Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

I went in to pull up the list for some Disney stuff and was surprised to see so many different ways that Disney is listed as an author. Then I kept scrolling through it and scrolling through it and went

Should we be trying to combine them all under only a few 'author' names? Perhaps NOT A BOOK-ing the DVDs, VHS, and CDs?

Looking for some consensus (and maybe some help) before beginnning this Herculean task.

Here's what I've found so far:

Mouse Works
Mouse Works Staff
Walt Disney
Walt Disney Productions
Walt Disney Studios
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney's
Walt Disney Records
Walt Disney Studio
Walt Disney Production
Walt Disney Music Company
WALT DISNEY (EDITOR)
Walt Disney Editors
Walt Disney Corporation
Walt Disney Pictures Presents
Walt Disney présente
Walt Disney Studio Staff
Walt Disney Company - Buena Vista
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Buena Vista Home Video
Buena Vista Records
Walt Disney Enterprises
Walt Disney Company Staff
Walt Disney Feature Animators
Walt Disney Home Video
Walt Disney Feature Animation Department
Walt Disney Staff
Walt Disney Productions Limited
Walt Disney Productions Staff
Walt Disney Computer Software
Disney Press
Disney Book Club
Disney Storybook Artists
Disney Productions
Disney/Pixar
Disney
Disney Institute
Disney's Wonderful World of Reading
Disney Modern Publishing
Disney Screen Caps
Disney Enterprises Inc
Disney Channel
Disney Enterprise
Disney Books
DISNEY LBD
Disney Pixar
Disney Publishing Worldwide
Disney Staff
Disney Editions
Disney Book Club Staff
Disney Csdisn 60897J
Disney's Small World Library
Disney Cd500 8608977
Disney Cd500 8600997
Disney-Pixar
Disney Princesses
Disney Enterprises, Inc.
DISNEY - PIXAR
Disney DVD
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios
Pixar Disney
Pixar Animators
Pixar Animation Studios Staff

... and there are MORE, I just couldn't get the second page to load to put them on here.

YIKES!

Yikes, indeed.

The sad part is, I looked at a few of the DVD and VHS items, and they have bindings and page numbers!

It looks like people are trying to use GR to track their video collections as well. Maybe Otis & Co. need to start a sister site. ;)

The two CD ones are easy. They become NOT A BOOK -- they're audio-only.

My suggestion for the rest is to merge all the Disney ones to either Walt Disney Staff or Disney Staff, and all the Pixar ones to Pixar (or maybe Pixar Staff). The hybrids can be combined into Pixar Disney (or maybe Pixar/Disney or Pixar/Disney Staff?)

Also, what Isis said!

Wow. I'm not quite sure about NOT-A-BOOKing the DVDs and stuff, after all this is Goodreads not some kind of movie database.

When it comes to children's books based on Disney movies, I remember from my childhood that their actually had their authors' names put somewhere in the small print. I checked and, to my suprise, WorldCat actually has the proper authors. So I would go for using these names instead of "Walt Disney" or whatever. Still, I'm quite aware of the fact that some people would still search for "Walt Disney's books", so maybe we should leave him as an additional author? And once again, in case of some titles and when it is impossible to state who's the author of the book, WorldCat suggests "Walt Disney Company". Sounds reasonable, as these were not written by Walt Disney himself.

Anna wrote: "I'm not quite sure about NOT-A-BOOKing the DVDs and stuff, after all this is Goodreads not some kind of movie database."

Which is exactly the point of NAB, no?

rivka wrote: "Anna wrote: "I'm not quite sure about NOT-A-BOOKing the DVDs and stuff, after all this is Goodreads not some kind of movie database."

Which is exactly the point of NAB, no?"

Certainly it is. I didn't make myself clear, I'm rather for deleting the stuff. (Note, that it was the solution adopted with this problem.)

And once again, in case of some titles and when it is impossible to state who's the author of the book, WorldCat suggests "Walt Disney Company". Sounds reasonable, as these were not written by Walt Disney himself.

As far as I can tell none of the books listed under Walt Disney were written by him.

see comment #57 (and following) in this thread.

Anna wrote: "I'm rather for deleting the stuff. (Note, that it was the solution adopted with this problem.)"

Deleting items with ISBNs drawn from Amazon is an exercise in futility. Those items had no ISBNs.

Rivka, I see your point and I admit, NAB is a better solution.

Ok, so what I'm seeing is:

Create only one author name for all books with the Disney name, Walt Disney Company. In addition, if an actual author can be found for a book, then WDC gets moved to the second author position, the actual author gets pole position.

Books under names like Mouse House and Disney Book Club should go under the master name above, but these edition names can be moved to another field, like publisher, to help keep them grouped.

All CD, DVD and VHS editions, as well as posters, stationary, calendars, etc. will be marked NOT A BOOK to help clear them out of the db.

Agreed?
Anything I'm leaving out?

Thanks for your input everyone!
I'll probably start tackling this later today.

I like your suggestion Carolyn, but I have a question.

Does this mean that Walt Disney needs to be changed to Walt Disney Company? Again, I can't find any information that shows he ever wrote any of the books.

If so, I think we should keep the 'author info' currently given for Walt Disney, since to some people they are practically synonymous.

Yes, under this system, even the author marked Walt Disney will get changed to Walt Disney Company. I would only keep him as a specific author if we find any works that are actually something he wrote (autobiography, papers, etc.)

I agree that the Walt Disney bio info should stay as primary on the Walt Disney Company author info. Someone who is up on it can add extra info to the bio later, like when the Co. added Buena Vista or Pixar or any of those, if it's relevant to the books.

Sound good?

Edited to add:
Disney Institute is staying as an individual author - they have a published book on customer service.

Sounds great to me. Thanks for taking this on, Carolyn!

Using this to pull up more author links to change (easier to have them as reference this way)

Disney Pixar Artists
Disney Cd500 8607847
Disney Adventures
Disney Cd500 8607697
Disney Enterprises Inc
Disney Pixar Leap Frog
Disney Cd500 8609057
Disney Press Staff
Disney Art
Disney Storyboard Artists
Disney Cd500 8600797
Disney Archives Art
Disney Cd500 8607967
Disney Mini
Disneybooks
Disney Global Artists
Disney Pixar
Disney W
Disney- Mouse Works
Disney Mouse Works
Disneys Hot Shots Cmbvs 9142
Disney Book
Disney Studio Artists Animators
Disneys Hot Shots Cmbvs 8982
Disney Storybook Artisits
Disney Jewel Case Cddisn 60847J
Disney World
MOUSEWORKS
Studio Mouse
Studio Mouse Editorial
Disney Studio Artists Animators
Disney Studios

Disney Cd500 8607827
Disney Cd500 8607027
Disney Soundtrack Csdisn 60911
Disney Art Pool
Disney's Global Design Group
Disney Csdisn 60639J
Disney Cd500 8606402
Disney Read Along Cd500 8604962
Disney Cd500 8612017
Disney Animation Staff
Disney Witch
Disney Read-Along
Disney Cddisn 60639J
Disney Song Factory Cddisn 860978
Disney Song Factory Cddisn 860978J
Disney Enterprises Inc.
Disney Licensed Publishing
Disney Enterprises and Pixar
Disney Cd500 8607472
Disney easy reader
Disney Publishing Creative Development Staff
Disney Csdisn 60418J
Disney Read-Along Cd500 8605822
Disneyland
Disney Christmas Csdisn 60248
Disney Cd500 8607837
Disney Read-Along Cd500 8612742

Well, it looks like most of the above 'authors' have been vaporized, except for the following two.

Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Disney Global Artists

And of course the Disney Institute that Carolyn noted previously.

Whew!
Ok, all the author names are combined under Walt Disney Company, except for a couple that either stand alone as authors or need some more looking into.

NOT A BOOKed a whole bunch of music soundtracks and softward, but had a question about the 'poster' and 'postcard' books - should those be considered books of artwork (like some illustrators have), or deleted? Little bit of a slippery slope here...input welcome!

Now onwards to the task of sorting and combining under the WDC name!

Posters and postcards are generally NAB'd, I think.

Generally yes, but I'm talking about some of them that are like "Classic illustrations in print for the first time" type things... Or just books of Disney stills with postcard stuff on the back...

Hmm. I hear your point.