Missing out other authors when item is added by ISBN

Leonard Wamakote
When using the feature of adding a Zotero item by identifier (ISBN), only the first author is captured in the database. In case of a book with multiple authors, one has to manually type in the rest of the authors. Is there a way of going about this problem?
  • adamsmith
    no - the problem is the data from worldcat (which is used to retrieve the information for ISBNs) - right now there doesn't seem to be an easy way to address that.
  • ajlyon
    But do take a look and make sure that WorldCat is showing only the first author. There has also been discussion of switching to LoC for such data, but I don't know how feasible that is.
  • adamsmith
    ajlyon - the problem is not the data displayed on Worldcat, which, while somewhat inconsistent, usually has multiple authors, but the data Zotero gets from Worldcat (I believe it's the RIS) which consistently only lists the first author. Maybe someone can have a look at the worldcat translator.
  • fbennett
    I don't have time to look at the code myself, but when I visit this page, clicking on the Zotero book icon gives only the first author, as per bug description, while clicking on "Cite/Export", and then "Export to Endnote" button triggers a Zotero fetch of the item that includes both authors.

    So an easy fix for this translator might be possible.
  • ajlyon
    It seems that the WorldCat translator uses the ContextObject nodes in the page; as we know, ContextObjects (in or outside of spans) don't do multiple authors.

    As Frank mentioned, we can get the RIS via addresses like: http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/560279901?page=endnote&client=worldcat.org-detailed_record

    This ought to be a quick fix, but I haven't tried rewriting the translator. It's too bad that it needs to be rewritten, since WorldCat is embedding metadata already. If only COinS weren't dead; it could use some patches, and this is probably the most urgent one.
  • ajlyon
    I ran into this again and decided that the RIS output isn't much better (or, it may be worse). The WorldCat RIS doesn't include diacritical marks, so I'd rather use the COinS.

    Zotero supports using multiple authors in COinS, as I discovered while writing the CTX (ContextObject in XML) translator. If someone contacts WorldCat and asks them to include all the authors in their COinS, the problem should go away.
  • noksagt
    edited September 23, 2010
    Don't know how I missed this thread, but I contacted Bob Robertson-Boyd at WorldCat about this issue back in May of 2009. It is on their list, but be said it'd be fall (of 2009) before they can look into it again. An additional ping might not hurt...

    See also http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/7221/multiple-authors-in-worldcat/#Comment_31932
  • ajlyon
    This would be nice to bring back up with the Worldcat folks if anyone has some contacts. No reason we should be missing these data.
  • ajlyon
    Recently posted again at: http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/19008/

    Since it worked well to get COinS re-added after they disappeared last month, I appealed via Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ajlyon/status/99128889007276032
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