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Author with Multiple Names
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Joy
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Dec 21, 2007 12:11PM
I've been looking at Charles Pellegrino's Unearthing Atlantis. If you search on the title, there are four copies of what I am fairly sure by this point are the same book: the original 1991 hardcover (which I have right in front of me now), possibly a 1994 hardcover, a 1993 paperback, and a 2001 retitled paperback. I was about to combine these when I noticed that they were under two different names. The hardcovers are listed under Charles Pellegrino while the paperbacks are under Charles R. Pellegrino. Both names have a number of books under them, but I checked the cover photos available under both names and all but two show "Charles Pellegrino" rather than "Charles R. Pellegrino". (The two are Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Chariots for Apollo: Untold Story Behind the Race to the Moon.) I know there's a way to combine authors, but I'm still somewhat new and I'm not sure what to do when there's some books under one name and a some under another. If one was used predominantly, I would assume we would use that, but I'm unsure because of those other two. Anyone with more experience want to weigh in?
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I don't know if there's a "right" answer. Sometimes I wait for the AKA option that's to come. But, usually, I combine. In this case, I'd either put a R. in all or take the R. out of all, and then I'd combine. But, that's just me. I guess I/we should check the librarians' manual: http://www.goodreads.com/help/librarian
Mod
http://authorities.loc.gov/
In this case, it has Charles R. Pellegrino listed, so that would be my vote, regardless of the covers.
Thanks Rivka. I'd forgotten about that and haven't been checking. Will do so in the future!
Mod
Now I have to try to remember which authors I've recently consolidated without checking the LOC . . .
I was thinking the same thing. I'm not going to wrack my brains. I came upon them for a reason and I'm sure I will again. But, I will try to check the ones I remember. I sure hope the spelling I used is the correct as some books I've combined, changing the authors' names, have many, many editions.
Okay, I'm new to all this, so, first of all: "Hello!"I am running into this very issue with John Dudley Ball, who wrote most of his books as John Ball. I think, if I'm reading the LoC entries correctly, he is officially the former, but I worry that if I add Dudley into all of the listings in order to merge them, people will have difficulty when searching for just John (which is how he's mentioned on many of the book covers...)
I've only changed one (Johnny Get Your Gun) so far - wanted to get another opinion before I started messing around further :).
Any word on this AKA option?
Mod
I would go ahead and edit it. Adding a middle name won't interfere with searches -- anyone searching for "John Ball" will also pull up "John Dudley Ball."
The AKA option is perpetually 2-3 months away. ;) My impression, given how responsive GR usually is, is that it is relatively difficult to implement.
I've come up against a version of this problem with a classic author who wrote in the 19th century under her married name, Mrs Humphry Ward. Some modern editions instead use her own first names, Mary Augusta Ward, meaning there are different editions of the same novels with different author names. Does anyone know if the AKA option has come in, as this seems like the best way of handling this?
Mod
Thank you, Rivka - I'd like to go ahead and do that, but am just a bit worried that as she is much better known under her married name, people might have difficulty finding her if I combine the books under "Mary Augusta". Do you think that would be a problem or would most people look for the titles and find her anyway? Thanks for your help on this.:)
Mod
George Larson writes under the name Avery Dick - I have fixed this before but amazon has them listed as Avery Dick so I don't know if there is a fix for them or not.
rivka wrote: "We prefer to omit titles (including "Mrs."), so that was my main reasoning. I would think people would find books by title ok if they had trouble with her name."Thank you, Rivka - I'll go ahead and combine.
Sorry to be a pain, but unfortunately it seems the authors haven't combined properly, although I followed the normal process for this. The author name for all the books is now 'Mary Augusta Ward', but only the titles which were originally listed under that name show up on the author profile - the others have her listed as author but are not on her profile. Any ideas on what I can do to sort it out?
Mod
Kristen, any book exclusively published under Avery Dick should be listed under that name. We don't put Twain's works under Clemens. ;)
Kristen wrote: "George Larson writes under the name Avery Dick - I have fixed this before but amazon has them listed as Avery Dick so I don't know if there is a fix for them or not."You'll want to put this kind of information (the AKA stuff) in the author description, for both authors, with links if you can.
Thanks, Rivka, Mary Augusta Ward seems to have all her books in her profile now.:)
