Question about Title Alphabetizing (Joe Edelen) Marcia Tuttle 13 Jul 1998 13:21 UTC
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 11 Jul 1998 09:46:09 -0500 From: Joe Edelen <jedelen@USD.EDU> Subject: Question about Title Alphabetizing An original question I sent to a national vendor (it is at the bottom of this message) recently was in regard to the alphabetizing that their system does with journal titles. I received the following response. I am curious to hear comments from others about this. I find it very difficult to work with as titles appear in places that I am not used to finding them. Our mainframe here at USD does not ignore articles within a title (my main complaint with their system). This gets especially confusing to me when "Journal of the American Chemical Society" files before "Journal of American Culture". There are, obviously, many other examples. I am very interested in others' experiences. ****************************************************************************** *** Joe Edelen I.D. Weeks Library *** Bibliographic Control Librarian University of South Dakota *** 605-677-6082 414 East Clark Street *** 605-677-5488 (fax) Vermillion, South Dakota 57069 *** jedelen@usd.edu ****************************************************************************** - REPLY I RECEIVED - Here is the way our alphabetization systems works: blank . ( & ) - / , a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 1) The priority sequence above covering some punctuation symbols, letters of the alphabet, and numerals will determine where a title is listed based on each character or blank space in the writing of the title being evaluated, compared to other titles, against the above priority list. Example: ABTU News, Aalers, Ab Crane News, (A) Trip #1 - (A) Trip comes first because the parenthesis sign has highest priority. #2 - Aalers comes second because its second character a, is higher on the priority list than any other second characters. #3 - Ab Crane News comes third because its third space is a blank and a blank has priority over any other third space including T which is third in ABTU News. #4 - ABTU News My Emphasis============================================================ 2)Articles, which in the English languages are "a, an, the" will always be included in the title, but they will be disregarded in alphabetizing in favor ofthe next word of significance. This rule includes foreign articles as well. ====================================================================== My Emphasis============================================================= 3) The most common prepositions and conjunctions, which are listed below, are disregarded in alphabetizing except when they are the first word in a title. Prepositions: in for of on to with Conjunctions: and or Alphabetization systems are very numerous and each is subject to be forever debatable. Each works well as long as it is adhered to without deviation. I hope this helps clarify _______ system of alphabetization. ========================================================================== My Original Question=============================================== > > I noticed that ART IN AMERICA files before ART CRITICISM. I am > assuming > that the word IN is some sort of stop word for _______ in sorting. > Can > you please provide me with a list of those words? > > Thanks > Joe