Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

In coordination with the GR author I was doing some cleanup on Paul^^Collins. There were two works under his name that were written by other people writing as Paul Collins.

1) Is there a trick to get the list of all GR authors named "Paul" some number of spaces "Colins?" The method I have been using is mildly labor intensive and took about 15 minutes to construct a list of the 25 authors named Paul Collins. My method uses the add book/author thing that's available in comment boxes such as the one to write this post.
a) mouse over and click add book/author
b) mouse over and add a space between the first and last names
c) Press the key to get rid of the hovertip that pops up in d) front of the [Search] button.
e) mouse over and click [Search]
f) mouse over and click [Add]
g) mouse into the edit box for the message and press to add a new line
h) Repeat this until the search stops finding names.
While this method works it's both labor intensive and will not catch if someone had added an author named "Paul" a very large number of spaces "Collins".

2) Is there a trick to discover the number of spaces in an author's name? For example, see Amy Harmon #6552448 and Amy Harmon #5829056. Usually I'd pull up the edit page to view the number of spaces but I'm not allowed to edit either profile as both of them are Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Authors.

To get the space count for those two I pulled up one of their works, click edit, and then counted the number of spaces in their name in the edit field for the work's author. This seems like extra steps.

I tried copy/pasting from /author/show... into notepad but discovered that while the HTML has instances of the two-space "Amy Harmon" that they end up in Notepad as single space "Amy Harmon"s.

The two-space "Amy Harmon" is buried in the HTML of /author/show... meaning I can use view-source and look for Amy space-space. This seems awkward for the average person.

FWIW - Despite that she has snared the /amy_harmon user profile link #6552448 is the one with two spaces on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ.

Just stopping by to say I use the same method as you describe in 1) and 2), but keen to see if anyone else has found a quicker way.

My method is to search for a non-GR Author Paul Collins and then look at the similar-names list:

/search?utf8...

In this case, the 9th book (The Birth of the West) is by a non-GR Author. Click on the author link, click on 'edit data' and then click on 'similar names' on the right-hand side.

That way, you also get middle names and similar names, like Paula and Pauline, and unfortunately the list is not sorted in any logical way (for some reason, they thought on 'books added' was a good idea), but at least you have them all on one page.

That's a really good tip, lethe. I've heard of the 'similar names' function before but keep forgetting it. To have it sorted by number of spaces is now on my Librarian Wish List. :)

Edit: Bummer, I was hoping the direct URL would be editable so you could paste the identifier for the one-space author, but when I do I get bounced due to GR Author status.

annob wrote: "To have it sorted by number of spaces is now on my Librarian Wish List. :) "

Maybe, if we all wish hard enough... ;)

Thank you lethe. The similar names thing is nearly perfect. What's the best way to submit feature requests to GR these days? I have a couple of feature requests related to similar names.

1) It should be available when used with GR authors. For example:
"Similar authors" works for a GR author.
"Similar names" for the same author fails with "Sorry, this author is on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ and is responsible for editing their own data." As "similar names" does not edit or modify any information it should be allowable regardless on if it's used with a GR author profile or not. (I know that at present the link to "similar names" is only visible on the edit page but I'm thinking ahead to making it more generally available).

2) As others have noted, we should have some control over sort order of the list produced by similar names. By default, it sorts by the number of books added. That serves as a reasonable ranking of popularity but librarians digging into similar names likely are more interested in the names rather than popularity.

3) At present the space count is of the raw number of spaces in a name rather than the number of spaces before the last name. "Paul F. Collins" is a reported as having 2 spaces and then there's "Paul F. Collins" with 3 spaces. These are thought of by humans as one and two space names as we are counting the spaces before the last name.

4) It should report on names with spaces in unusual places. For example, I edited one of the names to be "Paul^^F.^^Collins" and the similar-names page dutifully it reported as a 4 spaces name. While that's correct the librarian should be warned the GR's policy only allows for extra spaces before the last name. (this should also check for spaces at the front or end of an author's name). The name check thing likely should also warn librarians if they attempt to add an extra spaces name that skips ahead. For example, I should be warned if I tried to add or change a 30-spaces Paul Collins as the next available Paul Collins at present is 26-spaces.

5) Related to #2 above is that the similar names list could end with a list of the next available names. For example, let's say that there was no record for "Paul^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Collins" (18 spaces). In that case, the list could end with "The next available names are:"
[Paul^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Collins] with 18 spaces.
[Paul^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Collins] with 26 spaces (if there was a Paul Collins with 18 spaces)

[Paul Anthony^^Collins] with 2 spaces
[Paul David^^Collins] with 2 spaces
[Paul F.^^^Collins] with 3 spaces
[Paul G.^^Collins] with 2 spaces
[Paul H.^^Collins] with 2 spaces
[Paul J.^^Collins] with 2 spaces
[Paul M.^^Collins] with 2 spaces
[Paul M.^^Collins Jr.] with 2 spaces
[Paul S.^^Collins] with 2 spaces
[Paul T.^^Collins] with 2 spaces
[Paul W.^^Collins] with 2 spaces

[Paula^^Collins] with 2 spaces
[Paulene^^Collins] with 2 spaces
[Paulina^^Collins] with 2 spaces
[Pauline Therese^^Collins] with 2 spaces
[Pauline^^Collins] with 2 spaces

I used the [square brackets] to indicate the names should be shown in edit fields to both make the spaces more visible and to make it easy for librarians to copy/paste from the correct version of a name.

Marc wrote: "What's the best way to submit feature requests to GR these days?"

Since the Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Feedback Group has been discontinued, the way to reach staff is by posting in the new Help section, or send in your suggestions via the contact form here: /about/conta...

lethe wrote: "unfortunately the list is not sorted in any logical way"

Hi librarians,

Thanks for the feedback. I've been reading through your feature requests here. Would you like the page to have the option to sort by spaces, or should it be sorted like that by default? How useful is it ever for the list to be sorted by popularity?

My preference would be for it to sort alphabetically by spaces as in Marc's example above.

Definitely spaces, popularity doesn't apply to librarians as we're not looking for books to read but books to fix.

Okay thanks for the feedback. I can make it sort by spaces by default.

At present the space count is of the raw number of spaces in a name rather than the number of spaces before the last name. "Paul F. Collins" is a reported as having 2 spaces and then there's "Paul F. Collins" with 3 spaces. These are thought of by humans as one and two space names as we are counting the spaces before the last name.

I can look into fixing this as well.

Thank you Elaine. I also agree that sorting by spaces by default works best. Specifically, build a recordset of the records matching the search pattern where extra spaces are trimmed from the names, a is_middlename field that's normally 0 and is set to 1 if any middle names or initials are detected, and a num_spaces field that has the number of spaces. Sort that recordset by the trimmed name, is_middlename , and num_spaces. That'll make a list that's less likely to confuse people than sorting by the space count alone.

Oh wow, that would be brilliant, Elaine!

Yes, my preference would definitely be alphabetically by spaces as well. By popularity is of no use to librarians (I don't think regular users can even see that page).

Marc wrote: "Thank you Elaine. I also agree that sorting by spaces by default works best. Specifically, build a recordset of the records matching the search pattern where extra spaces are trimmed from the names..."

If I understand this correctly, I disagree.

Hi again! There seems to be some disagreement about the exact way to sort this page, but for now I've made it sort alphabetically and by spaces. Example: /author/simi...

I hope this helps make the process less painful for you all.

Regarding Marc's first feature request to make this page accessible by librarians even for GR authors, I'd like to get your feedback on where exactly to put the "similar names" link such that it is convenient for librarians. (I assume somewhere on the author page since the author/edit page for GR authors is locked only to the author themselves).

Elaine wrote: "Regarding Marc's first feature request to make this page accessible by librarians even for GR authors, I'd like to get your feedback on where exactly to put the "similar names"

How about the Combine page and useable only by Librarians.

Elaine wrote: "Hi again! There seems to be some disagreement about the exact way to sort this page, but for now I've made it sort alphabetically and by spaces. Example: /author/simi......"

It looks fantastic Elaine, thank you so much! I'm a very happy bunny :)

Elaine wrote: "Regarding Marc's first feature request to make this page accessible by librarians even for GR authors, I'd like to get your feedback on where exactly to put the "similar names" link such that it is convenient for librarians."

Would on the combine page be an idea? That is also where we find staff notes on GR profiles.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "How about the Combine page and useable only by Librarians."

Great minds...!

Just found this thread and wow the page is so much easier to use with it being sorted alphabetically and spaces rather than how it was before. Thank you for updating it!

I agree with the others, the combine page seems like the best place to put it since that page is where librarians tend to already be.

Melanie wrote: "Just found this thread and wow the page is so much easier to use with it being sorted alphabetically and spaces rather than how it was before. Thank you for updating it! I agree with the others, the combine page seems like the best place to put it since that page is where librarians tend to already be.

No problem! I'll add it to the combine page.

Marc wrote: At present the space count is of the raw number of spaces in a name rather than the number of spaces before the last name. "Paul F. Collins" is a reported as having 2 spaces and then there's "Paul F. Collins" with 3 spaces. These are thought of by humans as one and two space names as we are counting the spaces before the last name.

I forgot to mention, but I fixed this too.

Thanks for all your hard work, Elaine. Such an improvement!

Thanks, Elaine!

To the rest of y'all: Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Developers don't usually follow this group, but Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ always welcome your suggestions. If you have any additional feature requests (related to this one or not), please use the Contact Us link on the Help page to send them in. Feel free to send them to Elaine's attention.

This change is great, thank you Elaine!

Excellent work Elaine!

Wow!
We asked for that quite a while in Feedback and I assumed this to be an "oh yeah, would be SO helpful" - "thanks for your feedback, is on our roadmap" thread - and now it's just fixed including that "bonus" thing with only showing the relevant spaces between first and last name?

That's pretty awesome -thanks A LOT Elaine! That does really make it way easier to work with authors names!

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Elaine wrote: "Regarding Marc's first feature request to make this page accessible by librarians even for GR authors, I'd like to get your feedback on where exactly to put the "similar names"

How ..."
yep, the combine page sounds like a good plan :)

I was just wondering if the similar authors on the combine page had been accomplished. I confess I'm not seeing it, but maybe I'm not looking in the right place.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "I was just wondering if the similar authors on the combine page had been accomplished. I confess I'm not seeing it, but maybe I'm not looking in the right place."

No, it doesn't seem to have been added yet for Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Authors.

Thanks, Lethe

Names Similar to [Author Name] is now live on all authors' combine pages. e.g. /book/combin...

rivka wrote: "Names Similar to [Author Name] is now live on all authors' combine pages. e.g. /book/combin..."

Yay! Thanks to all involved.

Great! Thank youuuu!

Thanks so much! That'll make a lot of work a lot of easier (and with less clicks and workarounds

Excellent, looks good. Many thanks to the GR team!