Add author names to series touchstones

Would it be possible to add author names to the series touchstones (triple square brackets) in the same way that they show for book touchstones (single square brackets)?

I use series touchstones in my posts but if there is a commonly used series name, it's very hard to pick the correct one. For example typing Dragon Lords as a series touchstone brings up nine examples. The workaround that has been suggested is to add the author's name(s) in curly brackets but apparently this upsets some folks, possibly because they use series names in a different way. For example, it can make a series name in a catalogue column longer and more unwieldy.

Books have a (single) primary author. Many series have several authors.

>2 MarthaJeanne: Fair enough; but doesn't LT split them into Author Series - which can be assigned an author - and Publisher Series?

Regular series include things like Star Wars. Most of the various Star Wars series have several authors. Another example is For Dummies. There is no such thing as 'author series'.

It wouldn’t hurt to show the series author for those series that do have them, though.

>1 humouress: I agree, it would be really helpful to see at least one series author when touchstoning a series. Some series don't have a series author, so there would be nothing to show, but many series do and it would be useful for differentiating.

>4 MarthaJeanne: a) The two examples you chose don't show an author. But if you look at, say, Anne of Green Gables it does show an author if you go to the series page. (However, you can't go to the series page to check authors' names until after you've posted.) So it should be possible to show authors' names for those series.

b) Ah; I had a vague memory of choosing between Publisher series and Author series when creating a new series - but it looks like the choice is Series or Publisher series.

>7 humouress: Sure you can go to the touchstoned page before you post. Just open it in another tab.
If you’re on a computer, right click the link that appears below the message box.
On a phone, choices appear in a similar pop up box if you touch the link.

>4 MarthaJeanne:

The Dummies books are a publisher series (others would say “publisher library”). This is a collection of books with unrelated content, usually by different authors. The publisher markets them together.

I think a string case could be made for Star Wars to be a publisher series for these reasons.

James

>9 Keeline: I could be remembering this incorrectly, but I thought "For Dummies" counted as a regular (non-publisher) series, because the works appear only in that series and not elsewhere? Contrasted with something like Penguin Classics, which contains works that appear in many other series, or no series at all, depending on the edition.

>9 Keeline: No, the Dummies series is considered a regular series on LT. See https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/HelpThing:Nseries_controller#Publisher_S...

What >8 2wonderY: said.

Even regular book touchstones often need a quick pass beyond the link to make sure they are the right ones.

>12 paradoxosalpha: Yes, and you can do that by clicking on ‘others’ in the touchstone links to the right of the box before saving the post. Which is what I would like for series touchstones, too.

Despite the actual LT terminology, the better way to think of the two kinds of series is as "work series" and "edition series." for Dummies is a series of works.

>1 humouress: This is actually why some of us have been looking at the various Same Name series and adding the primary author(s) as part of the series name in { } at the end. But other users remove that name. It's been the work around since the series system was created.

>15 gilroy: Yup; the problem is that the workaround patently doesn't work for everyone 🤗

>15 gilroy: Why not? It takes a long while to go through all the series that LT has.

>11 amanda4242:

I don't expect LT to change its definitions. But as one who is writing a Series Book Encyclopedia for juvenile series books (a 30-year project), it is something that I pay attention to in noting how terms like this were used by publishers and have and are used by the collectors and researchers with strong associations with this material.

The distinction is not that a book has been issued by a single publisher. In the Dummies Book examples, there have been three publishers over the years who have handled the series and perhaps more internationally.

An example of a "publisher library" that does parallel with the LT usage is the Boys' Own Library with imprints from Street & Smith, Federal, and David McKay (three separate companies). The plates were leased or sold if the sales did not merit keeping a library on the publisher's frontlist or backlist catalog. The stories in these books were reprints of dime novels or story paper serials and occasionally had been published in book form previously.

Another example is the Every Boy's Library from Grosset & Dunlap on behalf of the Boy Scouts of America. Many of these stories had been serialized in magazines like Boys' Life and published initially in expensive hardcover editions from certain publishers. The EBL books from G&D became the cheap reprints or "popular editions" using the terms of the 1910s.

Both of these have in common that there were many authors represented. It was mainly a convenience of the publisher to let them market a group of separate stories bound similarly as a unit to booksellers and, ultimately, the public. The BOL books did include "subseries" with a given character appearing in multiple volumes. The most obvious of these was Frank Merriwell.

Speaking of Frank Merriwell, there's one named author, "Burt L. Standish," with several writers contributing, and the stories were mainly about the title character. The hardcover series was initially published by Street & Smith but mainly David McKay. But at the same time there was a Street & Smith paperback series being issued. Some of the hardcover stories also appeared in these paperbacks. The numbering for the paperbacks and hardcovers are different so there are at least two series, with some overlap of titles and stories.

I look at the LT definition and understand that it is a bit quaint with a certain convenience. But it doesn't model the way that "series" or "publisher libraries" are used in the book world for the past 150 years.

James

>17 gilroy: I don't know why not. I'm in agreement with you but other users remove the author names, so it doesn't seem to work for them. If the series author (where applicable) showed up in the touchstone box to enable the correct series to be chosen then we wouldn't need to edit series names to add author names.

>19 humouress: I think part of that was early on, Tim said we didn't need that any more. Later discussions proved we did, but the people didn't read past the first 50 messages so missed the discussion. Thus they keep removing when it is a needed item. It's also new people not understanding the system and deleting them.

>20 gilroy: Thus my RSI request to add author names to series touchstones (where possible).