How to edit the contributors of an edition via the book detail page:
1) Open the book detail page:
1a) Mouse hover over the author name (if any) found under the title of the detail page. If no author is currently assigned to the book, there will be a blue "?" there. (If the primary contributors have already been editing and are waiting for Shelfari Librarian approval, the name will be in bold blue (liked to an author record) and will have an "!" after it.) Mouse-hover over that.The words "edit contributors" will appear to the right. Click on those words and Shelfari will take you to the contributor section on the detail page. That section will already be opened for your edits. The first entry will be automatically assigned as "author" and "primary." Please ensure that these are correct for your edit before continuing.
1b) If no author is listed, scroll down to the contributor section of the detail page. Mouse-hover over the section label and "edit this section" will appear to the right. Click on that and the contributor section will open as described in 1a)
2) Slowly type in the name of the contributor in the text box revealed under the words "Full Name." Shelfari will immediately start searching the existing author records to attempt to find a match. When you have finished typing, notice at the end of the text box, the progress circle may still be spinning. Wait for that to go away. Shelfari will display a list of possible matches from which you can select the appropriate one. Important: Do NOT anticipate Shelfari's completion of this auto-suggest feature. Simply wait until the suggestions have finished displaying - that list may refresh a few times. Move your cursor to the selection you prefer. Note: Watch your mouse indicator. Until it becomes a "pointer" as opposed to the text symbol (the "I" looking symbol), you will not be able to select anything. Once you have selected the correct name from the auto-suggest list, Shelfari will populate the text box with the name as displayed on the author record and will also give a confirmation-type message under the text box identifying the author record number and, if available, the title of the most popular book on that author's book list. If that information is NOT correct, erase what is in the text box and start over. If that information is correct, proceed to the next step. IMPORTANT: If you save this information when the wrong author is shown, the work will be placed on the book list for the wrong author. If you save this information when Shelfari has NOT displayed the hint described above (you didn't wait for Shelfari to finish the auto-suggest feature), the system will create a wholly new author record for this book. Again, it will not be put on the book list for the correct author.
3) Select the name you think is the correct one by moving your mouse over that name on the system-supplied list (that entry will be highlighted) and clicking. (I can't emphasize strongly enough that you need to wait for that small circle to stop spinning BEFORE you try to select an entry from the list.) You'll know you've done that correctly when the system prints in bold blue under that text box, the author that you selected. If it did NOT display that, backspace over the name in the text box and type the name in again.
In some cases, the author you need really isn't on the Shelfari catalog. In this instance, you will ignore the auto-suggested list that Shelfari has presented. Shelfari will put that confirmation message under the text entry box as "A new author has been added ..." This is the only way to create an author record. As in all things Shelfari, the book (work) comes first. Therefore, no author record can be created unless a work already exists on the catalog to which that author/contributor may be linked.
4) When the system has displayed the record you want, ensure that the role, primary indicator, and "additional information" is correct. Ensure that all primary contributors are sequenced appropriately. All this means (really) is decide who is #1 - that is the name that will be used for author-sort on member shelves. The rule of thumb is to order primary contributors in the same way as they are found on the cover of a book or (there may be some differences among covers), in the case of anthologies for example, list them in the order of the content contributed reflected by the Table of Contents. If other primary contributors are not authors or creators of the specific work, they should not be #1. You want for the #1 position to be held by the name which would be used by a library to decide how to stock it on a bookshelf.
5) Select the role the contributor played in producing THIS book. It doesn't matter is a person is associated with the work in some other way. It only matters if the person had a role to play in producing this specific title. If clarification other than the name of the role is needed, enter that information in the text box provided. The text box under a contributor name is NOT for biographical information. That text box is intended for use when clarification is needed about the role played by the contributor on this specific work. (All biographical information should be put in the bio section and whatever is appropriate in the unbound section of the Author Record for the contributor.)
6) If appropriate, select "primary" for the contributor. The "primary" designation is used ONLY for sort-by-author purposes. It doesn't have any impact on the list of books for the author record in question. It is also helpful for Shelfari Members to "see" some contributors on search results, for example. Primary Contributors display just below the title on the book detail page and, therefore, also appear on search results and other displays where that information is presented. The rule of thumb is that someone should be "primary" only if they performed the exact same role on EVERY edition combined in the combined version of the work.
Note: There are some instances where NO contributor should be selected as primary. Again, "primary" is for author-sort purposes. Reference books such as encyclopedias, for example, need no primary contributor. The shelf display author-sort will, then, put all the books with no primary contributor at the end of the whole list. This keeps them from mucking up the rest of the list and, kinda, keeps all these things in one place when sorting the shelf (or list view) by author. Other examples of the appropriate absence of a primary contributor are sacred books such as The Bible, The Torah, The Koran, etc.
7) Ensure that all primary contributors are sequenced appropriately. All this means (really) is decide who is #1 - that is the name that will be used for author-sort on member shelves. The rule of thumb is to order primary contributors in the same way as they are found on the cover of a book or (there may be some differences among covers), in the case of anthologies for example, list them in the order of the content contributed reflected by the Table of Contents. If other primary contributors are not authors or creators of the specific work, they should not be #1. You want for the #1 position to be held by the name which would be used by a library to decide how to stock it on a bookshelf.
8) Press "save changes."
Watch your edits list (from your home page) to see when this request has been approved. (Approval time depends on the how large the queue is and how many Librarians are available.) Once you see that, redisplay the book page and the author's name will appear under the title in bold blue. "Blue" always means "link" on Shelfari so you can click on that name to see the author record and the list of books associated with that author.
When you press "SAVE" after editing the contributor section, the system will indicate that the edit has been submitted to the Shelfari Librarians for approval if any of the edits added or changed the primary indicators. Non-primary indicated contributor edits are not subject to review.
The system will, before approval, go ahead and put the primary contributors under the title on the book detail page and will put a "(!)" after each name. This is the notification that these are still subject to review and have not (yet) been approved. In addition, the system will go ahead and put the book on the book lists for every author record associated with the book - regardless of whether that contributor was indicated as primary.
All the contributor names will be hot-linked immediately after the edit is saved. These links will lead to the author records used (or created) as a result of your edit of this section.
