Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Newbie librarian question: In the "sort by" title field of a book record, where do I put the initial "The" for a title that includes a subtitle?

The Librarian Manual is silent on the issue of "the" with a subtitle. Ditto on the concept of multiple occurrences of "the" in a title and subtitle, such as when the subtitle also starts with "The".

For example, I'm currently entering the four volumes of a 1924 book series, "The World of To-day: The Marvels of Nature and the Creation of Man".

What should the "sort by" title be?

1. world of to-day, the: the marvels of nature and the creation of man

2. world of today, the: marvels of nature and the creation of man, the

3. world of today: the marvels of nature and the creation of man, the

4. world of today: marvels of nature and the creation of man, the, the

Help?!?!?!?

I usually go for 3., placing the leading article at the very end. Or if the sort data 'string' is long as in your example, omit the starting 'the' completely:

5. 'world of today: the marvels of nature and the creation of man'

For alphabetic sort like Goodreads use, the first few letters are more important that they are correct than the end ones. The only examples I would avoid is number 2 and 4, as they change more than the beginning of the title.

Number 3 is what happens if the system does automatically anything with that field. So if you would use any of the other versions, there is a chance that with a future edit to the book it will reset to version 3.

Thanks! I'll do 3. My goals is for my GR changes to be as much like the system's automatic actions as possible. : )

Mesembryanthemum wrote: "Thanks! I'll do 3. My goals is for my GR changes to be as much like the system's automatic actions as possible. : )"

I think you probably won't have to enter anything as the system will do it automatically.

Yes, with English and some other major languages the system is smart enough to know where it goes.

In this case it doesn't really matter as only the first ten characters are relevant for sorting.