And now, for my next probably unpopular suggestion... Title subfields

[Fred Slota]

Data Structures 101...

 

If you have a pattern in your data, and especially if you want to enforce consistency in the representation of the pattern, you should organize your data structure to control it and then generate a consistent presentation from that structure.

 

I recently saw a reporting of non-standard Title naming being requested to be corrected.  Things like:

Dark Crystal, The: A Discovery Adventure -> Dark Crystal, The: A Discovery Adventure (Jim Henson’s…)
 

and 

Bells (Edgar Allan Poe’s…), The -> Bells, The (Edgar Allan Poe’s…)
 

Which leads to my probably unpopular suggestion

 

Just like Item# (such as a potential Anl 1/A-2) is a presentational compound field built out of the more basic subfields of Type, Number, Variation and Printing, I suggest that Title should be transformed into a presentational compound field built out of the more basic subfields of Title, Subtitle and Creator.

Title: The Dark Crystal

 

[Fred Slota]

(sorry, hit Shift-Enter trying to make a new line, then took to long to edit the original... continues here)

 

 

Title: The Dark Crystal

Subtitle: A Discovery Adventure

Creator: Jim Henson

FullTitle: 'Dark Crystal, The: A Discovery Adventure (Jim Henson's...)'

 

Title: The Bells

Subtitle: 

Creator: Edgar Allen Poe

FullTitle: 'Bells, The (Edgar Allen Poe's...)'

 

Separated out, you can guarantee consistent formatting of the FullTitle.  Separated out you can more easily deal with related title groups as a block, which might make for interesting reports broken down by Title versus FullTitle.  Separated out, you can more easily group by Creator.  Separated out, maybe you could consider Alphabetizing without using unimportant words in Subtitles (like leading 'The').

 

 

*ducks behind a crenelation to avoid the inevitable ensuing slings and arrows*

[Fred Slota]

Add subfields of Series, Volume and Publisher to my above list, as these are also repeated information types that are included in FullTitles.