ALPHABETIC STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM
rule four
radio and television station call letter
one unit
abbreviated words and names
one unit regardless punctuation or spacing
an acronym (ARMA or GMAC)
regardless of punctuation or spacing
indexed as one unit
single letter
spaces, index each letter as a separate unit
separated
names are indexes as written
business and organization
cher
may or may not be short for Chery!
do not
try to outguess shortened names
spell out abbreviations
abbreviations of personal names and nicknames
as they are written
indexed
initials
considered separate indexing unitd
rule five
example
professional suffix
CRM, DDS, Mayor, Ph.D
seniority suffix
ll, lll, Jr., Sr.
title before a name
DR., MR., MS., PROF.
a title before a name, a seniority suffix or a professional suffix
the last indexing unit
rule six
the indexing order
a space between
the space is disregarded when indexing
the rest of the name
a prefix
not effected
a foreign article or particle in a personal or business name
to form
single indexing unit
combined with the part of the name following
rule seven
when indexing names with numbers
ignore the letter endings and consider only the digits (1,2,3,4)
written in digit form that contain st, d and th (1st, 2d, 3d, 4th)
names with numbers appearing in other than the first position (Pier 36 Cafe)
immediately before a similar name without a number (Pier and Port Cafe)
filed alphabetically
arranged by the first digit(S) only (20)
inclusive numbers (20-39 singles club)
arabic numerals
filed before Roman numerals (2,3.ll,lll)
names with numbers
written in digits in the first unit
before alphabetic names (229 Club, 534 Shop, First National of Chicago)
filled in ascending order (lowest to highest number)
numbers written in digits
before
words
alphabetic letters
filed
numbers spelled out (Seven Lakes Nursery)
rule three
names
index as written
all punctuation is disregarded when indexing personal and business names
close up the letters or words and index the names as one units
commas, periods, hyphens, apostrophes, dashes, exclamation points, questions marks, quotation marks, underscores, and diagonals
rule two
symbols are considered as spelled in full
when "the" appears as a first word of a business name
it is considered the last indexing unit
symbols: &, ₵, $, #, %
AND, CENT, DOLLAR, NUMBER OR POUND, PERCENT
articles, prepositions, conjunctions and symbols
considered separate indexing units
conjunctions: AND, BUT, OR, NOR
prepositions: AT, IN, OUT, ON, OFF, BY, TO, WITH, FOR, OF, OVER
articles: A, AN, THE
rule one
business names
business names contains
index the name in the order it is written
personal name
each word
a separate unit
in a business name
index business names
trademarks as guides
as written using letterhead
personal names
if determining the surname is difficult
as the surname
consider the last name written
middle name or initial
third unit
given name or initial
second unit
surname
key unit
