Which author name to keep?

[Burkhard]

While searching for a book by Tim Maudlin,
I noticed that there are two pages for the
same person. (Tim Maudlin and Tim W. Maudlin).
I know about the method to join the author,
but I am not clear on which one to keep.
Also, is there a way to prevent future additions
of books with the then joined name?

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

[Ralph Gallagher]

The policy, as far as I know, is to use whatever the Library of Congress uses, which in this case is Tim Maudlin.

[vicki_girl]

It looks like "Tim Maudlin" is what is printed on the cover of the books. Generally, that is the version used unless there is a compelling reason not to.

Also, is there a way to prevent future additions
of books with the then joined name?
No. A librarian would have to fix any future editions.

[Paula]

We go with whats on the cover, Library of Congress unless there are multiple authors with the same name then we would likely use the middle name to disambiguate the authors

[This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For]

For authors whose names are listed differently on different books (e.g., sometimes with an initial, sometimes without), you generally have to choose the one that they are most commonly known as.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Or the most recent version, or the most complete. I usually go with the latter, unless there's some reason not to. Just because it makes it simplest when searching -- the most complete version will be found by more people searching than the one missing pieces.