Authors

Authors are stored as separate entities in Shelfwise so you can browse books by author and avoid spelling variations.

When authors are created

Authors are auto-created in a few places:

• When you type a new name in the Author field of a book — if no match exists, we create one
• When bulk-importing ISBNs — author names come from the lookup APIs
• When manually adding a book

Avoiding duplicates

Type-ahead suggestions appear as you type an author's name. Pick the existing author rather than creating a duplicate.

Common duplicates to watch for:

• "Jane Austen" vs "Austen, Jane" — pick one format and stick with it
• "C.S. Lewis" vs "Lewis, C.S." vs "Lewis, C. S."
• Authors with middle initials that get dropped sometimes

Renaming an author

Catalog → Authors → find the author → Edit. The change propagates to every book by that author.

Merging two author entries

If you accidentally created "C.S. Lewis" and "Lewis, C.S." as separate authors:

• Catalog → Authors → find both
• Click Merge on the duplicate
• Pick which one to keep
• All books on the duplicate transfer to the kept author
• The duplicate is deleted

Browsing by author

Patrons can click any author name on a book detail page to see all books by that author.

Co-authors

Currently a book has one primary author. For books with multiple authors, list the primary author in the Author field and add the others to the Description.