Alphabetic Indexing Rules OT 122 Chapter Two

Intro Must be a consistent system to work! Indexing? – Selecting the filing segment under which to store a record and determining the order in which the units should be considered – Most of the time it’s… Alphabetic by last name Could be DOB, SSN, patient number, etc. There are 10 alphabetic indexing rules

Rule One Indexing Order of Units – Unit = …word… Personal Names – Last name, aka… Surname – First name, aka Given name – Middle name or initial Initials are considered separate indexing units NOTHING GOES BEFORE SOMETHING! – Bridget J. Bergiel vs. Bridget Bergiel

Rule One (cont’d.) Business Names – Indexed as written – Each word is a single unit – Businesses with same names City name is the last indexing unit

Rule Two Minor Words and Symbols in Business Names – Small words are considered separate indexing units Articles, prepositions, conjunctions – Symbols are spelled out – If ‘the’ is the first word, it is used as the last indexing unit

Rule Three Punctuation and Possessives – IGNORED WHEN INDEXING!! Apostrophes (‘)? Ignored Commas (,)? Ignored Exclamation points (!)? Ignored Dashes, hyphens, periods, question marks (-/.?) Ignored – Ignored » Ignored IGNORED!!!

Rule Four Single Letters and Abbreviations – Personal Names Initials, abbreviated names and nicknames are considered separate units and indexed as written – Business Names If single letters are separated by a space, each letter is a separate unit – D & S Delivery Service If single letters are separated by a period, IGNORE periods and index the letters as one unit – JJ Dental Ceramics Acronyms (ARMA) are treated as one unit Hint – If letters are pronounced separately (WWCC), treat as separate letters. If pronounced as a word (NASA), treat as an acronym.

Rule Five Titles and Suffixes – Personal Names Both of these are the last indexing unit If a name has both, the title is the last indexing unit – Dr Roy Jones, Jr Numeric suffixes are filed before alphabetic – Dr Roy Jones II, M.D. *Royal and religious titles followed by a name are indexed as written – Princess Di – Business Names Titles are indexed as written – Mr. Ed’s

Preparing Cross-Reference Cards Unusual Names – If you can’t decide which is the surname, use the name in the usual surname position, then prepare a card with the first name as the key unit Hyphenated Surnames – Write 1 st card with entire hyphenated surname as the key unit (without the hyphen), then prepare a card treating the 1 st part of the hyphenated name as a middle name

Preparing Cross-Reference Cards (cont’d) Alternative Names – Prepare a cross-reference card when a person is known by more than one name Abbreviations and Acronyms – Prepare a cross-reference card with the entire name Similar Names – When names sound similar but are spelled differently, prepare cross-reference cards with the other spellings

Rule Six Prefixes – Articles and Particles – Article? Foreign – a la, d’, la, el, etc. – Combined with the part of the name following it to form a single unit – Spaces, cases and punctuation are ignored

Rule Seven Numbers in Business Names – Numbers spelled out are treated as words – Numbers in digits are filed before words This goes for 1 st units, as well – Arabic numerals (?) are filed before Roman numerals (?) – Groups of numbers are filed by the first – If number follows text, then file alphabetically until word without a number – When indexing numbers with text, ignore text and consider numbers only

Rule Eight Organizations and Institutions – File according to official name (Haven’t we been doing that already?!?)

Rule Nine Identical Names – Order is determined by address City names State or province names Street names – Numbered streets before alphabetic – Compass directions are considered as written – House or building numbers – Zip codes are not considered

Rule Ten Government Names – 1 st by location (country, state, county, or city) – 2 nd by distinctive name of dept, bureau, office or board – Federal 1 st unit is “United States Government” – State and Local Location, then distinctive name – Foreign 1 st translated location name Followed by remainder of formal name

Cross-Referencing Business Names Compound Names…? – Bus Com 1?? – Prepare a cross reference card for the other surnames Abbreviations and Acronyms – Same as before Popular or ‘coined’ names – File initially by most commonly used name, then cross-reference under full name

Cross-Referencing Business Names Hyphenated Names – Flip flop hyphenated terms on cross-reference Divisions and Subsidiaries – Cross-reference the parent company Changed Names – Cross-reference old name Similar Names – Includes names that could be considered one or two units – Only the similar part of the name is cross- referenced

Cross-Referencing Business Names Non-English Business Names – File original with English spelling – Cross-reference foreign version Foreign Government Names – Same as businesses – File original with English spelling – Cross-reference foreign version