Group editions of the same book under one entry (work + edition model)

[scootsy]

What would you like Grimmory to do?

It would be cool if Grimmory grouped different editions of the same book under a single entry instead of treating each one as its own top-level book. The library would be organized around the work (the actual story), with each edition as one of the productions of that work that happens to be in your library.

Rough idea on the metadata side: work-level stuff is what's always true (title, author, series, genres, moods). Edition-level stuff is what varies per production (format, narrator, ISBN, file, publish date for that specific edition, abridged flag, etc.). Some things like synopsis or content rating could be inherited from the work but overridable per edition if needed.

I'm not the first person to think about books this way. OpenLibrary, Hardcover, BIBFRAME, and FRBR all use some version of a work + edition split. I'm sure other people might disagree or do it differently, but to me it just feels like a cleaner way to think about books that come in multiple formats or versions.

What problem does this solve for you?

In my library I have a bunch of editions of the same book. For Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone I've got the standard ebook, the Jim Kay illustrated edition, the Stephen Fry audiobook, the Jim Dale audiobook, and a full-cast graphic audio production. All of them show up as separate top-level entries, but underneath they're really just different productions of the same work. Same story, same author, same series, just different formats or different productions.

Cherry on top for me: this would give Grimmory a natural place to handle aligned readalouds whenever that support lands down the road. If a work has both an ebook edition and an audiobook edition with an alignment between them, the work page could just surface a "readaloud available" indicator. Without the work concept, there isn't really a clean place to put that.

Anything else?

here is just a simple mockup of the idea:

work.+.edition.split.mockup.mp4

Want to help out?

I'm happy to help test and give feedback

Before submitting

• I've searched existing discussions and this hasn't been suggested yet
• I've reviewed this report and have completed it as fully as I can