Letter-by-letter filing considers each letter in each word in the order of appearance, ignoring any spaces between words. Word-by-word filing orders items based on the first letter of each word in succession. Unit-by-unit filing takes into account each word, abbreviation, and initial, ordering items according to these. The unit-by-unit system is generally recommended.
If you have lots of different types of items to file (recipes, tax receipts, letters, etc. ), then it can be helpful to use the encyclopedia format. Group the items by type first, then alphabetically order the items in each group. Keep the groups separated using dividers or color coding.
Suppose you have the following items to index and file: an article on aardvarks titled “Nocturnal Feeding of Aardvarks,” a biography of noted aardvark expert Jane A. Doe, and a promotional brochure for a Detroit Zoo aardvark exhibit. The biography of Jane A. Doe would be indexed as “Doe, Jane A. ," since last names come first in filing. It would be filed under the letter “D. ” The article “Nocturnal Feeding of Aardvarks” could be indexed as-is, if you choose dictionary-style grouping. It could be filed under the letter “N” (for “Nocturnal”), using this grouping. Alternatively, you could index “Nocturnal Feeding of Aardvarks” as “Aardvarks, Nocturnal Feeding of. ” This would make sense if you were using an encyclopedia-style grouping, and not just filing items related to aardvarks. The item would then be filed under “A. ” The promotional brochure could be indexed as “Aardvarks, exhibits (Detroit Zoo). " This would make sense if you expect to have several materials on aardvark exhibits—for example, you might have another item to be indexed as “Aardvarks, exhibits (Toledo Zoo). ” Alternatively, the promotional brochure could be indexed as “Detroit Zoo (Aardvark Exhibit). " This might make sense if you expect to have several items related to the Detroit Zoo, or if you want to use an encyclopedia-style grouping to file items by geographic location.
The order of your indexed files in the previous step could then be (depending on the system you use): “Doe, Jane A. ,” “Detroit Zoo (Aardvark Exhibit),” and “Nocturnal Feeding of Aardvarks” OR “Aardvarks, exhibits (Detroit Zoo),” “Aardvarks, Nocturnal Feeding of,” and “Doe, Jane A. ” A file for “Wallaby” would come after a file for “Emu. ” A file for “Kangaroo” would come in between, and a file for “Aardvark” would come before one for “Bear” and one for “Emu. ” This would give you the following file order: “Aardvark,” “Bear,” “Emu,” “Kangaroo,” “Wallaby. " If you then added a file for “Anteater,” it would come after any files for “Aardvark. ” Since both begin with the letter “A,” you have to look at the second letter of each word (“N” and “A,” respectively) to determine the order, and then arrange files based on this. The new order would be: “Aardvark,” “Anteater,” “Bear,” “Emu,” “Kangaroo,” “Wallaby. "
Place items in the folder designated for them. You may also find it useful to color code your files to improve usability. For instance, if you are using an encyclopedia-style grouping, give each group a separate color, and label each item/file in each group with its respective color.
“First Bank of Chicago” could be indexed and filed as “Chicago, First Bank of. ” “Chicago” is the key term in this entry, rather than “First” or “Bank,” especially if you might have other items with similar names, such as “First Bank of Tulsa” or “Chicago Bank and Trust. ”
Thus, “Jane A. Doe” would be indexed and filed as “Doe, Jane A. ” Put titles (Dr. , Mrs. , Major, etc. ) at the end. “Dr. Jane A. Doe,” for instance, would be indexed and filed as “Doe, Jane A. , Dr. ” Generally, order names as they are spelled, letter-by-letter. For instance, “MacDonald” would come before “McDonald. ” Likewise, “D’,” “L’,” “Le,” “de,” etc. are considered as part of name, not separate units For instance, order files “Heinlein,” “Le Guin” “L’Engle,” and “Wolfe” in that order (and NOT as “L’Engle, “Le Guin,” “Heinlein,” “Wolfe”). A common exception to these rules about names is when an individual’s name forms part of a business or organization name. In these cases, treat the individual’s name as units within the business name. For instance, “Jane A. Doe Pest Control” would be filed under “J,” and NOT indexed as “Doe, Jane A. Pest Control. ”
“An Investigation of Emu Feeding Practices” would be in filed under “E,” for “Emu” (the significant word in this item’s title), rather than “A” for “an. ” “Doe and Smith Pest Control” would be filed after “Doe, Jane A. ” Both indexed names begin with the word “Doe,” so you move on to the next significant term in each (“Smith” and “Jane,” respectively) to determine the file order. Ignore the word “and,” since it is not significant.
For instance, “Jane A. Doe Mining Company” would be filed after “Jane A. Doe Mfg. ”
For instance, “3M Company” would be filed before “100 Great Business Ideas” (since “3” comes before “100”). “Great Business Ideas” and “Great Business Leaders” would be filed after “100 Great Business Ideas,” since numbers are arranged before letters. Numbers that are already spelled out are treated as words, rather than numerals. For instance, file items “100 Great Business Leaders,” “Great Business Ideas,” and “Two Hundred Great Business Ideas” in that order. If it serves your filing purposes, however, you can make an exception and always file numerals as though they were spelled out.
Punctuation (such as apostrophes, periods, and commas) is generally ignored when indexing and filing items. For instance, file “Washington’s Best Coffee,” and “Washington State Fair” in that order. Diacritics are treated as the corresponding letter, without the diacritic mark. [6] X Trustworthy Source Library of Congress Official library of the U. S. and main research institution for Congress and the American public Go to source For example, file “Éclair” as “Eclair,” and “Über” as “Uber. ” The exception to this is when you are filing according to the alphabet of a language that uses diacritics, in which case you should follow the normal alphabetical order of that language.
For instance, file “North East Bank,” “North East Manufacturing” and “Northeast Bank,” in that order. Likewise, “Doe, Jane A. " would be filed before “Doe, Jane A. , Dr. "
If you had items for two different individuals named Jane A. Doe, you could order them by birthdate. File “Doe, Jane A. (b. 1853)” would thus come before file “Doe, Jane A. (b. 1967). You could also order items according to geography when you need to make distinctions. If you have files for three different banks in three different locations, and each bank is called “First United Bank and Trust,” you could order them alphabetically in the order “First United Bank and Trust (Georgia)”, “First United Bank and Trust (Oklahoma),” and “First United Bank and Trust (South Dakota). ” Likewise, if you had items for two different bears or types of bears, you would distinguish them further, based on species, geographic location, etc. For instance, you might have files on “Bear, Brown” and “Bear, Grizzly” (in that order), or files on “Bears (European)” and “Bears (North American)” (in that order).
