PGRule6/DetailedRule6Procedure
Greg Newby asked me to write this up, so I figured I might as well post it here as well. This is the procedure I'm using to meet the rule 6 requirements.
I started by restricting my searches for cases where the author isn't alive. I'm currently just trying to contact authors if possible.
1. The first thing I did was a title search at the LOC's website. or a title search in 11800. This catches about 90% of the renewals. I don't even bother to look for alternate titles at this point unless the TP and V has the alternate title on it. This gave me a stack of possibles to work from. I would guess about 30% of the books I checked ended up in the possibles pile.
The date split I'm using is 1952 and greater gets a loc web search. 1948 or earlier gets an 11800 search and overlaps get both. The date of interest is the copyright date or dates.
2. Take a stack of books all by the same author and start author research. I really want to know who the real author is, when and where they were born and possible pseudonyms they have used. At this point I also start putting together a bibliography for them of 1963 and earlier works. I've found a number of cases where things were published under alternate names, but the book didn't say so. "After Doomsday" by Poul Anderson is a good example. The renewal is for "The Day After Doomsday" and was first published in Galaxy magazine.
3. Using the stack from step 2 do another title search for each book using alternate spellings and wordings for the title. I now have a list of pseudonyms to look for also. This threw out some Lester del Reys for me because loc only lists them under the pseudonym. It also catches the cases where the database is being screwy on the title lookup.
4. Do a google search for the book title, looking for any information on other titles the book might have been printed under including periodicals. Search www.abebooks.com for the book to see what other printings might be out there. You can usually find what pseudonym was used on the first publication this way.
5. Look up any new titles found in step 4.
6. Now do an author search using the real authors names, plus variations as well as the pseudonym used for the first publication and its variations. Lester del Rey has been the worst one so far on this step. This is where a bunch of the Andre Norton renewals will be found. For some reason a number of them aren't found with a title search.
7. Do a claimants search if the copyright notice lists anyone besides the author.
8. Do a periodicals renewal search. This has almost always required a paper search. If the magazine was 1952 or later it should be in the online database. Finding them requires a title search on the magazine name and then go through everything that looks like it might be a possible match. I think it's necessary to look at full records for anything around the date in question. I've not found a multiple issue renewal yet in the online database, but they were not uncommon in the paper renewals. The paper is actually easier to use for this, but the loc stopped printing paper a long time ago. In the late 70's/early 80's Carnegie stopped getting paper.
A couple of things I've added to my procedures. For contributions to SF magazines I've been checking the isfdb for first publication information for all stories published in that issue. I then actively look for a renewal of one of the stories. This allows finding the original "B" filing number for the issue the stories were published in. This allows a cross check using the original filing number.
-- Main.GregWeeks - 12 Sep 2005