18. Filing Rules

Filing rules. (From SCM Shelflisting G100). Filing rules come into play when author or geographic cutters need to be subarranged, in subarranging by main entry, or in situations 10-11, when the main entry is the same and subarrangement by title is needed. The basic rule is "file as is." For complex filing arrangements, refer to and base decisions on the Library of Congress Filing Rules (available on the Cataloger's Desktop) rather than the computer sorting order.

While the computer sorting order affects searches on names, the call number search generally follows the order of arrangement of the card shelflist, which is closest to the filing sequence laid out in G100 and the LC Filing Rules. Therefore, we will continue to follow G100 and the LC Filing Rules for shelflist filing order since this appears to be the least disruptive to file integrity.

18a. Personal name filing arrangement:

• file single forenames before single surnames;
• file single surnames before compound forenames;
• file compound forenames before compound surnames.

Note that the forename is demarcated by the comma if there are subordinate elements such as dates, place of origin, or title. Exceptionally, if a forename has enumeration, usually a roman numeral, the demarcation is before the number.

Shelflisting (filing) order (name in subfield c is in italics):

Giovanni II, Bishop of Città di Castello, fl. 1204-1226
Giovanni, 15th cent. <files as 1400-1499>
Giovanni, da Capua, 13th cent.
Giovanni, da San Giovanni, 1592-1636
Giovanni, di Paolo, ca. 1403-ca. 1482
Giovanni, Fiorentino, 14th cent.
Giovanni, André
Giovanni, Fabio, 1958-
Giovanni, José, 1924-
Giovanni, Nikki
Giovanni Bernardo, d. 1503 or 4
Giovanni del Virgilio, fl. 1319

LC Filing Rules, 5.1. Forename Fields: "The leading element of a forename field may be followed by one or more of the following categories of subordinate elements: 1) numeration; 2) dates; 3) additional words. When forename fields have identical leading elements, they are grouped in the following order:

18b. Treat a prefix that is part of a name or place as a separate word unless it is joined to the rest of the name directly or by an apostrophe without a space. File letter by letter.

Darby, Joseph R.
D'Arcy, Paula, 1947-
De, S. C
De La Cruz, Jessie Lopez, 1919-
De Lange, Elaine
DeAndrea, William L.
D'Ebneth, Maria Scholten de
Deformation of solids
Del Balzo, Giulio
Delaurier, William J.

18c. Ignore initial articles in titles. BUT: initial articles in personal names and place names are accounted for in filing, e.g. El-Ad, Avri; Las Lomas, California.

18d. File abbreviations (e.g. Mc) as written, not as spelled out. Generally start a new file sequence in areas where the old filing rules were used in shelflisting, but keep previously established authors, artists, etc. together. Search under both the abbreviated form and the spelled out form to avoid split files.

Mabney, William
MacDonald, Joan E., 1916-
Marshall, Catherine, 1914-
McGrath, Suzanne
Metal products manufacturing

18e. Words separated by hyphens are treated as separate words.

18f. Numerals in titles :

• If a number is written out, file alphabetically (Seventy-six trombones files to S)
• If number is in notation form (Arabic, roman numerals), use A12-A19. A12 and A19 are BOUNDARIES and number combinations are infinite, so never assign A12 (or A122 or other low number) or A19. Otherwise, the next shelflister will have a hard time inserting a new number. Entries beginning with numerals should file before entries beginning with letters
• Arrangement of numbers in notation form is in numerical order rather than decimal/computer order; file 12 before 111; punctuation is ignored. (BUT: if there is no number before a decimal point, it is filed before 1!)

Number written out:

Number in notation form:

Caution: book numbers for literary authors based on the literature tables may not fit into the A12-A19 range. For literary authors based on the P-PZ40 table, for example, the book number range is x.A61-x.Z458. However, a title beginning with numerals will still need to file before the first title beginning with letters.

18g. Modified Letters