Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

•Editions/translations of the book in other languages. Even though many translations differ significantly, we've made the decision to combine them all, and have people note the differences in their reviews.

Although generally this is a very good policy, I think this needs to specify possible exceptions.

For instance, a few of us were discussing this Here: This one is about the Bible.

Because of the incredible volume of translations(e.g.) and the vast amount of publications of many popular translation versions. Some of us have unofficially begun to separate/combine them primarily by "translation version". (I would leave this one as generic though Holy Bible) I think many people would use them by "translation version" and would be use to finding them this way. It also seems to be the most logical place to start in order to find all the rogue editions that aren't combined with anything. (*Some additional separating/combining might eventually be in order for some specific titles within a translation version). I have been doing some searching on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ and it seems to work really well this way. (although there is still a ton of "work" to be done to standardize the listings).
Should this be addressed in the manual in some way?

Needs a bit of cleanup -- removing words like "seems" and "unofficially" to be a statement of policy, rather than a suggestion. Anyone want to have a go?

sacred texts


•Sacred texts with unknown or ambiguous authors are to be listed with the author "Anonymous". Please list any editor(s) or translator(s) in secondary slots. Publishers should not be listed as authors.
�Basic Guidelines apply as to the Title field of any publication of a sacred text.
•sacred texts with an indefinitely numerous amount of translation versions within the same language (e.g. The Bible in English) should not be combined with unrelated or distinct translation versions.
•Partial versions or multiple translation versions combined in one book should only be combined with others containing the same.

All of that looks good, except I don't understand what the third bullet point means. Can that be rephrased and/or clarified, please?

Again, what are "indefinitely numerous" translations?

I am going to respond in the other thread because I am not certain regarding a simple clarification ready for addition in the Manual yet. Click here to read my full response: This one is about the Bible.
The question for now is whether this applies to "sacred texts" in general or whether it only applies to the Bible?

Depending on what this possible exception should apply to, it could be summarized or clarified something to the effect as:

•When Combining Sacred texts "Translation Versions" should be regarded as separate books. Unrelated or distinct translation versions should not be combined.

or

•When Combining editions of The Bible "Translation Versions" should be regarded as separate books. Unrelated or distinct "translation versions" should not be combined.

Ok. When y'all figure it out, give a holler. ;)

Was a final wording for this determined?

Nope it's pretty much a dead topic. I received zero feed back. On the upside I haven't noticed anyone combining these "wrong" since I started looking at them.
hopefully librarians will at least come ask if they are wondering why they are the way they are.

The only problem since I started that I have seen thus far, is after I completely went through the Larger "New King James Version" grouping ensuring only "anonymous" was in the main Author field, one librarian took "anonymous" out of the main Author field on a few of the titles

Ok. If y'all decide that something should be added to the manual, let me know.

Copied from Mikey's other thread, as a suggested replacement for his unclear third bullet point, per rivka's request:

Due to its extremely large number of translations and editions, The Bible is an exception to the usual rules for combining books into a single "work." For The Bible only, each "Translation Version" is regarded as a separate work. All editions of a given translation of The Bible should be combined to a single work, and distinct "translation versions" should not be combined. Thus, for example, all of the King James Versions (KJV) get combined, and all of the New International Versions (NIV) get combined, but the KJV should not be combined with the NIV. Similarly, as with other 2-in-1 books, all editions that include both the KJV and NIV should be combined with each other, but not with either the stand-alone KJV or NIV editions.

I am working on trying to clean up the New World Translations of the Bible and am unsure whether certain editions should be combined or left separate.

For example, there is a "With References" edition (/book/show/1...) which is separate from the standard (/book/show/2...).

Also, there is an "Revised" 2013 translation (/book/show/1...) which is separate from the old 1984 translation (/book/show/2...).

Does anyone have an input on whether these should be combined?

Keith wrote: "Copied from Mikey's other thread, as a suggested replacement for his unclear third bullet point, per rivka's request:

Due to its extremely large number of translations and editions, The Bible is a..."

This is definitely more clear than the original suggestion. Although, I still have questions (see message 11).

I would think "With References" is the same translation version and should be combined. The revision may or may not be a new translation version; both are specific to JW, so I suspect the latter is just a newer edition of the former, but I am not a subject-matter expert on JW exegesis, so I will defer to anyone who is. (ETA: which is to say that I think they should all be combined, but I'm not positive and suggest waiting for some consensus.)

Keith wrote: "I would think "With References" is the same translation version and should be combined..."

I agree. If they are the same translation version combine them.

I actually don't even think "with references" necessarily belongs in the title. If you work on "cleaning up" the Bible very much you will find that there are often many different types of descriptive words that belong perhaps in edition or maybe the description field but are not in the actual "title". Be careful though, because librarians in the past have tried to rename them all "Holy Bible" which is also incorrect. As discussed here: Mar 21, 2010 03:27AM
My opinion is the rule for "title" should be followed as best as possible as with any other book. So if the actual title is The Official Duct Tape Bible so be it. (this was an example that came up previously)

So what about non-English translations of the Bible?

نوید wrote: "So what about non-English translations of the Bible?"

I don’t have any suggestions. I am not familiar with how many separate and distinct translations there are in any given language other then English. How do you suppose they should be combined?

When I was working on cleaning up the listings I was specifically only dealing with English translations because there are over a hundred English translations and thousands of editions. I did not think it was correct to treat them all as one book as the normal procedure for translations. The most logical way to divide them, in my estimation, was by the specific translation version with each edition of any given version combined with the same translation version as previously stated.

It has been a long time since I looked at it closely so I don’t know what has become of all my efforts.

نوید wrote: "So what about non-English translations of the Bible?"

I'd say combine all editions/translations of a particular language.
I think only English is the exception with hundreds or sometimes even over a thousand editions of one specific translation of the Bible.

I know all Dutch editions were combined: /work/editio..., even though there are substantial differences between translations. (The substantial differences between translations is in general not a reason to keep books separate on GR. It was only because of the large numbers of editions, an exception was made for English editions of the Bible.) With only 37 Dutch editions here on GR, it is not difficult to find the right edition/translation.

Only when a language other than English also has more than hundreds/thousands editions of several translations, the same procedure as for the English editions should be followed in my opinion.

Hello!! I have been trying to combine two books (the same one) two different languages into one page for the first time and everytime I press the button it returns me to the author's page. It doesn't seem to be working. Am I doing something wrong? I've already read the instructions. Why is the combine editions button broken or not working for me?

Hi Dana Al-Basha,

You have to be a Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Librarian or a Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ Author to be able to use the combine function.

If you have two editions that needs to be combined, please post a new request in the Book Issues sub folder, as this thread is about Librarian Manual rule exceptions.