Help:How to
| This page is a help or manual page for the ISFDB database. It describes standards or methods for entering or maintaining data in the ISFDB database, or otherwise working with the database. Other help pages may be found via the category below. To discuss what should go on this page, use the talk page.
If, after exploring the Help system, you still have a question, please visit the Help desk and let us know. We probably know the answer, but we need your help to know what we left out of the help pages. If you are new to editing the ISFDB, please see Help:Getting Started. For more on this and other header templates, see Header templates. |
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Explanations of how to do some common tasks within the ISFDB. For performing tasks within the Wiki, see this page.
Entering data
- How to enter a new novel
- How to enter a book other than a novel
- How to clone a publication record to create a new one for an almost identical book
- How to enter a SFBC publication
- How to enter translations
- How to enter duplicate record names
- How to enter works published under an alternate name
- How to enter a new author into the database
- How to enter non-genre periodicals
- How to parse data in library catalogs
- How to use Worldcat/OCLC data
- How to upload images to the ISFDB wiki
- How to get the image displayed on its wiki page
- How to use HTML in ISFDB records' note fields
- How to interpret Doubleday's gutter codes
- How to determine the value for "Pages" field in a book
- How to work with Records Built by Robots
- How to count words in prose fiction titles
Connections between data
- How to merge two authors' records
- How to record an alternate name
- How to merge titles
- How to merge publications [OBSOLETE]
- How to record a variant title
- How to reverse a variant title relationship
- How to unmerge a publication from its title record
- How to handle two authors with identical names
- How to connect serials to titles
- How to work with series
- How to create a link to a US Library of Congress record (LCCN)
- How to add a magazine issue to the magazine's issue grid
- How to link a magazine to its wiki page and add it to a magazine series
Deleting and modifying data
- How to delete a book from the database
- How to update author data
- How to update or add data to a publication record
- How to change a content record in a publication record
- How to remove a content record from a publication record
- How to verify a publication record's data
- How to convert a novel to a chapbook
- How to update cover artist data
- How to ignore records on a cleanup report
Finding Data
- Help:How to Use the ISFDB's Basic Search
- Help:How to Use the ISFDB's Advanced Search
- Help:Searching the ISFDB with an outside search engine
Troubleshooting
Notes
Note that there is no way to directly delete an author. If all the title information for an author is deleted, the author will disappear from the ISFDB, but there is no "Delete Author" function. Similarly, there is no way to directly create an author; once a work by that author is entered, an author record will appear automatically.