[Koha] Question about author sorting

[Sebastian Hierl]

Hi, Robin:

This seems logical enough and the simple fact to be able to browse
alphabetically will be a huge improvement to Koha.  Thus, thank you.
Regarding the functionality, it should be as Katrin describes and sort on
the first author, even when sorting Z-A.  This is less common in the
humanities, but in the sciences the order of the authors matters.
Bibliographically speaking, publications are listed under the first
author.  In sum, the sort should consider the first author only -- and a
keyword search will permit to find authors who are second, third and beyond.

-Sebastian

--
Sebastian Hierl, Ph.D.
Drue Heinz Librarian, Arthur & Janet C. Ross Library
American Academy in Rome
Via Angelo Masina 5
00153 Rome
Italy

T: +39 06 5846 417
F: +39 06 5810 788

On Wed, May 13, 2015 at 6:13 AM, Robin Sheat <robin at catalyst.net.nz> wrote:

> As some of you know, I'm in the process of implementing Elasticsearch
> support into Koha. Katrin pointed out that there's a bit of an
> irregularity with the author sorting, but I'm not sure if it's wrong as
> such. So I'm after a bit of input into what actual people would expect
> or would like.
>
> Imagine you have a book, with multiple authors:
>
> Title of Book
> Andrews, A ; Matthews, M ; Zimmermann, Z
>
> You do a search for "title", sorted by author A->Z, and get results,
> with "Title of Book" at the top due to "Andrews, A."
>
> You then sort it by author Z->A, and get "Title of Book" at the top
> again, due to "Zimmerman, Z."
>
> There is clearly logic behind it doing this, but is it the right thing
> to do? If not, what do you think an appropriate alternative would be?
>
> --
> Robin Sheat
> Catalyst IT Ltd.
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