Author's Middle Initial: Period or No Period?

[enuddleyarbl]

This is a bit silly, but the spousal unit just caught this. I've got one book in my collection where the author's middle initial is recorded in the metadata with a period (i.e., "Jim C. Hines"). All other books with an author's middle initial are without a period (for example, all the other books by "Jim C Hines"). I don't know why or how I managed that. My preference is for all those middle initials to have a period. But, is there a standard for this?

[Sirtel]

I use period. Don't care whether there is a standard; I just like the initials to have periods.

The Quality Check plugin helps with formatting the initials in bulk, so there's no need to check the names one by one.

[enuddleyarbl]

I think the Quality Check plugin is how the difference arose. I vaguely remember running it a long time ago and having it reformat those initials to my preference. Checking that, it's set to AB. Now I've got to ponder the big question of whether or not I should change that to A. B. or even A.B.. Though I like seeing those double-initial names like HG Wells instead of H. G. Wells or H.G. Wells.

Anyway, thanks. You pointed me in the right direction for how I managed this.

[DNSB]

Personally, my standard is to use A. B. Lastname. You find almost any combination of how to format initials. I've seen AB, A.B., AB., A B and A. B. in the last few months. I admit that only one author uses AB. for their initials. Then we have the authors whose initials are now you see me, now you don't (as in your Jim Hines/Jim C. Hines example).

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Then we have the authors whose initials are now you see me, now you don't (as in your Jim Hines/Jim C. Hines example).

Yeah, those are a pain. I occasionally find such authors in my library.

[HappyCalibreUser]

Perferably I've go the simple way. Robert A. Heinlein, Jim C. Hines.
Why?
If I need to do an author search, by knowing in advance the initials will alyways have the period I don't have to remember when a period hasn't been used.
Otherwise I may wind up having to do multiple searches.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

I think the Quality Check plugin is how the difference arose. I vaguely remember running it a long time ago and having it reformat those initials to my preference. Checking that, it's set to AB. Now I've got to ponder the big question of whether or not I should change that to A. B. or even A.B.. Though I like seeing those double-initial names like HG Wells instead of H. G. Wells or H.G. Wells.

I use double initials with no period only when that's the only way the author has ever written their name. If there is more than one way the name has been written, then I use periods.

[theducks]

Put me in the A. B. Name group.

[pdurrant]

I like the look of A. B. Surname too.

[capink]

Originally Posted by HappyCalibreUser

Perferably I've go the simple way. Robert A. Heinlein, Jim C. Hines.
Why?
If I need to do an author search, by knowing in advance the initials will alyways have the period I don't have to remember when a period hasn't been used.
Otherwise I may wind up having to do multiple searches.

I do author search using regex like this:

author:~robert.*heinlein

This way I manage to avoid any problems with middle initials, whether they have periods or not.

[theducks]

Ah! The second Elephant in the Library
Name order. Ln, Fn (Mi) or Fn (Mi) Ln

Heinlein should still fall under the "H's" in the Tag browser

Again: the Quality check Plugin is your friend.
Note there are rare cases where only human fingers on the keys will fix .
1)one of the names is wrong way, 2) Honorifics or Generational indicators (Vii)

[Quoth]

Prefixes (von der, de, le etc and variable case, even M’ vs Mac), double barrelled names without a hyphen.

Sometimes I'm not sure and the paper book is my guide. Web info seems careless.

Then there are those authors that vary the prefix name or presence of an initial per genre.
M. R. Carey vs Mike Carey
J. Michael Straczynski vs J. M. Straczynski
Iain M. Banks vs Iain Banks

James Mathew Barrie is usually J. M. Barrie, but Gutenberg can be weird on names.

Edit:
I prefer the well known name from the cover and I'd put a real name in the comment. Examples Leslie Charteris, John le Carré . Of course I'd also use the house name Franklin Dixon, Carolyn Keene, Laura Lee Hope and put the real author in the comment if known, or important (Mildred Birt?). Then some have fake titles such as Captain W. E. Johns, who was never a Captain, but did serve in WWI.

[JSWolf]

I go with the period. The UK leaves of periods for some odd reason.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Iain M. Banks vs Iain Banks

That's an interesting one. He used Iain Banks for his mainstream fiction and Iain M. Banks for his science fiction.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I go with the period. The UK leaves of periods for some odd reason.

Nope.

Example: - most references to the Harry Potter author use J. K. Rowling, as does the author herself… even though she is just a Joanne. It's the gutter press, such as the Daily Mail, and the Mirror that use JK. Interestingly the USA Vice President, who shares some views with JKR, also drops the periods in his name

BR