How do you deal with complicated series information?

[Mel]

With the rise of long series, shared universes, and interlocking novels I was wondering how other people dealt with the cataloging issues. I'll share a couple examples that are perplexing me.

An author completed a 6 volume series years ago. The books are in Calibre and their series information is Series A books 1-6. Then the author decides to return to the series but follow a character written out at the end of book 2. So the new book is Series B book 3, with Series A books 1 & 2 reissued as Series B book 1 & 2.

A different author who wrote stand-alones in different gendres under multiple pen-names changed to doing series, then a shared universe, and is now retrofitting the previous series and stand-alones into the universe. It takes a flowchart to figure out the interconnections. Pen-name A has book 20 of shared universe that is book 1 of trilogy X, book 7 in series Y, book 4 of series M, and the hero has the same name as the hero in stand-alone book K because it's his great great grandson. The next book in the trilogy will be under Pen-name B, etc.

I've been putting the books under the main series and ignoring the smaller details but it can get confusing if I'm looking for something specific. How do the more creative (or more OCD) among you deal with this author trend towards recycling?

[Perkin]

For this sort of thing I have a Sub-Series (series type) column, then in (main) Series I have World/Realm name and use Series# as overall read/chronological order, then in Sub-series have the actual Series that they belong to and Sub-series# is their order in that

E.G, (Although these are same author, the principle still applies)

Daggerspell        Deverry 1     Deverry 1
Darkspell          Deverry 2     Deverry 2
Dawnspell          Deverry 3     Deverry 3
Dragonspell        Deverry 4     Deverry 4
A Time Of Exile    Deverry 5     Westlands 1
A Time Of Omens    Deverry 6     Westlands 2
A Time Of War      Deverry 7     Westlands 3
A Time Of Justice  Deverry 8     Westlands 4
The Red Wyvern     Deverry 9     Dragon Mage 1
The Black Raven    Deverry 10    Dragon Mage 2
The Fire Dragon    Deverry 11    Dragon Mage 3
The Gold Falcon    Deverry 12    Dragon Mage 4
The Spirit Stone   Deverry 13    Dragon Mage 5
The Shadow Isle    Deverry 14    Dragon Mage 6
The Silver Mage    Deverry 15    Dragon Mage 7

If you have short stories or whatever you can also add them in as #.##, e.g. 3.2, or 3.5 etc.

[theducks]

I use the Hierarchical series option:
Using Perkins example

Daggerspell        Deverry 1
Darkspell          Deverry 2  
Dawnspell          Deverry 3
Dragonspell        Deverry 4
A Time Of Exile    Deverry.Westlands 1
A Time Of Omens    Deverry.Westlands 2
A Time Of War      Deverry.Westlands 3
A Time Of Justice  Deverry.Westlands 4
The Red Wyvern     Deverry.Dragon Mage 1
The Black Raven    Deverry.Dragon Mage 2
The Fire Dragon    Deverry.Dragon Mage 3
The Gold Falcon    Deverry.Dragon Mage 4
The Spirit Stone   Deverry.Dragon Mage 5
The Shadow Isle    Deverry.Dragon Mage 6
The Silver Mage    Deverry.Dragon Mage 7

Note this does not ALSO sequence in the Base series