Goodreads Librarians Group discussion

Question -- this isn't covered in the librarian manual and I don't know how to search it. Ancient authors were often known by [firstname] of [place] How should these be sorted? I have two examples. Augustine of Hippo is sorted by Augustine. But Gregory of Nyssa is sorted by Nyssa. Which is correct?

Good question. I think that using the firstname is better, because it's clearer. Also, "of Hippo" or "of Nyssa" could be considered a sort of title, in a way, and the Librarian Manual: Author names and profiles does have a rule for titles:

"Authors whose titles are kept to avoid confusion should be sorted under their first name"

Anyway, there might be a thread in this group with an undocumented policy for these types of names. Somewhere. Maybe. (There are a lot of threads, and I don't have any luck when searching them.) Perhaps a long-time librarian might know.

My suggestion: You might get more views for this post if you move it to the Questions folder. The Policies & Practices group has too many "sticky" threads, so a new thread doesn’t show on the main page. I usually forget to click through to see if there’s anything new under Policies & Practices.

The librarian manual says:

Titles

Authors whose titles are kept to avoid confusion should be sorted under their first name:

francis, pope
john paul i, pope
john paul ii, pope
elizabeth ii, queen

As the "of Nyssa" or "of Hippo" is similar to a title, the name should be sorted under the Name and not the location. Note that the shelf display name and the sort by name would be different.