[Data-modeling] Multi-lingual book (and other) titles

[Niall O'Higgins]

Hi all,

I have been filling in some data related to various well-known authors
who wrote in non-English languages.  So far I have just been adding
the translated English titles, but I feel it would be very beneficial
to have the original, non-English titles also - particularly when
searching.

My question is, should these be considered simply aliases, or is there
some more correct way to link these?  I could see arguments for the
position that titles in various languages are not merely aliases, and
should be handled separately.

Also there is the fact that the same title may be translated
differently (take for example "The Outsider/The Stranger").

Specifically I have been considering works in Russian, French and
Irish.  There is a general lack of consistency in this area at the
moment - for example "The Poor Mouth" can be found under its Irish
title "An Beal Bocht" while Camus' "L'Etranger" can only be found
under its above-mentioned translated English titles.

Of course this same issue likely applies to film, TV, music, etc.

Thoughts?

-- 
Niall O'Higgins
Software Engineer
Metaweb Technologies, Inc.