Author's name

[Tanzaku]

On my Sony 505, I'm frustrated that some EPUBs index LAST NAME, FIRST NAME and others index FIRST NAME LAST NAME. When I want to find my books by Emile Zola, for example, do I look under E or under Z? Evidently, it depends on the way the EPUB creator set up the author's name. Right now, my library is simply a mess. Is there an easy way to fix this? (Something as simple as an ID3 tag editor?)

Why can't the "industry" agree on the library standard that authors are always files by their last name first?
Brooks

[Superlucky]

As long as it's not a DRM'd file, you can use calibre to edit the tags. If it is DRM'd, you can't.

[Jellby]

Author names have a "file-as" attribute that should be set to "Last-name, First-name".

Regarding DRM'd files, I believe those have each file in the zip encrypted separately, that means you can probably extract the (encrypted) files as with any other epub. With some luck, only the book contents will be encrypted and not the OPF file (metadata). If this is the case, you can edit the metadata and re-zip the file.

[JSWolf]

The OPF file is not encrypted. So you can extract the OPF file, edit the metadata, put the OPF file back and be all set.

[ahi]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Author names have a "file-as" attribute that should be set to "Last-name, First-name".

Regarding DRM'd files, I believe those have each file in the zip encrypted separately, that means you can probably extract the (encrypted) files as with any other epub. With some luck, only the book contents will be encrypted and not the OPF file (metadata). If this is the case, you can edit the metadata and re-zip the file.

Unless the names are Asian or Hungarian... in which case their natural form is "Last-name First-name" and the comma is arguably unnecessary (if not downright inappropriate... by virtue of suggesting the normal name order to be Western name order).

- Ahi

[Tanzaku]

I see where this is supposed to go and have been able to fix it in a couple of test files. Here is an example from a Feedbooks OPF file.

<dc:creator opf:role="aut" opf:file-as="Kuprin, Aleksandr">Aleksandr Kuprin</dc:creator>

Unless I'm missing something, it looks like using the "opf:file-as" this should be listed in my Sony as "Kuprin, Aleksandr" and be found under the K's, but it's not. When I look at the index Title by Author, this book is listed at the top, with the A's as "Aleksandr Kuprin".

Here is code from my Feedbooks version of Emma that does sorts correctly by last name:

<dc:creator opf:role="aut" opf:file-as="Austen, Jane">Austen, Jane</dc:creator>

Notice that the author is listed last name first in both instances. Seems like the "file-as" isn't kicking in like it should? Is this something with my Sony 505, or something else I should be looking for? I really don't want to have to change the code on my 700+ book library!

Hadrien?

Brooks Jensen
Editor, LensWork Publishing

[Tanzaku]

BTW, my Sony has firmware version 1.1.00.18040

Brooks

[Hadrien]

Originally Posted by Tanzaku

I see where this is supposed to go and have been able to fix it in a couple of test files. Here is an example from a Feedbooks OPF file.

<dc:creator opf:role="aut" opf:file-as="Kuprin, Aleksandr">Aleksandr Kuprin</dc:creator>

Unless I'm missing something, it looks like using the "opf:file-as" this should be listed in my Sony as "Kuprin, Aleksandr" and be found under the K's, but it's not. When I look at the index Title by Author, this book is listed at the top, with the A's as "Aleksandr Kuprin".

Here is code from my Feedbooks version of Emma that does sorts correctly by last name:

<dc:creator opf:role="aut" opf:file-as="Austen, Jane">Austen, Jane</dc:creator>

Notice that the author is listed last name first in both instances. Seems like the "file-as" isn't kicking in like it should? Is this something with my Sony 505, or something else I should be looking for? I really don't want to have to change the code on my 700+ book library!

Hadrien?

I'm doing the right thing here, it's Sony's fault. opf:file-as was designed to properly sort books while dc:creator should be used whenever you display the author's name.
I'm not going to mess up my metadata.

[Jellby]

Yes, I forgot to say that while there are provisions in the ePUB specification for the "file-as" attribute, it's another matter whether reading/library systems properly support it.

[Tanzaku]

Thanks, Hadrien. I knew you'd know what the scoop is. I guess I'll have to wait for an update from Sony -- and perhaps prod them a bit with this complaint, too!
Brooks