History of Medicine
FAQ
IndexCat -- Two Forms of Author Names
Question: Why in Index-Catalogue are there two forms of author entries?
Answer:
There are two forms because the Index-Catalogue collection includes both book and journal literature. The Library applied a long form of name, when available, (last name, first name, initials, date) to books and other monographs. This is consistent with current cataloging policy for LocatorPlus. Journal articles and other analytic materials contain the short name form (last name, initials). This is similar but not identical to shortened names in MEDLINE. The Index-Catalogue collection currently contains punctuation and spaces between each initial. MEDLINE does not.
- Book example:
- IndexCat: Hunter, John, 1728-1793.
- LocatorPlus: Hunter, John, 1728-1793.
- Journal example:
- IndexCat: Smith, R. W.
- MEDLINE: Smith RW
IndexCat searches require spaces between initials.
Search for Smith, R. W. as: "Smith R W" in Quick Search – using double quotes and spaces between initials in Quick search.
Use Advanced Search, to narrow search to Authors only. Select 'As a Phrase' or 'All of These'.
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http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/icauthorforms.html
