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Dear collective wisdoms,

 

I believe a situation similar to the one I am about to describe was discussed previously on at least one of these lists (and I apologize for the cross posting), but I don’t remember what the resolution was (if there was one), and I think this may be a little different in several respects.

 

The author of the Stick Dog and Stick Cat children’s books is Watson, Tom (Children’s story writer) (NAR nb2014002382).  However, 58 records (if I did the arithmetic correctly) have incorrect headings for this author, either without a qualifier, or with the wrong dates (one record has “1949-“, all the others have “1962-“).

 

I contacted the Tom Watson who writes the children’s stories.  He gave me both a date of birth and a middle name.  He is not the Tom Watson born in 1949 or 1962 (he was born in 1965).

 

My problem with leaving the heading as it is, in addition to the preference for dates as the means of differentiation, is that the Tom Watson who writes children’s stories also did a number of other things that are unrelated to children’s stories, as the authority record makes clear, although it seems as if the children’s stories are the only things published, at least so far (books on speech writing are not his).  Also, since there are many headings that are simply incorrect anyway, there will be the need for cleanup locally and in OCLC no matter which way we go (only 21 additional records need be changed if I change the heading, and the authority record will take care of those in OCLC).

 

Thoughts?

 

Michael

 

Michael S. Borries

Cataloger, City University of New York

151 East 25th Street, 5th Floor

New York, NY  10010

Phone: (646) 312-1687

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