User talk:Jmaloney

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Welcome!

Hello, Jmaloney, and welcome to the ISFDB Wiki! I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

Note: Image uploading isn't entirely automated. You're uploading the files to the wiki which will then have to be linked to the database by editing the publication record.

Please be careful in editing publications that have been primary verified by other editors. See Help:How to verify data#Making changes to verified pubs. But if you have a copy of an unverified publication, verifying it can be quite helpful. See Help:How to verify data for detailed information.

I hope you enjoy editing here! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will insert your name and the date. If you need help, check out the community portal, or ask me on my talk page. Again, welcome! Mhhutchins 16:28, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

The Screwtape Letters

Your submission to add a January 1946 printing of this title has been placed on hold. The database has a record for the 1943 Macmillan first edition. What is your source for the 1946 printing? If you have a copy of the book, I'll accept the submission and ask that you do a primary verification of the record. (Help link here). If you don't have a copy, you should record your source of the data in the record's note field. According to this OCLC record the book was reprinted in December 1946 with "some alterations". Could your book be that edition, or was it a reprinting of the first edition? Please respond to this message by clicking on the [edit] link to the right of it, compose your response in the dialogue box that opens, end the message with four tildes (~~~~), and click "Save Page". Thanks for contributing. Mhhutchins 16:39, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for your welcome. Yes, I entered the data from my copy of the book. I assume it's a reprinting of the first Macmillan edition. On the title page it shows Macmillan 1946. On the back of the title page it lists twelve reprintings, the first being March 1943 and the last being January 1946.
Usually my old books have lost their dust jackets, but this one is intact, albeit a bit tattered. I have scanned it and plan to upload the image when I work on the listing again later. I will also perform a primary verification after the record has been approved. I have read many isfdb help pages, wiki pages, and faq pages, and I have asked questions on the help desk page. I have edited, added, and verified records since I joined. I'm new here, but I'm learning. Jmaloney 17:13, 13 January 2012 (UTC)
As one of the few new editors who "found" the wiki pages within a day of your first submission, you are to be congratulated. You'll find a lot of information in the help pages, but the best way to learn how to edit the database is to follow the basic guidelines found on this page and then submit, submit, submit. The more you submit, the easier it becomes, and the moderators will step you through any of the more complicated procedures, such as adding content records, and the merging and varianting of titles. It won't take long before you're a pro...if you're persistent. Thanks again. Mhhutchins 17:27, 13 January 2012 (UTC)
When you have a chance, update the record to indicate the printing data, so that any future editors will know if their copy matches your record. Also please do a primary verification. Thanks. Mhhutchins 20:46, 13 January 2012 (UTC)
I was going to do a primary verification after I finished entering data for this book. Next I was going to explore to see if there's a way to include an image of the back cover. The back cover shows a drawing with the caption "His Infernal Excellency, Mr. Screwtape, as imagined by the author, C. S. Lewis." I think that would be good to show but I haven't seen where to put it yet. It seems like you're in a hurry for me to do the primary verification. Is there a need for haste? Also, I don't understand what additional printing data you want me to enter. Isn't the year of 1946-01-00 sufficient to show that it's a January 1946 printing? Are you asking me to list the twelve reprint dates in the note?Jmaloney 21:17, 13 January 2012 (UTC)
I just performed the primary verification. I saw no place to include an image of the back cover. If I could upload it without replacing the existing image, I could include a link to the back cover in the note field. Would that be acceptable? Desirable? Jmaloney 21:28, 13 January 2012 (UTC)
[after an edit conflict] Response to your first question: You can do a direct upload of an image file to the Wiki, and then link the image in the record's note field. But you should know that there are extra steps that must be taken when you do these direct uploads (from this page). You have to create a unique file name, and you have to add the Fair Use license tags to each image. These are done automatically when you upload from the publication record. If you plan on doing this let me know and I can step you through it.
Response to your second question: There's no rush to do a primary verification, but it does help the moderator know that he doesn't have to question or research your data. When you update any record that's been verified, moderators are warned that the submission changes a verified record. If you do not wish to do a primary verification (there are some responsibilities in doing so), you should record in the note field that you're working from the book-in-hand.
Response to your third question: No, you don't have to list all of the printing dates (some editors, bless their anal-retentive hearts, will do this). You should record the portion of the statement that applies for this publication. For example: "Twelfth Printing: January 1946". I like to place quotes around statements taken directly from a book, but there's no standard about how it should be stated in the notes.
BTW "1946-01-00" in the ISFDB date field indicates the publication date. Books may also indicate the printing date as well, which are not necessarily the same as the publication date, but in most cases we use the printing date in the publication field, especially for later printings. I have a book that contains the statement: "Published February 15, 2008 / Second Printing, February 2008". So the first edition, first printing of this title is dated "2008-02-15" while the first edition, second printing is dated "2008-02-00". This is an extreme case, of course. Very few books go into a second printing before they're actually "published". Mhhutchins 21:45, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Adding pubs to titles vs. adding "New Novel"s

This relates to the previous submission for The Screwtape Letters, but I thought it warranted its own discussion. If you look at the summary page for C. S. Lewis, you'll find that there are now two title records for The Screwtape Letters. One dated 1942, and the other dated 1946. The latter is the one that was created when you added the January 1946 printing of the Macmillan edition. This was caused because you used the "Add New Novel" function, instead of going to the pre-existing title record for the book you're entering. (If there is no pre-existing title record, you would have been right to use the "Add New Novel" function.) Once you're at the title record, click on the link "Add Publication to This Title" under the Editing Tools menu. Keep this in mind when adding future publications. These two title records will have to be merged in order for all publications of the title to be listed under one title record. Would you like to learn how to merge titles? It's quite easy and will be necessary to know if you plan on sticking around awhile. Just let me know and I can step you through it. Or you can go to this help page. Thanks. Mhhutchins 21:58, 13 January 2012 (UTC)

Oh man! One would think I hadn't spent a few days reading help pages and the wiki before I even created an account here. I'm sorry. That's embarrassing. I need to check the several books I've worked on and make sure I didn't make the same mistake elsewhere. Thanks for pointing out the "Add Publication to This Title" menu link. I simply searched for the fiction title "The Screwtape Letters", chose the 1942 entry from the two shown, and examined the publications bibliography http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?4225. I saw my 1946 Macmillan was not listed and obviously chose the wrong menu item on the left to add it. I bet that error happens frequently. The way the data is structured is not apparent to a newcomer. Is this error something you should have caught before approving the new entry? I read the merging help and followed the process using the advanced search. I got to the conflict-resolution screen, but didn't want to assume the default radio buttons selected were the correct ones, especially for the language (blank instead of English), so I aborted the process. If you'll verify that 1942, blank for language, and the Wikipedia choice that has an address are the three correct choices then I'll go back and perform the merge. Thanks.
I appreciate all your help. I want to get back to several items in the previous talk section, but they'll have to wait. Maybe I'll get back to it later in the weekend. Jmaloney 00:18, 14 January 2012 (UTC)
Don't be embarrassed - you're doing very well. And often a newcomer points out errors in our help or inconsistencies in our practices - I would go so far as to say that nobody here understands everything now, things have changed a lot since it became a communal effort rather than a 1 or 2 person effort, and software improvements have led to a lot of procedural changes that may not be well-explained yet. So do question things, or ask for improvements. BLongley 04:36, 14 January 2012 (UTC)
Thanks for the encouragement. So far everyone I've encountered here has been kind and helpful. I am also impressed with how quickly my submissions are acted on by moderators. Please let me know if answering inside a thread as I'm doing here is okay or if I should answer at the end. It's not clear on the Wiki conventions help page.Jmaloney 19:52, 14 January 2012 (UTC)
As to conflict-resolution during merges, you're right to not assume the default radio buttons selected were the correct ones. I used to think I could fix that a bit that so that the earliest title was always the default, which is usually correct: but the language "blank instead of English" would become an incorrect default (we want to set more languages specifically rather than assume everything is English). Generally the earliest date is best, keep any series info or title parent, allow "English" rather than blank but don't merge specified different languages. I bail out when Story Lengths differ as there are cases when some shortfiction is expanded or reduced, and variants by story length are one of the things we have not really set rules for. (Especially when a translation takes it above or below one of the cut-off points for short story, novelette or novella.) If in doubt, ask! The worst you can get is conflicting answers which show we need to sort something out. BLongley 04:36, 14 January 2012 (UTC)
[after edit conflict with Blongley] I should have caught it at the time of the submission. Moderators can see if you're adding a pub to an existing title or creating a new one, and I missed that. I'm going to be gone for the next two days also, so if you have any further questions, and want a quicker response ask at the help desk. If not, I will be able to respond on this page on Monday. And yes, please continue with the submission to merge the titles. If you're unsure of the choices when it comes to conflict resolution, the rule of thumb is to leave all data that doesn't conflict, and choose the earlier of the dates. Thanks. Mhhutchins 04:37, 14 January 2012 (UTC)
I had no problem merging the 1942 and 1946 entries for The Screwtape Letters. I chose English over blank.Jmaloney 19:52, 14 January 2012 (UTC)
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