[jackie_w]

I am confused. You say you set the 2 metadata plugboards as

{author_sort}{series:| - | }{series_index:0>5.1f} - {title}

the {title} bit is not needed in my example plugboards

On your PRST1, in the full Booklist (i.e. after using the Books menu item, not the Collections one):

• what have you set the sort method to (little button at the top with an a-z label)? Sort by 'Author' is probably the most useful.
  
• Using an example of an 'incorrect' book from the Booklist , what do you see on the Title line and on the Author line underneath?

Select the same book in your calibre library, open the Edit Metadata window. What do you have in the following fields?

Author(s),
Author sort,
Title
Series,
Series number