---------- 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