internetarchive / internetarchive/openlibrary

Create interface for splitting conflated author names

Open
#5,739 14 comments 6 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
Lead: @RayBB Module: Authors Needs: Breakdown Priority: 2 Type: Feature Request
Dominant language
Python
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Forks
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Avg merge
2d 19h
Merged PRs (30d)
138

Description

Author renaming is really tedious when you have a name that needs to be split into several names. For example, a bad import might create an author with the name `John Smith Jane Doe Roger Anderson` which should have been three separate author records, one each for `John Smith`, `Jane Doe`, and `Roger Anderson`.

### Current Process

Sometimes this author only has one associated work, which makes an easy fix. First, I identify the author identifier for one of the three authors, for example `John Smith`. I edit the work record and add the other two of the three authors, for example by adding `Jane Doe` and `Roger Anderson` underneath `John Smith Jane Doe Roger Anderson`. Then I go back to the original author record and rename the author name from `John Smith Jane Doe Roger Anderson` to `John Smith`. Then I merge this record with the correct, existing author record I found for `John Smith`.

I've been getting a fair amount of errors preventing me from deleting an author record, so I've been merging instead. If there were less errors, I'd be fine with adding all three authors separately and then deleting the original incorrect author record.

The problem with this approach comes when that original record is attached to many works. Then this process becomes super tedious and error-prone. I have to open every work record and repeat the process.

### Proposal

I like how the "add author" interface on the Work Details tab on a work record lets me look up authors. Can we create an "author renaming" interface that lets me do the same process, but which would apply to all affected works?

![image](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/85025703/136254976-2559609d-76db-46a0-9cfb-6c60e24fb443.png)

### Stakeholders

@libjenner @seabelis @RayBB @jimman2003

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

The issue names no files or tests. Start by reviewing the existing author lookup flow in the Work Details tab and tracing how an author is attached to works. Done means a renaming interface can split one conflated author into several author records and apply the changes across all affected works without editing each work manually.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
full-stack
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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