Alphabetic Indexing Rules

OT 122Chapter 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 1st card with entire hyphenated surname as

the key unit (without the hyphen), then prepare a card treating the 1st 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 1st 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– 1st by location (country, state, county, or city)– 2nd by distinctive name of dept, bureau, office or

board– Federal• 1st unit is “United States Government”

– State and Local• Location, then distinctive name

– Foreign• 1st 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