Publications and Bibliographies

If you have any comments or suggestions about these informational postings, or any questions on cataloging which you would like answered, please send them to the Subject and Bibliographic Access Committee. The Committee is always looking for more questions for this monthly column.

If an author has multiple surnames, which one is he filed under in a library catalog?

According to the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR2), one should enter a compound surname under the element by which the person prefers to be entered. Sometimes one can tell this by typography or by searching the person’s name in the bibliography of their own book. However, in most cases, a cataloger does not know. If the cataloger cannot determine the author’s wishes, the cataloger should look at how their name is listed in reference source in the person’s language or country of residence or activity. Again, in many cases, the person may not be listed there, and/or the cataloger may not have access to these reference sources. A cataloger would then use the following guidelines from AACR2.

COMPOUND SURNAMES

If the elements are hyphenated, enter under the first element

EX: Day-Lewis, C.

2. For all other compound names, one enters them under the first surname.

EX: Gonzalez Fernandez, Jose.

There are two exceptions to this however. One, is for married women whose surname consists of their maiden surname and their husband’s surname. In these cases, you enter under the first surname if the person’s language is Czech, French, Hungarian, Italian, or Spanish. In all other cases, you enter them under the husband’s surname.

EX: Garcia Mendez, Maria. (language is Spanish)

EX: Stow, Harriet Beecher (language is English)

The second exception is for Portuguese compound surnames. If the person’s language is Portuguese, the name is always entered under the last surname:

EX: Silva, Ovidio Saraiva de Carvalho e

PREFIXES (ARTICLES AND/OR PREPOSITIONS)

There are also surnames which consist of an article or preposition or a combination of the two. Again the cataloger should enter under the element by which the person prefers to be entered, or by how they are listed in reference sources in their country of residence or activity. However, if one cannot determine the author’s preference and does not have access to these reference sources, a cataloger uses a list of guidelines available in AACR2 under Rule 22.5D1. This rule consists of a listing of all the languages in which articles and/or prepositions are frequently used in surnames and tells the cataloger how to index the name in each case.

For example:

AFRIKAANS

Enter under the prefix.

De Villiers, Anna Johanna Dorothea

DUTCH

If the surname is Dutch, enter under the part following the prefix unless the prefix is ver. In that case, enter under the prefix.

Aa, Pieter van der

Ver Boven, Daisy

If the surname is not Dutch, enter the name of a Netherlander under the part following the prefix and the name of a Belgian according to the rules for the language of the name.

Faille, Jacob Baart de la

ENGLISH

Enter under the prefix.

À Beckett, Gilbert Abbott

De Morgan, Augustus

Du Maurier, Daphne

For the entire list, see AACR2, Rule 22.5D1.

OTHER PREFIXES

Finally, there are the rules for other prefixes, meaning prefixes that are neither an article, nor a preposition, nor a combination of the two. These are always entered under the prefix.

EX: Abu Zahrah, Muhammad.