ARRANGEMENT OF CARDS IN THE PUBLIC CATALOGUE
Although cards are filed in the catalogue alphabetically by author, subject, and sometimes title, the large number of entries makes it necessary to have a filing system. A copy of Princeton University Library Filing Rules is kept on the counter next to the Public Catalogue. Some of these rules are given below.
- Arrangement is word by word, alphabetizing letter by letter to the end of each word.
- New England
- New York
- Newark
- Newman
- Order of entries under same word. When the same word is used for several kinds of headings, it is arranged in the flowing order: person, place, thing, title.
- Maine, Sir Henry J.S. (person)
- Maine. Legislative (place)
- MAINE-MAPS (place)
- Maine, University (place)
- MAINE (BATTLESHIP) (thing)
- Maine beautiful (title)
Also, there may be several alphabets for some names and words.
- Person, firm, family
- Fraser, Alexander
- Fraser & Chalmers
- Fraser & Co.
- FRASER FAMILY
- Place, with explanatory term in parentheses
- New York (city)
- New York (colony)
- New York (state)
- Organizations as authors. An "author" may be an organization, a government, an institution or a society. If so, the main card may be found under some such heading as the following:
- American Pharmaceutical Association.
- New Jersey. Legislature.
- United States. Department of State.
- United States. Special Committee on Farm Tenancy.
- Main cards precede subject cards.
- Thackeay, William Makepeace
- Ballads (works by)
- THACKERAY, WILLIAM MAKEPEACE
- [Benjamin, Lewis Saul]
- The Life (works about)
- Compound surnames. Surnames compounded of two names, with or without a hyphen, follow the single name.
- Blanco, Pedro
- Blanco de Paz, Juan
- Blanco-Fombona, Ricardo
- Blanco Garcia, Francisco
- Blanco y Sanchez, R.
- Forenames used a headings precede surnames beginning with the same name. They are arranged in the following groups:
(a) Saints
(b) Popes
(c) Sovereigns (alphabetized by name of country)
(d) Princes and nobility
(e) Others
For example:
- John, Saint, apostle
- John, king of England
- John I, king of Scotland
- John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster
- John the Baptist
- John, Helen James
- Publications of an organization are usually entered under the name of the organization.
- American Academy of Political and Social Science.
Annals.
- American Medical Association.
Journal.
- National Academy of Sciences.
Proceedings.
- New Jersey. Civil Service Commission.
Annual report.
- Vowels with an umlaut are usually files as though they were spelled in full. Ù, ð, ö are filed as ae, oe, ue
- Maeder, Alphonse
- MÙder, Paul
- M', Mc. Names beginning with M' and Mc are filed as though they were spelled Mac.
- Articles. When the first word of a title is an article (a, an, or the), it is disregarded in the filing. This is true also of articles in foreign languages.
- The genius
- Genius and valour
- A genius in the family
- When an article is within a title, it is observed in the filing.
- Journal of human relations
- Journal of social psychology
- Journal of the history of ideas
- Common abbreviations are arranged as though they were spelled out.
- Dr. filed as Doctor (or Doktor in German)
- Gt. Brit. filed as Great Britain
- Mlle. filed as Mademoiselle
- Mrs. filed as Mistress
- U.S. filed as United States
- Names with prefixes. (De, De la, La, Las, O', Van, Von, etc.) Personal and place names compounded with prefixes are treated as one word.
- Defoe, Daniel
- De la Roche, Mazo
- Delaware
- Eldorado
- El Paso, Texas
- Initials are arranged before a word beginning with the same letter.
- ABD of the Bible
- The A.E.F. in battle
- A.S.M.E. news
- Aa, Cornelius van der
- Hyphenated words are filed as two words except those words with a hyphenated prefix, such as anti-, co-, inter-, post-, etc.
- Cooperative marketing
- Co-operative movement
- Preglacial age
- Pre-historic America
- Wire, George E.
- Wire-drag work in Alaska
- WIRE-FENCING
- WIRE-TAPPING
- The wireless experimenter's manual
- Wiretapping, see Wire-tapping
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