Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

What is the approved way to fill in the name and shelf display name fields for latinized names of Japanese authors?

Is it Surname Firstname order (both name and display name) like in
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

or is it Firstname Surname order (name) / Surname, Firstname order (display name) like in
https://www.goodreads.com/author/edit...

Please forgive me if this has been clarified already somewhere, but I want to be sure before I go ahead and "correct" author's pages the wrong way around...

Shelf Display name surely would follow western convention, you don't want to find Haruki Murakami listed under H.
E.g. Murakami, Haruki

Likewise, when books get translated the Author is usally named in the western convention - so I'd say this also should be adopted for the name field.

E.g. Haruki Murakami, not Murakami Haruki

Gerd wrote: "Shelf Display name surely would follow western convention, you don't want to find Haruki Murakami listed under H.
E.g. Murakami, Haruki

Likewise, when books get translated the Author is usally na..."

Thank you, Gerd. Sort order, as I stated above, is obvious, but the shelf display name need not necessarily reflect the sort order.

And, yes, this is also what I'd say, but I really would like to check before, based on something more than my gut feeling...

(If it was clear, then there would be no differences as in Akutagawa and Kawabata)

I vaguely remember a discussion in which it was said that it depends on how the name appears on the cover of the translated books.

That means if an author predominantly publishes their "western" books as Lastname Firstname, we stick to that on GR, and vice versa.

Chinese authors are sometimes published both as Firstname Lastname and as Lastname Firstname.

Frankly, I "cheat" on these and look to see how a major library alphabetizes it. I think there is no one clear answer.

Natsume Sōseki, for instance, should have the shelf name as exactly that, but I have seen Chinese names both ways.

lethe wrote: "... That means if an author predominantly publishes their "western" books as Lastname Firstname, we stick to that on GR, and vice versa."

Thank you Lethe. This gives way to subjective interpretation and discussion on a case per case basis. Furthermore, there is no unique representation of data.

Is this really desirable? Anyway, there seems to be no fixed rule...

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Frankly, I "cheat" on these and look to see how a major library alphabetizes it. I think there is no one clear answer.

Natsume Sōseki, for instance, should have the shelf name as..."

Major libraries usually tend to have (quite strict) rules :-)

Natsume Sōseki is "Lastname Firstname" on author's name and "Lastname Firstname" on shelf display name which is one of the two methods applied in GR (and in full accordance with the outside world).

So, you are also saying that there is no fixed rule in GR...

There is a fixed rule*, as Lethe indicated - the version of the name as chosen by the author (or their publisher) and listed on the majority of their English language covers.

In cases where that doesn't work, e.g. both are found equally, then the usual rule is to defer to the Library of Congress (assuming that their form doesn't contradict our policies regarding initials, dates in names, etc.)

*Or as fixed as any rule can be as we often find cases where we need to make exceptions...

Emy wrote: "There is a fixed rule*, as Lethe indicated - the version of the name as chosen by the author (or their publisher) and listed on the majority of their English language covers.

In cases where that d..."

Thank you for the clarification. I try to proceed very carefully...