User talk:Zoltar/Archive

Fantastyka 1'82

Thanks for submitting Fantastyka 1'82! I have approved the submission and made a few changes:

Changed "Anonymous" to "uncredited"
Added a "#" to the catalog ID
Moved "Arkadiy Strugacki" to the Author field and "Zuk w mrowisku" to the Title field
Changed "Zuk w mrowisku" from NOVEL to SERIAL and added "(Complete Novel)" to the title since that's how we currently handle serializations
Moved "Co większe muchy" to the Title field and "Jerzy Lipka" to the Author field
Moved "Andrzej Drzewinski" to the Author field and "Zabawa w strzelanego" to the Title field

I have also linked "Czek in blanco na bank pamięci" to "Overdrawn at the Memory Bank", "Zuk w mrowisku" to "Zhuk v Muraveinike", "Pieśń dla Lyanny" to "A Song for Lya", and set up a number of pesudonyms.

Would you happen to know more about Lester del Rey's "Wieczorna modlitwa"? Some online descriptions make it sound like it may be related to his "For I Am a Jealous People!", but the Polish text is only 2 pages long, so I wonder if it may be an excerpt. Also, "Zuk w mrowisku" is a novel, so the fact that it appeared on 16 pages suggests that it was either an abridgement or a partial serialization. Would you happen to know the details?

Thanks for contributing! Ahasuerus 12:51, 22 January 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for the approval and for removing the bugs I made in my first submission, Ahasuerus! Concerning Lester del Rey's "Wieczorna modlitwa": I already tried to find a match, but it is quite difficult. Polish title means "Evening Prayer". Well, there is nothing really similar to it in del Rey's bibliography... The story goes about God running from extremely powerful humans of the future. He arrives on Earth and gets caught there finally. Actually, "Fantastyka's" editors often used excerpts in the early days of this magazine. As for the Strugacki novel, so you are absolutely right. It is a partial serialisation and there are two additional parts of this novel in "Fantastyka" 2'82 and 3'82. The same applies to "A Song For Lya" (second part in 2'82). Zoltar 14:06, 22 January 2012 (UTC)

The outline of "Wieczorna modlitwa" sounds like Evensong to me, where God is eventually expelled from Earth. --Willem H. 14:35, 22 January 2012 (UTC)

That's it, thanks, Willem! Also, Fantastyka 2'82 was quite straightforward and I had no trouble setting up variant titles (or "vt"s as we call them.) One question, though -- were the names of the Strugatsky brothers really spelled differently in these two issues? It seems unlikely, but stranger things have been known to happen. Ahasuerus 05:20, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

In all three relevant issues of "Fantastyka" you can read: "Arkadij i Borys Strugaccy", Ahasuersus. So I made an error submitting 1'82. The suffix "-cy" in "Strugaccy" marks in the polish language authors as siblings or a couple using the same name. The singular form is "Strugacki" then. Sorry for this mix-up! Zoltar 05:42, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, I have changed the names accordingly. To answer your question about Fantastyka 1(4)'83 and its brethren, let's start by entering them exactly as they appear on the title page and then we can figure out if we need to make any changes. Thanks! Ahasuerus 08:45, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

One more remark: I substituted your tag 'Science Fiction' with FANTASTYKA1982_2 and hope you think it's appropriate. There is a mix-up in the ISFDB in that we use the term 'tag' in two ways. One is to exactly identify a given publication, for example if you load up an image for a publication (that's the one you entered, but you needn't to - the system searches for a free tag if you leave this field blank), the other one is the one you intended, but this latter tag is assigned on the title level and can give a short impression of the content. It can also be used for other purposes: reading lists, award winnings or designation of being part of a 'universe'. But for this latter two we have also own features implemented.

Nevertheless: Thank you for contributing! Stonecreek 10:26, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

Oh, I see. Thanks for explanation, Stonecreek! Zoltar 11:35, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for catching it, Ron! I noticed it too, but I was too tired to do anything about it. It was already 7am on the East Coast and all nighters are not as much fun as they used to be :-) Ahasuerus 02:52, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Fantastyka 3'82

I have approved Fantastyka 3'82 and made a few changes:

Changed the author of "Słownik polskich autorów fantastyki" from "1982-00-00" to Boruń Krzysztof based on what this Web page states
Set up variant titles for Haldeman, MacApp and the Strugatsky brothers
Created a pseudonym for C. C. Mac App
Disambiguated Adam Hollanek's article and put it, along with the other two articles of the same name, into a series
Linked Maciej Parowski's review of Stanislaw Lem's Wizja lokalna to the Title record
Merged the three "Fantastyka 1982" EDITOR records into one. When you create a new Magazine record, the software records the editor(s)' name in the newly created publication record and also creates a separate "EDITOR" record. We then merge all EDITOR records for the same editor/year to make editors' bibliographies more manageable -- take a look at what Adam Hollanek's Summary page looks like and you will see. This is one of the more advanced features, so don't worry about it if it doesn't make a whole lot of sense yet :)

Also, would you happen to know if "Wojna - moja miłość?" was a translation of Harry Harrison's "No War, or Battle's Sound"? Thanks! Ahasuerus 02:49, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Thank you, Ahasuersus. Here one remark concerning "Słownik polskich autorów fantastyki": It is a "Lexicon of Polish SF & F Authors" and was made by Andrzej Niewiadowski. There is a book by this author, made of this series of essays in "Fantastyka" even. What the DB you mentioned means is the name of the reviewed author (here: Krzysztof Boruń). Every issue of the "Słownik..." contains a biography and bibliography of a given author and a short (usually 1/2 to 1 page of the magazine) excerpt of his most characteristic work. Zoltar 04:54, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Ah, so it's effectively a series of articles or, as we call them, essays, right? Once we have more of them on file, we can set up a series and we will also enter the book that collects them. Ahasuerus 10:27, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

As for "Wojna - moja miłość?" so you are absolutely right :) Zoltar 04:54, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, I have set up a variant title relationship. Here is a Help page -- Help:Screen:MakeVariant -- that describes how you can set up this type of relationship between two Title records if you want to give it a try when you get a chance. Ahasuerus 10:27, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Fantastyka 1(4) styczeń 83

I have approved the submission and linked the vts, but I wonder why the essays and the reviews are dated 1982 rather than 1983. Was it supposed to be 1983, by chance?

As far as "Kosmiczny detektyw" goes, there is a standard way to enter comic strips that appear in magazines, but I don't recall the details since it's a relatively recent addition to the standard and I haven't had to use it. I have re-posted your question on the Help Desk and hopefully someone else will answer it shortly. Ahasuerus 03:50, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

You are right here. Every essay and story dated 1982 was actually released in 1983. Sorry again! Zoltar 05:01, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

No problem, mistakes happen! You may want to edit the affected Title records to adjust the dates -- here is the Help page that explains how to do this: Help:Screen:EditTitle. Ahasuerus 09:57, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Done (without errors, I hope). Zoltar 10:27, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

The submissions look pretty good, but it's 5:40am here, so I am fading fast and need to get some sleep. Hopefully some other moderator will handle them shortly, but if not, I will take care of them in about 4-5 hours. (By the way, there is no need to enter "n/a" when there is no catalog ID or ISBN.) Also, I have entered the Czytelnik editions of Senni zwycięzcy and Wyspa from the National Library of Poland and linked their reviews, so the issue should be almost done now. Fantastyka 2(5) luty 1983 is also getting there. Thanks! Ahasuerus 10:43, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Thank you and good night (or good morning, actually)! Zoltar 10:47, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

I have also a question concerning biographical notes of every author in "Fantastyka". Those notes come in small boxes, you can find them somewhere in the text of a given story/essay. They are usually some 3-4 sentences long. Are they also a subject to submit? Zoltar 05:01, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

It's a bit of a gray area, but we typically do not enter them if they are similar to blurbs. Here is what Help:Screen:NewPub says about them: "Blurbs. Magazines often include lead-ins, or blurbs, before a story; these are not indexed. Biographical sketches of authors. Include these when they are separate entries. Don't include them when they are part of a blurb or lead-in." Ahasuerus 09:57, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

So I won't include them, as they are really very short. Zoltar 10:27, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

(unindent) Hi. I approved most of the edits, but I did reject the one what would have supplied "n/a" as the ISBN/Catalog number. We don't do that -- the field should just be left blank if there is no applicable number. Yes, there is a "bibliographic warning" for it, but in this case the warning is misleading: there is nothing wrong with the field's being blank. --MartyD 11:31, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Janusz A. Zajdel

I have approved Janusz A. Zajdel's Ogon diabła, but individual Title records' dates came across as "0000-00-00". Did you use "1982", but any chance? The software expects dates to be in the YYYY-MM-DD format and anything else will be either rejected or cause problems. Also, if you don't enter dates in the Contents section, the approval process will automatically use the date of the publication, which can help in certain case. Ahasuerus 09:50, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for verifying! This book was definitely issued 1982, Ahasuerus. That's what I see in the impressum on the last page of this book. Additionally, a list of releases exists in every issue of "Fantastyka". There you can find this title for 1982, too. Individual release dates of stories in this collection I simply do not know yet. I will try to provide them by checking secondary sources. Zoltar 09:59, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Polish title "a.k.a." English title

I saw your note about "Animatorzy" being a.k.a. "The Animators". We handle that by making one title a "variant" of the other (sometimes also referred to as "VT" for "variant title"). For language variations, the "parent" title should be the one in the original language, and the variant title should be the one in the translated-to language. To make the translated title a variant, go view it and pick "Make this Title a Variant Title or Pseudonymous Work" from the menu at the left (in the same area as "Edit Title", a little lower down. If we already have the original title, you will need to find it the same way and get its ID, which is the number after the question mark in the URL. For example, for The Animators, where the URL is http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?96889, the ID is 96889. You then supply that ID in the Make Variant screen. If we do not have the original title, you can cause it to be set up by filling out the bottom portion of the screen. And this is moderated, so feel free to give it a try -- you can't cause any harm. I made the variant for "The Animators", so this is just something to keep in mind for the future, if you'd like to try it. Thanks for contributing. --MartyD 11:46, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Very good, MartyD. I will use this feature making VTs for my recent submission "Fantastyka 3(6) 1983". Zoltar 12:10, 25 January 2012 (UTC)

Głowa Kasandry

Głowa Kasandry has been approved. The only thing that I had to change was the Wikipedia link since it's author- rather than book-specific. Some books have their own Wikipedia pages, but this one doesn't seem to.

Also, if you check Marek Baraniecki's Summary page, you will notice that there are now two title records for "Karlgoro, godzina 18.00". This is normal when entering magazines and collections with overlapping contents, but the resulting duplicate titles need to be merged after the fact. If you click on the "Check for Duplicate Titles" link in the navigation bar, it will display a list of suspected duplicates for Baraniecki and you will want to merge the two "Karlgoro, godzina 18.00" records. However, you don't want to merge the two "Głowa Kasandry" records because they are for the novel and collection versions of the title respectively.

Please give it shot when you get a chance and see how it goes -- pretty much all of our editing tools are publicly available, so it's just a question of learning the interface. (Well, except for the options that let you merge authors and publishers -- they are somewhat dangerous, so they are only available to moderators.) Ahasuerus 04:53, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, I just merged "Karlgoro, godzina 18.00". Zoltar 05:12, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Approved, thanks! By the way, when an artist illustrates a book, the name of the INTERIORART record should match the title of the book. That way the artist's Summary page will immediately tell you which books the artist has worked on. I have changed wiedźma.com.pl accordingly and will change the data in other outstanding submissions. Ahasuerus 06:53, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Acknowledged! I see, I have to change Królowa Alimor accordingly, for Grzegorz Komorowski "just" illustrated this collection, so there is no need for 3 separate artwork entries, is there? Zoltar 07:11, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Well, you could enter just one INTERIORART record for Grzegorz Komorowski's artwork in this book, but this is a collection of three short stories and it contains three interior art pieces, each one apparently matching one story. In this case it probably makes more sense to have three INTERIORART records named after the story that it illustrates. Here is what Template:TitleFields:EntryType has to say about it:

- INTERIORART. There are three ways in which this can be used. First, if a single artist does all of the interior art for a book (e.g. Pauline Baynes for many of the "Narnia" editions), then a single content entry, without a page number, is appropriate. If each story in a collection, anthology or magazine is illustrated by one artist, the artwork can be indexed with a single entry for each artist and story. For example, the December 1956 issue of Infinity Science Fiction contains the story "My Sweetheart's the Man in the Moon" by Milton Lesser, which is illustrated by Stallman. The story starts on page 5 but the first piece of artwork is on page 9. In this case there is only one illustration for the story, but if there were multiple illustrations a single entry would still suffice. The page number given is the page number of the start of the story in this case; the title is the title of the content item being illustrated. An alternate option is to enter the first page where artwork appears. Page 9 would also be acceptable in the above case. It is also acceptable (but not required) to enter all pages where multiple artwork appears in a story. See this issue of Analog for an acceptable implementation. The multiple pieces of artwork should not be merged. If the illustration has a separate title or caption, document in the illustration's Notes field. The third way to use this entry type is to capture illustrations that are not attached to individual stories, or to capture illustrations of stories which are illustrated by multiple artists (a rare situation). In these cases each entry indicates a specific illustration, and the page number is the page number of the illustration itself. Illustrations not attached to a story are given a title of "Untitled".
  - Rules for including artwork. If artwork illustrates a particular story, it should be included. If it does not, but is a significant piece of artwork, or is signed by or credited to a well known sf artist, then it should be included. Credited cartoons are always included. Uncredited full-page cartoons in digest magazines of at least 1/3 page cartoons in pulp and bedsheet size magazines are always included. The title should be "Cartoon: " followed by the caption, in the original case, between quotation marks. If there is no caption the words "no caption" should be used without quotation marks. See the February 1957 issue of Dream World for examples (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?DRMWRLDFEB1957) If an article is illustrated with diagrams, or with photographs, these do not need to be included; they are not "artwork" in the sense that we are indexing.

As you can see, a number of options are possible, but in this case "one interior art record per story" seems to be the most logical. Ahasuerus 09:06, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Tajemnica wiecznego życia

Tajemnica wiecznego życia has been approved, but then I added "(Tajemnica wiecznego życia)" to the titles of the two essays, "Wstęp" and "Od autora". We usually try to disambiguate generic essay titles like "Introduction" and "Foreword" using the book's title. Think of how many identical "Introduction" titles Isaac Asimov's Summary page would have otherwise! :-) Ahasuerus 06:59, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Right, otherwise one would drown in introductions eventually ;) Zoltar 07:24, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Marek Baterowicz' Rękopis z Amalfi

As you wrote, this is not a novel but a novella published in book form. We have an own category for this kind of publication: CHAPTERBOOK (or short CHAPBOOK). See this novella by Tiptree, Jr. for an example. Please note that the novella is part of the contents - in fact this format can be used to enter collections or even anthologies with a small page count. Please take a look at the help pages for further information. I have made the necessary changes towards a CHAPBOOK. Thanks. Stonecreek 10:10, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

Ewa Białołęcka

I see that you submitted an author update for Ewa Białołęcka a few hours ago. It was approved by another moderator, but checking submission history I see that the date of birth was set to "14.12.1967". Unfortunately, the software only accepts YYYY-MM-DD dates, so the date came across as 0000-00-00, which is interpreted as "unknown". I have corrected the record, but please keep this formatting issue in mind in the future.

Also, Białołęcka's collection Róża Selerbergu has all Title records listed as "short stories". However, some of them appear to be quite long, e.g. "Diabli wzięli, czyli thriller okultystyczny" is over 50 pages, so I wonder if they may be novelettes or novellas. Here is what Help:Screen:NewPub has to say about it:

ss - Shortstory - A work whose length is less than or equal to 7,500 words. (Roughly, 20 or fewer pages in a book.)
nt - Novelette - A work whose length is greater than 7,500 words and less than or equal to 17,500 words. (Roughly 20 to 50 pages in a book.)
nv - Novella - A work whose length is greater than 17,500 words and less than or equal to 40,000 words. (Roughly 50 to 100 pages in a book.)

Thanks! Ahasuerus 16:56, 26 January 2012 (UTC)

OK, if I use HelpScreen classification then there's need for changes. I will submit them right now. But I have another question, Ahasuerus. The author of Róża Selerbergu" groups some stories in following way: Part 1: "Selerbergiada"(contains first 5 stories), Part 2: "Przyczajony rycerz, ukryty smok" (3 stories) and Part 3: "Saga o ludziach MOD-u" (last 2 stories). You can see this parts in the list of content of this book. Is there a feature which allows me to submit such a structure? Zoltar 05:38, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

You can put these Title records in a series and I believe you have already tried it with a couple of titles. However, keep in mind that a Title record can belong to one (and only one) series. If the author chose to group these stories "thematically" for the purposes of this collection, then you may later have a problem if some of them are a part of another series.

So I won't change that, for nobody knows what will author or publisher do in the future. Zoltar 10:56, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

Also, I see that you have changed the spelling of this interior art record from "Animatorzy" to "Animarorzy", but its related short story record is still called "Animatorzy". Was that by design? Ahasuerus 10:42, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

No, no, it was just a typo and I changed this again in "Animatorzy". Sorry! Zoltar 10:56, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

No worries, fixed! Ahasuerus 11:08, 27 January 2012 (UTC)

śmierć czarnoksiężnika

I have approved the addition of Wody głębokie jak niebo, but I have a question. Is the first letter in "śmierć czarnoksiężnika" supposed to be capitalized? Ahasuerus 05:42, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Right, now I know, what I've forgotten... Zoltar 05:44, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Approved, thanks! Ahasuerus 06:00, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Ellipsis

There is one more ISFDB data entry standard that you may want to be aware of. As per Help:Screen:NewNovel:

An ellipsis should be entered as the sequence "space", "period", "space", "period", "space", "period". If the ellipsis is in the middle of the title, it should be entered with a space after it as well, prior to the start of the following word.

which is why I have changed ""Rzyć niewieścia..." to ""Rzyć niewieścia . . .".

P.S. As you have probably guessed by now, I am trying to gently introduce you to these arcane rules rather than dump all of them on you at the same time :-) Ahasuerus 06:21, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

You are doing it very well, thank you! This way, I enjoy submitting and learn a lot by the way. :) Zoltar 06:26, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Włodzimierz Bełcikowski

According to his Wikipedia article, Włodzimierz Bełcikowski was born in "Owsijówce na Podolu" rather than in "Owsijówka". Would you happen to know the name of this place in 1874? ISFDB uses the official designation as of the time of the author's birth, thus Stanislaw Lem's birthplace is listed as "Lwow" rather than Lemberg or Lviv. Thanks! Ahasuerus 07:46, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

P.S. Also, legal names are listed in the "Lastname, Firstname Middlename" format in order to distinguish between middle names and last names that consist of multiple wordss, e.g. "Nielsen Hayden, Patrick". I have corrected Marian Bielicki's record accordingly. Ahasuerus 07:49, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

"w Owsijówce na Podolu" means "in Owsijówka (in the region) Podole". It's just Dativ of "Owsijówka". This village lies in the vicinity of Bershad in today Ukraine. The name Owsijówka was written in Russian AND Polish in 1874, because Poland was a part of the Russian Empire then. Also, thank you for updating Marian Bielicki's record! Zoltar 08:25, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Oh, I see! Sorry, I was thinking along the lines of "Stratford-upon-Avon" or "Ingelheim am Rhein". In cases like this, we usually enter "Owsijówka, Poland, Russian (or Austrian, British, etc) Empire" or "Owsijówka, Ukraine, Russian Empire". I don't have an easy way of telling which administrative unit Owsijówka was a part of in 1874 (Podolia Governorate?), so I just entered it as "Owsijówka, Russian Empire" for now. Ahasuerus 08:49, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Well, Europe and it's always moving borders... ;-) "Owsijówka, Russian Empire" sounds absolutely OK for me. Thanks! Zoltar 08:58, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Yes, it can get hairy, especially with all the name changes. We had this discussion a few years ago and the worst examples we could come up with were Lviv and Kirovohrad, which started out as Yelisavetgrad, was later changed to Zinovievsk, then to Kirovo, then to Kirovograd and finally to Kirovohrad. Ouch! Ahasuerus 09:18, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Oh, yes! A nearby-to-my-birthplace town changed its name thrice in the 20th century (Kattowitz - Katowice - Stalinogród - Katowice), so I exactly know the problem :-) Zoltar 09:28, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Jan Brzechwa

I have approved the two "Pan Soczewka" chapterbooks and added some author info, but I wonder if "Pan Soczewka" may be related to "Pan Kleks", which has his own Wikipedia article?

Also, please keep in mind that a "chapterbook" publication (we really need to change the term to "chapbook", but that's a different headache) is a "container" publication just like a "collection" or an "anthology" pub. It typically contains at least two Title records: one Chapterbook Title record and (at least) one "contents" Title record, in this case a "short fiction" Title. The "contents" Title is the one that may be included in a series, reprinted in other books (collections, magazines, anthologies), etc. The "chapterbook" Title represents the standalone appearance of the work. It's one of the more complicated areas of the database, so don't worry if it seems strange at first :) Ahasuerus 09:11, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Pan Soczewka (Mr. Lense) is somebody else. His adventures are less known than those of Pan Kleks. They are poetry in fact (written in verses, at least). The "chapterbook" conception seems a difficult one. From now on I will ask, before I define such a structure again. Zoltar 09:22, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Fantastyka 4(7) kwiecień 1983

Fantastyka 4(7) kwiecień 1983 has been approved and the following changed have been made:

"Życie dogoniło fikcję" was changed from NONFICTION (which is reserved for book length pieces) to ESSAY
"Ziemia Ozyrysa", "Duch V" and "SHAWNA Ltd." were linked to their respective parent titles
According to this Russian site, "Przełęcz" (Pereval) is a novella rather than a novel. The author, Kirill Bulychev, subsequently turned it into part 1 of the novel "Poselok", which is in turn a part of a larger series about "Dr. Pavlysh".

Also, I couldn't find any matches for "Ałmaz Szach", "Zwiozdnyje dożdi", or "Siezon tumanow" in the National Library of Poland. The authors are apparently Russian, so I wonder if Sławomir Kędzierski may have reviewed the original Russian titles? Ahasuerus 10:02, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the verification, I fully agree to your remarks/changes. As for "Ałmaz Szach", "Zwiozdnyje dożdi", or "Siezon tumanow", so they are original Russian books (the titles are direct transliterations into Polish), reviewed by Kędzierski as translator in their original editions. So there are no Polish matches at all for them. Zoltar 10:42, 28 January 2012 (UTC)

Delikatne uderzenie pioruna

I have approved Delikatne uderzenie pioruna, but according to this site, "Cykl Krzyżacki" may be a real (i.e. Title-based) series rather than a "publication series". Are the books set in the same universe and do they share the same characters? Ahasuerus 18:34, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Yes, I wanted to correct this right after approval. "Cykl Krzyżacki" is a series, which is a part of the publication series "Asy polskiej fantastyki". All three books share the same characters and places. Zoltar 19:53, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Fixed, thanks! As far as regular (i.e. Title-based) series vs. "publication series" go, the two types of series are generally unrelated. It's entirely possible that "Cykl Krzyżacki" will be reprinted by another publisher using a different publication series (or no publication series) tomorrow, but it won't change the fact that these three novels comprise a Title series. Also, Title series can be embedded infinitely to create nested universes and sub-universes, e.g. consider the Shannara Universe, but publication series can't. Ahasuerus 21:13, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Xavras Wyżryn

Just an FYI that I have approved the addition of Xavras Wyżryn, but changed the title type and the publication type to OMNIBUS based on this Wikipedia article. Ahasuerus 07:46, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Inne pieśni

I have approved the addition of Inne pieśni, but the submitted ISBN is invalid. According to this book's Wikipedia article, the original ISBN was 83-08-03481-0. Could you please double check? Thanks!

P.S. Also, I have copied your request for a new award type to ISFDB:Moderator noticeboard. Ahasuerus 07:54, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for your help with "Zajdel"! Also, I fixed the checksum error at ISBN. Zoltar 08:34, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Approved, thanks! Ahasuerus 08:38, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

Nagroda im. Janusza A. Zajdla 2006

I have approved Nagroda im. Janusza A. Zajdla 2006 and made a few changes:

Move "a non-profit publication" from the price field to the Notes field
Changed all "fragments" to "excerpts" and changed their title type from NOVEL to SHORTFICTION. Here is what Help:Screen:NewPub has to say about them:
- Excerpts. Sometimes an excerpt from a forthcoming book will be printed at the back of a book. This should be treated as short fiction. If the excerpt has a title that makes it clear that it is only an excerpt, use that title. Otherwise, use the title given, but add " (excerpt)" to the end; e.g. "A Feast for Crows (excerpt)".

Thanks! Ahasuerus 04:48, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

In this special case those excerpts present to the polish fandom novels nominated for Zajdel Award. So it's no advertisement, but a help for the voters in case they didn't read the book yet. But I think, there is no other way to mark and handle this pieces of prose anyway, right? Zoltar 05:25, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

I am afraid it's the only convention for designating partial works that we have. Well, you can also use the SERIAL title type, but that would make even less sense in this case... Ahasuerus 07:30, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Sławomir Kędzierski's review of Hothouse

I am afraid I had to reject this submission because it tried to turn the review record ("Cieplarnia ") into a Variant Title of the main (or as we call it, "canonical") title. You may have accidentally clicked on the wrong link since "Link Review to Title" is right next to "Make This Title a Variant Title or Pseudonymous Work" in the navigation bar. That's what I used and it looks very nice now :) Ahasuerus 04:53, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Right after submission I thought: "Somethin' is wrong...". Thanks for this very necessary correction! Zoltar 05:20, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

New award type

Unfortunately, there is no easy way of setting up a new award type at the moment. The requisite software improvements have been submitted, but they haven't been tested/installed yet. Soon, hopefully... Ahasuerus 04:55, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks anyway. At the moment I focus on submitting books and magazines, then I will try to verify some Polish and German SF. When this work is done, I could start with Zajdel. Zoltar 05:18, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

Homo divisus

Homo divisus has been approved, but the record shows a bad checksum. Is it a typo, perchance? Ahasuerus 11:15, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

Hmmm, I checked both ISBN entries and it is 83-212-02-01-2 on the rear page and 83-211-02-01-2 in the imprint. Zoltar 11:45, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for checking, I have corrected the ISBN value and added notes. Also, when you say "in the imprint", do you mean on the copyright page? Or does it appear some place else? Ahasuerus 07:00, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

"Paroksyzm numer minus jeden"

I had to put the "Paroksyzm numer minus jeden" submissions on hold while I was researching their background. I think I have sorted them out now -- please see my post on User:Stonecreek's talk page.

By the way, your original submission, which created a CHAPTERBOOK record and a SHORTFICTION record, was fine -- you are getting the hang of these devious CHAPTERBOOK critters! :) Ahasuerus 07:29, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

I am absolutely happy with this solution. Thanks! And I am also happy, that I didn't screw up those CHAPTERBOOK records :)Zoltar 17:22, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

Stało się jutro: opowiadań fantastycznych zbiór drugi

I have the submission that wants to change the title of this publication record from "Stało się jutro: opowiadań fantastycznych zbiór drugi" to "Człowiek z aureolą" on hold. Based on the record in the Polish National Library, "Stało się jutro: opowiadań fantastycznych zbiór drugi" appears to be correct while "Człowiek z aureolą" is the title of the first story in the anthology. Could you please clarify? Thanks! Ahasuerus 07:38, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

The matter is a following one: "Stało się jutro: opowiadań fantastycznych zbiór drugi" means literally "It happened tomorrow: sf stories collection number two" whereas the title of this collection is "Człowiek z aureolą". Look at this summary at Wikipedia, please. Look also at this cover picture. Zoltar 17:29, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

Ah, so Stało się jutro is the name of the series, but Człowiek z aureolą is the book title! Thanks, it all makes sense now. I will approve the submission and also change the Title record for the anthology. (The title of the Publication record and the title of the Title record have to be changed separately.) Ahasuerus 21:21, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

Fantastyka

I'm assuming that you are the editor who is entering issues of this magazine. If so, there are a couple of them (here and here) that were created with a "tag" of "Science Fiction". It is best to leave this field blank when you're creating publication records, because the system will automatically generate a randoml and unique "tag". The problem here is that the word "tag" as used on the ISFDB has two entirely different meanings. In this case, it's an identifier for a publication record. In the other sense, it's a user's way of placing title records into different categories. Sorry for the confusion. If you wish you can change the "tag" on those two issues using FANTASTYKA011982 and FANTASTYKA031982, neither of which are currently being used. It's just a matter of updating the record and putting the new ID into the tag field. Or I can do it for you. Thanks. Mhhutchins 21:45, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

It would also be a good idea to do a primary verification of these records, really for all records of books and magazines that you're entering into the database from your own library. Thanks. Mhhutchins 21:52, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

OK, Mhhutchins, I am following your requests. The tags are already there and the verification of all books and magazines I submitted will be done today :) Zoltar 06:14, 6 February 2012 (UTC)

Comic series "Kosmiczny detektyw" in "Fantastyka"

In case you didn't see it, I attempted to answer your question on this topic at the Help Desk. With a little further thought, I think I prefer the second suggested solution over the first. Chavey 18:09, 7 February 2012 (UTC)

Thank you, Chavey! I have absolutely no problem with the second solution (the first one also being OK, though). Zoltar 04:46, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Grabinski's Collected Works

Hello, Zoltar! I have put your submision for the second volume on hold, because here you credited Artur Hutnikiewicz as author. By definition a collection has to be credited to the author whose work is collected in it. I guess Artur Hutnikiewicz is the editor of the volumes, but that should be credited only in the notes. I'm sorry but that are the rules of ISFDB, even if the credits in the book tell a different story. I'll accept the submission and change the author field if you don't have any additional remarks.

But keep your sub.s coming. It's very good to have a Polish editor around! Stonecreek 06:30, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Hello, Stonecreek! No problem. Just do the necessary changes: author is definitely Grabiński, not Hutnikiewicz. In the future I will submit German SF, too (most of it will be probably a secondary verification only, for there are many German user here). I am a devoted "Perry Rhodan" fan by the way ;) Zoltar 06:35, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Hey, that's just great to hear (aka read)!. You can enter anything you like. There still is only a fraction of German or European sf in general entered, so any help is welcome! Stonecreek 06:54, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Will do! But I have a problem with Grabiński right now. I suppose, his works were submitted for his canonical name (Grabinski) till now. I submitted everything for his legal name (Grabiński) as they appeared under this name in original issues. How do I merge both entries? Zoltar 07:04, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

If two Author records are truly identical, a moderator can merge them, but in this case it looks like at least some English translations may have appeared as by "Grabinski", e.g. this collection. If so, then we just need to correct the "Grabiński" titles and pubs that are currently erroneously attributed to "Grabinski". Once we do that, we can set up the remaining "Grabinski" titles as variants of their "Grabiński" parents. Ahasuerus 09:35, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Just thought that you might not know about our wiki pages on Perry Rhodan (that is the German series) we have here and thetalk page, just in case you'd like to enter any issues (and that needn't to be the original ones - I think we can use at least the talk page for entering Polish or other language editions apart from the English ones). Stonecreek 12:49, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

I have some 2500+ "Perry Rhodan", 500+ "Atlan", ca. 200 "Planetenromane" and many special editions, so there is definitely stuff enough... ;-) Zoltar 16:29, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Księga jesiennych demonów

Just to let you know that I have moved "Bestsellery polskiej fantastyki" to the Publication Series field for this pub. Ahasuerus 09:22, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Popiół i kurz. Opowieść ze świata Pomiędzy

Popiół i kurz. Opowieść ze świata Pomiędzy has been approved, but the ISBN, 978-83-60505-01-5, appears to be bad. Could you please check what's stated in the book? Thanks! Ahasuerus 09:25, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, I just corrected it. Zoltar 11:09, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Podróż do Kalopei

Podróż do Kalopei has been approved, but please note that you don't need to enter the main NOVEL title in the "Additional Content" area when entering new novels. If you do, the software will create two NOVEL records in the newly created publication. I have cleaned it up and everything looks good now, so this is just a point of reference :-) Ahasuerus 09:29, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

It clearly reads "additional content" in the submission form, but I got up very early today... ;-) Zoltar 11:13, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Miasta pod Skałą

Quick question about Miasta pod Skałą. You have verified the publication, but the Notes field says "Info from OCLC". Wouldn't we want to delete the note? Ahasuerus 16:34, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

I just wasn't sure if I am permitted to do so. Zoltar 16:37, 11 February 2012 (UTC)

Many publication records are first created as stubs and are based on secondary sources like OCLC, online stores, bibliographies, etc, in which case we record the source in the Notes field. Once an editor verifies the physical publication, we remove the reference to the secondary source. If the Notes field doesn't say where the data comes from and the pub has been primary-verified, the assumption is that all information comes from the book itself.

The main exception to this rule is when a secondary source provides additional information that is not available in the pub itself. For example, some books don't state when they were published, but a bibliography or a library catalog may have this information. When this happens, we say something like "Publication date not stated, but 1979 according to OCLC [or Reginald-3 etc]". Similarly, Amazon.com may have the month of publication, an artist's Web site may list the cover artist and so on.

Also, if a secondary source like Locus appears to be wrong, it may be worth noting it in the Notes field. It's always possible that the pub that you have in hand and what is listed in a secondary source are two slightly different editions. Ahasuerus 16:50, 11 February 2012 (UTC)