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Policies & Practices > punctuation in book titles with multiple elements

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message 1: by okyrhoe (new)

okyrhoe | 57 comments What is the preferred punctuation for separating two or more elements in the book title field, for editions that contain multiple works?

Eg, an edition containing three novellas: full stops, forward slashes, commas, or colons?


message 2: by rivka, Former Moderator (last edited Dec 04, 2013 09:59AM) (new)

rivka | 45177 comments Mod
I don't believe we have an established preferred option. Maybe we should, if we can get enough librarians to chime in on this.

Personally, I prefer forward slashes.

Edit: As other have mentioned, with spaces preceding and following the slashes.


message 3: by Scott (new)

Scott | 8696 comments I've been using forward slashes surrounded by a space (to mark that they are separate works, and that the slash isn't part of the title.) I was under the impression that this was the preferred option, but I don't remember where I first saw it.


Experiment BL626 | 358 comments Same here. Been using forward slashes.


message 5: by L.C. (new)

L.C. Scott | 4 comments How about semicolons?


message 6: by Monique (new)

Monique (kadiya) | 1097 comments Actually, those examples by Kariema are ones I really like. Forward slashes for works that are bundled but do not have a "collection title". Commas for works that have a "collection title".


message 7: by Vicky (new)

Vicky (librovert) | 2462 comments Monique wrote: "Forward slashes for works that are bundled but do not have a "collection title". Commas for works that have a "collection title"."

In a perfect world, I like this as well.

But in practice, I feel like we should have one rule for all collections to follow. I'm a fan of the forward slash because it's less likely than a comma to be misconstrued as part of the title.


message 8: by Koenraad (new)

Koenraad (koenraadkelemen) | 6989 comments Like Scott, I use forward slashes surrounded by a space.


message 9: by okyrhoe (last edited Dec 04, 2013 02:06PM) (new)

okyrhoe | 57 comments When using forward slashes, what happens in the "sort by title" field, when the titles begin with articles in the separate elements between the slashes?

For "The First Work / The Second Work / The Third Work" - how do I enter the "sort by title" information for that?


message 10: by Vicky (new)

Vicky (librovert) | 2462 comments okyrhoe wrote: "When using forward slashes, what happens in the "sort by title" field, when the titles begin with articles in the separate elements between the slashes?

For "The First Work / The Second Work / The..."


The title doesn't know that it's actually multiple titles, so the only article that causes issues for sorting is the first "The." The usual sort by rules apply, so:

First Work / The Second Work / The Third Work, The

OR

First Work, The / The Second Work / The Third Work


message 11: by okyrhoe (new)

okyrhoe | 57 comments Vicky wrote: "First Work, The / The Second Work / The Third Work"

I think I find this option less confusing, so I'll go with that.

Thanks!


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