Formatting of Author names

[Stephen]

I've noticed that since the data imports, the author selection lists are showing many more variations on names than I'm used to seeing.

For example there's an Elliott D Landau and an Elliott D. Landau where the only difference is a period following the middle initial. The topics of their books seem suspiciously similar and I'm tempted to combine them.

Just out of curiosity I did a search on just Elliot and came up with these other names that I think are questionable:

Elliot arnold
My understanding is that this should be Arnold
Elliot, Roger
Shouldn't this show as Roger Elliot?
Elliott Gilbert (illustrator)
Shouldn't the (Illustrator) tag be placed in the book's role field
Elliot Koffman, Frank Friedman
Should these two authors be listed separate fields?
Elliot S! Maggin
This last one is unusal but OK (I guess) There is a note that the name is usually listed this way in print (though his book covers don't show it)

Also, all of the following currently exist...

Jr., Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Robert F., Jr. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

My understanding is that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the correct format.

Can someone just confirm my understanding on these?

[Cait]

The author names were probably imported with less care for formatting.

The rules for author names are in the manual and you're correct in your understanding of them! To recap:

1. Initials should always have a period after them (and no spaces between them, if there are multiple initials): Elliott D. Landau, J.R.R. Tolkien, etc.
2. Names should be capitalized as expected for their language.
3. Names listed as Last, First should be corrected to First Last.
4. Roles should be removed from the name field and placed in the role field.
5. Each author should be listed separately.
6. Suffixes go after the last name with one space and no comma: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
7. If pen names go against these standards, the chosen name of the author should be used: Elliot S! Maggin, bell hooks, etc.

[Stephen]

Thanks for the confirmation. I use the add/book author search a lot and have been seeing a lot of strangeness lately. I've been worried about being overzealous in correcting things.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Cait wrote: "The author names were probably imported with less care for formatting."

Not so much less care, as a LOT at once. We've always had the same issues with Amazon and B&N and every other source. (I recall once cleaning up an author who had imported 8 different ways, all from Amazon.)

[James]

Stephen wrote: "...
Jr., Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Robert F., Jr. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr."

In the majority of cases, that sort of thing happens as a result of one of these three reasons:
(1) Imported data,
(2) People entering names without knowing (or bothering to follow) GR's formatting rules, and
(3) People being creative in trying to get their books to sort alphabetically by author's last name instead of "Jr."

Whatever the cause, its still left to GR's librarians to clean up the mess...

[Natasa]

Hi, I have a question. T. L. Shreffler has a space between the initials. Will removing that space also change the author name for all the books under that name?

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Yes. Done.

[Natasa]

Thank you!

[Sandi]

I new and know this is an old thread but seems to fit my question. How are St. John, St. Claire, van Meter, Van Dyke etc author name to be handled? I've looked in the librarian manual and can't seem to find this specific problem.

They do not display correctly in My Books if St. John but do display correctly if St. John. I had one author Cheryl St. John that had her name both ways, most didn't have the space so I changed the rest to match but would like to make sure that is correct before changing anything else.

Thanks

[Vicky]

Sandi wrote: "I new and know this is an old thread but seems to fit my question. How are St. John, St. Claire, van Meter, Van Dyke etc author name to be handled? I've looked in the librarian manual and can't see..."

Unfortunately, it's a limitation of the database that two word last names do not display correctly when shown as lastname, firstname.

Policy is to space out the names.

St. John is correct, St.John is not.
van Meter is correct, vanMeter is not.

[Sandi]

Thanks I'll change all the Cheryl St. Johns back.

[rivka, Former Moderator]

Actually, that is a GR author, and her name should be left as is.

[Sandi]

I had books shown both ways in my books in trying to get consistency I went with the way most were showing in my books.

[Sandi]

I attempted to fix the listings I changed earlier. Someone has changed all of the Cheryl St. John listings to Cheryl St. John, including the author name. I guess I should leave it alone since everything is consistent now.

[Scott]

What about author nicknames? This author likes to be called Jill, I guess, but that's not what her books say:

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

[Lori]

Ok, I am not a librarian, and I am asking you guys for some help. In this book http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17... the author's name is just typoed as Eli WIlde. Can someone please change it so the i in Wilde is not capitalized? I know that someone tried to fix it, but when he saves the changes, it isn't changed.

[Sandra]

I just had a go Lori, and it definitely isn't working.

I'll refer it to Support, but they won't look at it till after the weekend.

[Lori]

Yeah we have tried for a week now to get support to help us, and so far no dice. Maybe since you are saying something, it will get resolved. Thanks :)

[Koenraad]

It should be fixed now.

[Sandra]

Well done Koenraad!

[Koenraad]

Thank you. You can correct such mistakes by going to the author profile and changing the name there. :)

[Sandra]

Ahhhh, thanks, good to know ;)