On reflection, I agree (though really I'd like to do away with this function entirely). However, instead I'm putting in this:

```
    for my $key (qw(AUTHOR)) {
        next if !exists $att->{$key} or ref $att->{$key};
        if (!$att->{$key}) {
            $att->{$key} = [];
        } elsif (!ref $att->{$key}) {
            $att->{$key} = [ $att->{$key} ];
        }
    }
```