What is the correct usage?

Question

When entering in book publisher locations into a inventory system which allows for the following "City, State, Country" Which is the correct usage?
London, UK
London, England, UK
London, Great Britian
Some of these books are very old, so would it be better to set the standard for time periods? For example a book printed in Virginia Colony would say "Virginia Colony, British Empire"
I am my own boss & I am trying for consistancy.
Any ideas?

Answer 1

If you are doing this for internal use only, rather than to share the information with other book dealers, I suggest that you decide what makes the most sense to you, and then follow that pattern consistently.

If the data is to be shared with other book dealers, look at the other data on the system, and follow the most common usage.

Whatever you do, CONSISTENCY is very important. Remember, computers are stupid. They do EXACTLY what we tell them to do.

Answer 2

I would suggest following hte bibliographic standards of a place like the Library of Congress or OCLC.

Incidentally, the Library of Congress catalog is available online.