Tuesday, May 23, 2017

I'm Really Beginning to Dislike Laura Ingalls Wilder

It's not really her fault. Nor is it the fault of Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, or William Shakespeare.

They all wrote LOTS of books and LOTS of companies published those books, often LOTS of times (revised edition, updated edition, abridged edition, illustrated edition, etc.) That makes sorting out the duplicates from the different editions rather difficult. Where's FRBR when you need it?

I'm still at the beginning of the letter L in my alphabetical list of possible duplicates - that's the beginning as in books starting with the word Laura. I'm hoping when I get further along, and get to books starting with the word Little, many of the duplicates of Little House on the Prairie will already be cleaned up.

Trying to come at these from a variety of different direction - and finding different things along the way - I did a search on the one word Laura, then Ingalls, then Wilder.

Since Gene Wilder only died last year, most of his death dates were not filled in. I did learn that at one point, it was thought he was born in 1935, but he was born in 1933. And his birth name was Jerome Silberman. That all came from the Library of Congress Authorities. The Authority Files have so much more information in them now.

And I found a book of poems by Melville Cane called Wider Arc which had the incorrect title Wilder Arc. That has been corrected.

Every time I merge records, upgrade a record, correct a record, I get a real feeling of satisfaction and think of people using MY online catalog and finding what they need.

It's time for my annual review. Instead of listing what I've accomplished during the last year and what I hope to accomplish during the next, I'll just hand my supervisor this blog! :-)

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