[COMPLETE] Query - two series for same book

[albie_of_nonfic]

I'm a librarian looking for advice: is it possible to put the same book in two different series?

The book Qantas at War was originally published in 1965 as part of the 'Story of Qantas Airlines' trilogy. It was then reprinted in 1996 as part of the five-book set 'Qantas Foundation Memorial Book Set'. Is it possible to create these two series and put this book in both? What will appear on the screen? (I haven't attempted anything as yet).

Ideally, the 1965 edition would go in the 'SQA' set, and the 1996 edition in the 'QFMBS' set. Can this be done?

Thanks

[Michael]

Just a heads up, it sounds like this thread really belongs in the Questions (not edit requests) or Questions (from Librarians only) sections as it is not an edit request, but I'll try to answer it here anyhow.

The short answer is yes, a work can be put into multiple series if applicable, however only one series will show up at the top of the page. For example, see The Hunt for Red October. At the top of the page it show a link to the "Jack Ryan Series". That's because this is listed on the work record as being the primary series, but if you look further down on the page the book details section identifies two additional series that this work is included in: Jack Ryan Universe Series and Jack Ryan Universe (Publication Order) Series.

Because the series is added at the "work" level and not the "edition" level, I don't believe it is possible to include only the 1965 edition in the SQA series and the 1996 edition in the QFMBS. Since the two books you described are different editions of the same book they'll be combined into the same work, and both will show up in both series, with a link to the most popular edition showing up on the series page.

The second thing to consider is whether you really want to create two different series in the first place. Not having read the books, it sounds like it should just be one series, including all five books from the QFMBS set. But if you have good reason to say one series really is a distinct subset of the larger series, you can do that. Going back to the Jack Ryan example above, the Jack Ryan Series only includes books about Jack Ryan, the main protagonist. But another series of books taking place in the same universe was also written focusing instead on Jack Ryan's son. Because of the distinction, two series were made, one for Jack Ryan and one for his son called the Jack Ryan, Jr. Series, and then a third series was made called the Jack Ryan Universe that includes both subseries. You'll also note that it is fairly common to include two series with the exact same books in a different order, one that follows a suggested reading order going by internal chronology, and one that follows the publication order when that differs from the suggested reading order, as many readers will disagree about the best order to read a series.

I hope those answers help.

[albie_of_nonfic]

Thanks for the answers, and the heads up.

Apologies for the misplacing of this question.