Author name not linking to their books

[Ruby]

Hiya. I tried to enter a quote by James Loewen from "Lies My teacher Told Me", but although I typed the name in correctly, first name first and clicked on the drop-down, none of his books seem to be attached to his name. It's showing "0 books by author".

[rivka, Former Moderator]

That's because his books are listed under James W. Loewen.

[Ruby]

Argh. And that's the problem with using middle initials to differentiate authors! Note that only one name appears in the drop-down menu when you search for James Loewen, so there is nothing to even prompt you to make a differentiation.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

That's not a differentiation issue. His middle initial shows up on most of his book covers.

[Ruby]

Yeah - that's true in this case. In the book that I saw this quote in, it only had James Loewen in the citation.

As you know though, GR policy is to use middle initials to differentiate authors, regardless of whether it appears on the book. In the case of say, Judith Wright (and that is how her name appears in her work), I would have to know to look for Judith A Wright.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

That's only an issue for adding quotes. The regular search would find Judith A. Wright when you search for Judith Wright.

[Ruby]

Yes, the regular search finds Judith Wright - third after Pilgrim's Progress and Shakespeare's King Henry IV, Part 1!

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Is that a general search or filtered by author?

[Ruby]

General search.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Using the more options > author filter seems to help quite a bit.