendations doesn't offer it to me. I also have a Discard collection (the books in there are also in Your Library, but I want to get rid of them) and a Discarded collection (these aren't in Your Library, because they're gone. But I keep them in my LT catalog to help me _not_ buy books that have interesting blurbs and poor writing...that (buying the same book for the third time) was what triggered me to actually fill up my LT catalog). And a few others - for instance, Read, which means I've read it, and Read but Unowned which means (duh) I read it but don't own it - either borrowed, or a discarded book goes into there. So every book in RbU is (should be) also in Read.

The Stats page is very useful for finding ones that are in more than one collection, or that aren't in a particular collection. There are variations it can't handle (in this collection but not that one, not in either of these collections...), but it helps.

By the way, the way to find that page is to go to either your Home or your Profile page, click on Statistics/Memes in the middle of the row just below the header, then go to Collections near the bottom on the left. There are lots of other useful Stats in there, too - check out some of the other pages.

I note you're using collections for subject sorting - some people do it that way, some use tags for subjects and collections for other things (location, or in my case my relationship to the book...). Just a warning - if you get too many collections, you may have some difficulty with the UI. 30+, I think, and difficulties start showing up - I don't have that many, though, so I'm not sure. Collectorator, you have lots of collections - do you still run into problems, or have things shaken out enough that yours work?

13Collectorator
Apr 10, 2012, 12:49am Top

I have 39 collections. (really 37) The only problem occurs when I try to interface with them from the "wrong" page. There are plenty of places from which to access them and sort, delete, change order, etc. If one doesn't work I just go to another.

14Africansky1
Apr 10, 2012, 3:24pm Top

hello foretopman, Saturday books. Yes I've been a fan of the Saturday books since the early 1970s when they still produced them and I bought the last 4 or 5 annuals new (as in the boxes) I was heart broken when they stopped the series. in fact both my Dad and I built up complete sets and so now that he passed on I have 2 complete runs and really at some stage must let go of 1 set. I always remember the special thrill of finding 1st volume in some remote English village bookshop for a v modest sum. A highlight of that particular trip. I also have some odds so if you let me know which vols you need I can try to help. Problem is postage . Funny thing is that the Saturday book seems less popular and sought after these days. In their day they were meant to be great Christmas gifts. Do you think they are dated? or is that part of the charm and collectability?

15Africansky1
Apr 10, 2012, 3:38pm Top

thank you Collectorator for this useful info. I notice a problem with the dupes function ( as in disinct works) I see that for example a vol 1 and vol 2 may be listed as a duplicate but in fact they are not at all duplicates. Other so called duplicates may be a different edition or a publisher. eg Laurie Lee's As I walked out one Mid summer morning (an incredible book ) is worth owing in several editions as is George Orwell.
I am nervous of that lightning bolt as fear may make everything Vanish!!!

16Africansky1
Apr 10, 2012, 3:46pm Top

thank you jjmcgaffey. this too is a most helpful reply. I like your idea about the discards and maintaining a record. I shall note your point about having too many collections. Had not realized that could be a problem . As someone who is not a professional librarian onerather works on intuition but that is the best about LT that it works in such a self structuring way. I think that with all these replies I can see what to do next tho still a titch nervous re that dramatic lightning bolt.

17Africansky1
Apr 10, 2012, 4:23pm Top

thank you everyone. followed your advice and am sorted

18jjwilson61
Apr 10, 2012, 11:48pm Top

If you have books that are listed as duplicates that aren't then they are probably improperly combined (this can happen when they have the same author and the same title up to some number of characters (20?)). You can try separating them yourself by going to the editions page from the left-hand column of the work page, or you can post about it in the Combiners! group (there's a thread specifically for asking for help) and someone will help you shortly.

19jjmcgaffey
Apr 11, 2012, 12:26am Top

The other ones - different editions of the same work - are 'work duplicates' in LT-speak; LibraryThing concatenates all the various editions of a single "book", so that those who have cataloged the Folio Society hardback of Jane Eyre and those who have a Penguin Classics paperback both show as having Jane Eyre (random example). Which means that you will have work duplicates if you want multiple editions - that's fine, I have quite a few.

Just keep an eye on them, for ones that really aren't duplicates like your Vol 1 and Vol 2 (the other way those get combined is if the differentiators (the vol numbers) are after a colon or inside parentheses; LT will ignore anything like that). You may also find some totally random "duplicates", which usually means a wrong ISBN on one or the other - the funny thing is, the wrong info may not be on your book. In any case, do what jjwilson said - try to separate them yourself, or request assistance in Combiners!.

Group: Welcome to LibraryThing!

8,192 messages

This group does not accept members.

About

This topic is not marked as primarily about any work, author or other topic.

Help/FAQs | About | Privacy/Terms | Blog | Contact | APIs | WikiThing | Common Knowledge | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | 96,570,716 books! | Top bar: Always visible
http://www.librarything.com/topic/135445
www.librarything.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2015-18
33899
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:OC7JKZ72ZQS67VQTXSIKHFQEZQCO3YZC
<urn:uuid:0f7a7254-3892-48bc-9874-2676c3c6d967>
2015-04-19T01:08:46Z
74.201.105.31
sha1:IK3RADIRPG32PXJZUO7JSCEGWU6O6XKS
<urn:uuid:2c67e264-ae7a-45f6-b3b1-fbf74c99a9a3>
http://www.librarything.com/topic/135445
length
response
<urn:uuid:19b1c6a2-4ada-42a4-bf70-708eafbce17a>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-235-10-82.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2015-18
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for April 2015
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf