how accurate is "publisher" data - how many publishers are there anyway ?

[cybmole]

I keep a lot of expired library loan metadata in calibre ( as a way of knowing what I've previously borrowed - because Overdrive cannot keep a history)

I noticed that other day that I now have over 400 different "publishers" in my calibre library tag browser - the entries look mostly sensible but why so many?
- do publishers create a myriad of off-shoots & then abandon them a few books later?.
- do publishers "die" for tax reasons & get reborn with new names ?

it would be reasonable to assume that calibre picks up the metadata from the library books OK, and that library books, being retail editions, should not have junk metadata

[drjenkins]

Try doing an Advanced Search at a library, like FLP, and select the pull-down menu for Publishers.

http://freelibrary.lib.overdrive.com...ncedSearch.htm

Right off the bat you'll see duplicate listings for what should be the same publisher:

Andrews McMeel Publishing
Andrews McMeel Publishing LLC
Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC

There are eight entries for variations on Penguin, five for HarperCollins, etc.

It's getting to be as confusing as production companies for movies. For instance, The Running Man by Stephen King (as Richard Bachman) is listed as:

A SIGNET BOOK
Published by New American Library, a division of
Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane, London W8 5TZ, England Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2 Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182–190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand

Different countries aside, what publisher should be in the metadata? A SIGNET BOOK, SIGNET, New American Library, Penguin Putnam Inc, or something else? The metadata embedded in the book when new was Penguin Group US, which is not even in the litany of publishers listed in the book.

My library has so many variations on publishers that searching by publisher has limited usefulness.

[cybmole]

thanks - I am also seeing many variations of each name like you say,
I have a authors: publishers: authors ratio of under 2:1 i.e. almost as many publishers as I have authors in my library.

I'm tempted to hide the field completely in tag browser but I don't see a way to do that.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by cybmole

I'm tempted to hide the field completely in tag browser but I don't see a way to do that.

Right-click on publisher in the tag browser then choose "Hide category Publisher".

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by chaley

Right-click on publisher in the tag browser then choose "Hide category Publisher".

duh! - so easy when you know how - thanks.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by cybmole

I keep a lot of expired library loan metadata in calibre ( as a way of knowing what I've previously borrowed - because Overdrive cannot keep a history)

I noticed that other day that I now have over 400 different "publishers" in my calibre library tag browser - the entries look mostly sensible but why so many?
- do publishers create a myriad of off-shoots & then abandon them a few books later?.
- do publishers "die" for tax reasons & get reborn with new names ?

it would be reasonable to assume that calibre picks up the metadata from the library books OK, and that library books, being retail editions, should not have junk metadata

It is all GIGO.
The coders do what they will.
I even noticed that with Baen (a major source of my Library content )

Baen
Baen Books
Baen Pub
Baen Publishing Enterprises

My personal choice is not for the Parent Publisher, but for the Publishers Imprint as used on the book titlepage (and that is almost never correct in those metadata sources):

Baen Fantasy
Baen Science Fiction
Baen

BTW Coding content from House stylesheets seems to suffer the same lack of Quality of consistency.

[theducks]

I keep Publisher hidden.

Who says 'I will read a Baen Book today'?

I use Publisher to keep track of editions (mostly, paper)
I have quite a few of the original publisher paperbacks of books that are now being re-released (and sometimes edited) by Baen.
In this case, tracking Publisher IS important to me.

To others, it is First Publisher
YMMV

BTW
When an authors name appears as Publisher: I change it to 'Author Published'

[Fiat_Lux]

Originally Posted by cybmole

do publishers create a myriad of off-shoots & then abandon them a few books later?.

Due to the economics of book publishing, the imprint was probably sold after two or three books were published.

The usual situation is that a publisher acquires a string of imprints, and issues one or two books with that imprint, to preserve trademark and related rights.

do publishers "die" for tax reasons & get reborn with new names ?

Publishing companies have a capitalization of one million dollars, by starting out with a capitalization of one billion dollars.