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1unicoherent
So I belong to the ultb group and someone started up a discussion asking people what book they would say was their absolute most favorite out of all the ultbs in their collection, if they really really had to choose just one. Of course everybody replied saying "I could never choose just one! So my top 5 favorites are…" But that's irrelevant to my mission here. For you see, MY answer was that if I had to choose, I would choose one a two-volume set of handbound books I made containing digital photographs I had taken that I had printed onto organza fabric and sandwiched into paper window frames. The point is, I said that those (which I considered a single item since they would not retain their meaning if taken alone) would be my favorite, BUT they were not in my collection because they were not published books so they were obviously not on LibraryThing. And I got vehement responses telling me that one-of-a-kind handbound books had every right to be listed on LibraryThing, and I could (and should) add them myself.
I was advised to post to your group asking for any tips you could give me about cataloguing handbound books since it was assumed that some of you have gone through the process.
I myself went through the general process of adding a book manually with a published book so so that I would know what it consisted of. (Although it was published, it had to be added manually because it could not be found in any of the sources LT is able is able to search. This is because it is written in Chinese and it is the type of book that a University would not own (it is a guide to learning how to swear in English), and all but one of the Chinese language sources on LT are University libraries.)
After seeing what adding a book manually consists of, I do have some specific questions, both about these 2 particular books, and about some other handbound books I have made.
1) What would I enter into the "publication" field? I'm assuming I would enter something along the lines of "personal handbound book", but I was wondering if there existed a specific phrase/wording that is considered to be the "proper" or "official" designation of such a book – i.e., is there a LT equivalent to the MLA Handbook? What would you suggest I enter?
2) I mentioned that I consider the 2 books to be a set – a single work. What is the procedure regarding single books published in multiple physical volumes? Is each volume added as a separate book?
3) I have created an internet version of these books as well, that I consider to likewise be sort of integral to the whole endeavor. Does this mean that what I have made falls outside the bounds of what can really be considered a "book" since it is some sort of multimedia conglomeration? If you think the book(s) still count as book(s), should I list the internet version of the book as a separate entry, or should I just include the url somewhere in the description of the main entry?
4) The books I've been discussing contain no internal text, but their covers bear English-language titles. One of my other books, however, also contains no text, but in this case the title is not a word belonging to any language (the title is "mth"). Thus the book contains no real language whatsoever. I feel that it simply does not _have_ a "primary language", but I do not know if it is ok to leave the primary language field blank. And even if I DID leave it blank, that would not inform people that the book had no language – it would merely make them think that the person entering the data had failed to fill out that field properly. I mentioned this on the ultb group, and someone said I should I list its primary language as English because that is my own native language. What do people think of that? I wish there were a way to select "other" and enter the text "contains no language" into the field, but alas, that is not possible. What ideas do you folks have regarding this situation?
5) I have made books whose content is not of my creation. I talked a little bit about this in the ultb group, and they said I should list myself as author but use the little pull-down menu and change my role from "author" to "editor" and then list the name of the person who created the content of the book in the "other authors" field. Well ok, that's all well and good, but what if I made a physical version of a webcomic whose author never reveals his (or her?) name anywhere? Not even a pseudonym or username or alias.
6) I know a pretty damn good deal about copyright law, and I know that I broke no laws when I took that webcomic, which is copyrighted material not belonging to me, and made a book out of it solely for personal use. But what happens if I try to catalogue such a book on LT? The contents were used without permission from the copyright owner. If it's a personal object, fine, but does listing the book on the site change the nature of the object so that it is no longer personal? What I am essentially asking is: is it LEGAL to catalogue such a book on LT?
Ok, I think those are all my questions for now (as if they're not a doozy already!). Hopefully you can help me out a bit.
I was advised to post to your group asking for any tips you could give me about cataloguing handbound books since it was assumed that some of you have gone through the process.
I myself went through the general process of adding a book manually with a published book so so that I would know what it consisted of. (Although it was published, it had to be added manually because it could not be found in any of the sources LT is able is able to search. This is because it is written in Chinese and it is the type of book that a University would not own (it is a guide to learning how to swear in English), and all but one of the Chinese language sources on LT are University libraries.)
After seeing what adding a book manually consists of, I do have some specific questions, both about these 2 particular books, and about some other handbound books I have made.
1) What would I enter into the "publication" field? I'm assuming I would enter something along the lines of "personal handbound book", but I was wondering if there existed a specific phrase/wording that is considered to be the "proper" or "official" designation of such a book – i.e., is there a LT equivalent to the MLA Handbook? What would you suggest I enter?
2) I mentioned that I consider the 2 books to be a set – a single work. What is the procedure regarding single books published in multiple physical volumes? Is each volume added as a separate book?
3) I have created an internet version of these books as well, that I consider to likewise be sort of integral to the whole endeavor. Does this mean that what I have made falls outside the bounds of what can really be considered a "book" since it is some sort of multimedia conglomeration? If you think the book(s) still count as book(s), should I list the internet version of the book as a separate entry, or should I just include the url somewhere in the description of the main entry?
4) The books I've been discussing contain no internal text, but their covers bear English-language titles. One of my other books, however, also contains no text, but in this case the title is not a word belonging to any language (the title is "mth"). Thus the book contains no real language whatsoever. I feel that it simply does not _have_ a "primary language", but I do not know if it is ok to leave the primary language field blank. And even if I DID leave it blank, that would not inform people that the book had no language – it would merely make them think that the person entering the data had failed to fill out that field properly. I mentioned this on the ultb group, and someone said I should I list its primary language as English because that is my own native language. What do people think of that? I wish there were a way to select "other" and enter the text "contains no language" into the field, but alas, that is not possible. What ideas do you folks have regarding this situation?
5) I have made books whose content is not of my creation. I talked a little bit about this in the ultb group, and they said I should list myself as author but use the little pull-down menu and change my role from "author" to "editor" and then list the name of the person who created the content of the book in the "other authors" field. Well ok, that's all well and good, but what if I made a physical version of a webcomic whose author never reveals his (or her?) name anywhere? Not even a pseudonym or username or alias.
6) I know a pretty damn good deal about copyright law, and I know that I broke no laws when I took that webcomic, which is copyrighted material not belonging to me, and made a book out of it solely for personal use. But what happens if I try to catalogue such a book on LT? The contents were used without permission from the copyright owner. If it's a personal object, fine, but does listing the book on the site change the nature of the object so that it is no longer personal? What I am essentially asking is: is it LEGAL to catalogue such a book on LT?
Ok, I think those are all my questions for now (as if they're not a doozy already!). Hopefully you can help me out a bit.
2Katya0133
First, I would probably have posed these questions in the "Librarians who LibraryThing" forum, since you're essentially asking cataloging questions. Happily, I'm a member of this group, too (even if I don't check LT every day), so I'll tell you what I can.
LibraryThing records are based on MARC records, which are the standard for library cataloging, so I'm going to answer your questions based on what a librarian would say. That said, how you enter your book is pretty much up to you, so you're welcome to take or leave my advice as you see fit.
1. For a one-of-a-kind book like the ones you're describing, the place and location of publication would be skipped, leaving only the date in the publication field. (In the LT manual entry page, this actually means that you'd end up with the same information in "Publication date" and "Publication.")
2. Under "number of volumes," you can write 2. If you have page numbers, you can add those or leave that field blank if your volume's pages are unnumbered.
3. This is really more of a philosophical question, so it's entirely up to you. However, if you catalog both and combine them, will that make it technically no longer a ULTB?
4. I would leave it blank, but you're right that it doesn't necessarily communicate that the book is actually wordless. Perhaps you should add that information in a note or a tag? (The fact that you're a native speaker of English has no bearing on the matter.)
5. You're not required to list an author if the content doesn't have one (or if you don't know his or her name).
6. IANAL, but I don't believe that cataloging such a book changes the fair use status of the material in the book, unless you were to distribute that material in some way (and even then, the cataloging of the book would be incidental to its distribution, I would think).
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
LibraryThing records are based on MARC records, which are the standard for library cataloging, so I'm going to answer your questions based on what a librarian would say. That said, how you enter your book is pretty much up to you, so you're welcome to take or leave my advice as you see fit.
1. For a one-of-a-kind book like the ones you're describing, the place and location of publication would be skipped, leaving only the date in the publication field. (In the LT manual entry page, this actually means that you'd end up with the same information in "Publication date" and "Publication.")
2. Under "number of volumes," you can write 2. If you have page numbers, you can add those or leave that field blank if your volume's pages are unnumbered.
3. This is really more of a philosophical question, so it's entirely up to you. However, if you catalog both and combine them, will that make it technically no longer a ULTB?
4. I would leave it blank, but you're right that it doesn't necessarily communicate that the book is actually wordless. Perhaps you should add that information in a note or a tag? (The fact that you're a native speaker of English has no bearing on the matter.)
5. You're not required to list an author if the content doesn't have one (or if you don't know his or her name).
6. IANAL, but I don't believe that cataloging such a book changes the fair use status of the material in the book, unless you were to distribute that material in some way (and even then, the cataloging of the book would be incidental to its distribution, I would think).
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions.
