Examples using the asterix in the Author field

The asterix has a special meaning when included in the Author field in Inventory. The following are examples of its use.

Case 1. A book by John Smith about Hemingway.

If you enter the following in the Author field:

Hemingway]* John Smith

when output this will be sorted under Hemingway and will appear as:

[Hemingway] John Smith, title text etc

This output indicates that hemingway has something to do with the book.

In the Author field enter:

Hemingway* John Smith

When output this will be sorted under Hemingway but will appear as:

John Smith, title text etc

In this case the book will be amongst other books by or about Hemingway.

In the case of illustrated books this technique can be employed to sort the book by the illustrator rather than by the author, where the author is deemed to be less important.

For example, a book illustrated by Jessie Wilcox Smith but written by Hans Christian Anderson. You decide that the illustrator is more important than the author and want this item to sort under Smith, Jessie Wilcox..

To achieve this enter in the Author field:

Smith*Hans Christian Anderson,

and in the Alt/Illus field

Smith, Jessie Wilcox(illus)

When output this will be sorted under Jessie Wilcox and will appear as:

Hans Christian Anderson, Smith, Jessie Wilcox (illus), title text etc

The above is the optimal strategy as the illustrator is entered in the correct field, i.e the Alt/Illus field.

As an alternative you may wish the output to appear with the illustrator first.

To achieve this enter in the Author field:

Smith, Jessie Wilcox(illus)]*, Hans Christian Anderson,

and leave the Alt/Illus field blank

When output this will be sorted under Smith and will appear as:

[Smith, Jessie Wilcox(illus)], Hans Christian Anderson, title text etc

Experiment to get the desired outcome. Once decided upon stick to a consistent data entry strategy.