9.42 Alphabetical arrangement

Headings may be alphabetized letter by letter or word by word:

In the word-by-word listing, the position of the two-word names is determined by the first word; the second part of the surname comes into play in determining which of the two names is listed first. In the letter-by-letter arrangement, the number of words in the heading is irrelevant.

Use the letter-by-letter format for an index of acronyms, letters and symbols with technical meanings, as in a scientific work.

List organizations by their acronyms or abbreviations if they are usually referred to in that way. The short form should be alphabetized letter by letter and followed immediately by the full title in parentheses or a cross-reference to that title.

A word-by-word arrangement is often used in a proper noun listing of geographical names:

• North Umpqua
• North Valley Stream
• North Vancouver
• North Vernon
• North Versailles
• Northumberland Strait
• Northumbria
• Northvale
• Northville

In a letter-by-letter listing, the entries with the word North would not have been grouped together.

The word-by-word listing provides for a clear grouping of related headings, e.g. book, book jacket, book label and book list, which would otherwise be separated by a heading such as bookkeeping. Its disadvantage is that a related term may have to be separated from the grouping because it is one word, hyphenated or unhyphenated. For example, words such as booklet and bookmark might well be separated from the above group, even though they belong to the same subject field. This shows the advantage of a letter-by-letter listing: a compound occupies the same position, whether it is unhyphenated, hyphenated or written as two words.

Note that, whichever arrangement is adopted, prepositions at the beginning of a subentry or sub-subentry must be disregarded for alphabetization purposes.

9.45 Personal names

When an article or preposition is part of an English name, it is alphabetized without inversion, e.g. de la Roche, Mazo; De Quincey, Thomas. Names beginning with Mac, Mc or M’ are alphabetized as if spelled Mac. Ignore the apostrophe in treating an Irish name such as O’Flynn; alphabetize it as if it were one unpunctuated word.

French surnames beginning with an article or a contraction of an article and a preposition are listed without inversion, e.g. Le Rouge, Gustave; Du Pont, Georges. Similarly, names beginning with d’ are generally not inverted, e.g. d’Arcy, Jules. There is no standard method for alphabetizing names beginning with de or de la. Adopt the personal preference of the individual concerned or the traditional presentation of his or her name, e.g. Balzac, Honoré de; La Fontaine, Jean de. Christian saints should be alphabetized by their given names, with an identifier added if necessary:

• John, Saint
• John Chrysostom, Saint
• John of the Cross, Saint

The choice between Saint- and St- and between Sainte- and Ste- in personal names depends on the traditionally preferred presentation. When an abbreviated form is used, it should be alphabetized as if spelled out.

For detailed information on the presentation of English, French and foreign-language names, see the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules.

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