Lua Code:
DATAMINED_BOOKS = DATAMINED_DATA
Just gives you another way to look up the table pointed to by DATAMINED_DATA.
If you want to make a copy of DATAMINED_DATA into DATAMINED_BOOKS and then do operations on it, use either ZO_ShallowTableCopy or ZO_DeepTableCopy. Iirc, the deep copy preserves any metatables while shallow only copies the actual data. (I think you knew this, just expanding for completeness).
As for the other issue, I'd have to monkey around with it to see for myself and I dont have time today
