9.51 Abbreviations and other reference tools

References to material not contained within the body of the text, such as bibliographies, glossaries, illustrations and tables, require a locator in letters as well as in numbers. The numeral can be printed in boldface type, while the element in letters is presented in italics, usually as an abbreviation:

• 367 bibliogr.
  • bibliography
• 54 (fig. 21)
  • figure
• 345 glos.
  • glossary
• 68 (fn. 2)
  • footnote
• 54 ill.
  • illustration
• 36 (hn.)
  • headnote
• facing 60
  • plate

When more than one significant reference to an item is made on the same page of a text, and each piece of information is useful, the words bis (twice) and ter (three times) may follow the page number in the index:

• War of 1812–14, 78 (bis), 87 (ter)

In indexing works with many words on a page, make the reader’s search for information easier by assigning a letter or number to each part of the page. For example, in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the letters a, b, c and d refer to the top, upper middle, lower middle and bottom of the left column of a page, and e, f, g and h to the same parts of the right column (23a, 23b, 23c, etc.).

Explain all abbreviations and special reference codes in an introductory note to the index.

9.52 Cross-references

Cross-references are required to guide readers from a given heading to a related heading that will lead them to the information required or to additional information on the same subject. The cross-reference is printed in italics, except when the subject heading referred to is itself normally presented in italics:

• Archaisms. See Relic forms; Historical forms
• Ryan, Claude, 234–65. See also Devoir, Le

There are five ways of indicating cross-references: See, See also, See under, See also under and q.v.

(a) See immediately follows the heading. No page numbers are given in the entry. A semicolon is used to separate headings if more than one entry is referred to:

• Reference matter. See Bibliographies; Endnotes; Footnotes; Indexes

It is sometimes impractical to list a whole series of cross-references, however. If so, make a non-specific reference. For example,

• Education, Department of. See under government of appropriate province

is a more succinct entry than one including the names of all the provinces.

The See cross-reference is appropriate in the following situations:

• When there is an acceptable synonym for the heading chosen:

  War of 1812–1814. See Invasion of Canada

• When an entry is listed under a different letter from the one the reader might expect:

  La Mare, Walter de. See de la Mare, Walter

• When a person is known by a title or pseudonym as well as by a first name and surname:

  Beaverbrook, Lord. See Aitken, Max

• To refer the reader to an antonym of the entry:

  Peace movement. See War, nuclear

• To refer the reader to a modern or popular term for the same concept:

  Ceylon. See Sri Lanka
  Latter-day Saints. See Mormons

• To refer the reader from a specific to a more general heading required by the nature of the subject field treated in the work. For example, in a chemistry text, an entry under Algebra might be too specific, and a cross-reference

  Algebra. See Mathematics

  would be used. Conversely, in a work dealing primarily with mathematics, there would be a separate entry for algebra, but chemistry headings would be more general, e.g.:

  Organic compounds. See Chemical compounds

(b) See also is used when at least one page number is not common to the two entries concerned. It guides the reader to additional information on a subject and is placed after the page numbers:

• Coinages, Canadian, 68, 153. See also Slang

(c) See under is used to direct the reader to a subentry:

• Mandatory supervision. See under National Parole Board

(d) See also under is used in the same way as See also, except that it refers the reader to a subentry:

• New Brunswick, 8, 14, 162, 170. See also under Maritimes

(e) The abbreviation q.v. applies to a particular word or expression within a heading or subheading, indicating that it can be turned to as a separate heading in the same index:

• Acadians
     settlement of Port-Royal (now Annapolis Royal, q.v.), 116–27, 244–47

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