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Alphabetic Filing Rules
One of the most often asked questions is related to rules for organizing alphabetic files. To address this I will layout what I believe to be effective rules for alphabetic organization.
Guidelines to follow:
One strategy would be to follow how a computer organizes numbers and letters. Computers place numbers before letters. Computers also put nothing before something. In other words, a computer sorting the numbers 1 through 10, as if they were text would place the number 10 before 2. Consistency in number format is required to keep the numbers in order. So to get the number 2 to be sorted before the number 10 preceding the 2 by a zero is required. (01, 02, 03, 04, ... 10 )
A second strategy would be to follow how the phone book is organized. I used to feel that this was very effective, but I have found of late, that it seems to break its own rules. It appears to follow the concept of forget all spaces and treat all words, names as one big word and organize the names that way. Yet at other times it does not.
A third strategy would be to follow the rules as set out by ARMA (Association of Records Managers and Administrators). After all they have published a guideline consisting of 40 pages of rules and examples. If you wish to receive a copy, ARMA can be reached at http://www.arma.org/. I however feel their rules are far too difficult to follow for most applications. After all Rule #3 is to keep it simple.
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| Rule #1 |  | These are rules, so treat them as such. | | | Rule #2 | | If you want to break the rules, let all know of changes and add them to the rules. | | | Rule #3 | | Keep the rules simple, so all can follow. This is why it is best not to make special considerations for "this" and something else for "that". | | | Rule #4 | | Nothing comes before something.
ie. "Johnson"comes before
"Johnson, A." which comes before
"Johnson, Al"
This rule also means Initials precede names. | | | Rule #5 | | Has two options.
A) Numbers come before letters.
ie. "123 Company" comes before
"ABC Company"
or
B) Treat numbers as if spelled out, "123" becomes "One Two Three".
ie. "ABC Company" comes before
"456 Incorporated" which comes before
"123 Company". | | | Rule #6 | | Disregard Hyphens, Periods, Commas, Dashes and Apostrophes. Hyphenated words are to be considered to be one word.
ie. "James, Sam" comes before
"Jame's Shop" which comes before
"James-Smith, Jean" | | | Rule #7 | | Treat all abbreviations as spelled out. In other words "&" becomes "and","St." becomes "Saint".
ie. "St. James, Lisa" comes before
"Sather, Brenda"
If you make exceptions to this rule, than make sure all are aware. If you wish to file the "St." as printed. The problem with this kind of strategy is you can wind up with the "St." and "Saint" in two different locations. So be careful when not spelling out abbreviations.
ie. "Saint James, Mike" comes before
"Spencer, Wendy" which comes before
"St. James, Lisa" | | | Rule #8 | | When dealing with company names that start with "The" or "Le", they become the last filing unit.
ie. "Water Store" comes before
"Water Store, La" which comes before "Water Store, The" | | | Rule #9 | | Names that have a prefix like "Mac" or "Van" are part of the name.
ie. "MacIssac, John" comes before
"Mack, James" which comes before
"Mactavish, Lynne"
The "Mc" and the "Mac" create some of the greatest debate. I recommend treating them the same. This way "MacMillian" would be treated as "McMillian" for filing purposes. You do not change its spelling on the name label, but treat it differently for filing only. For further details on this, contact our office. | | | Rule #10 | | Government listings, the location comes first.
ie. "Ontario, Province of" comes before
"Peel, Region of" which comes before
"St. Catherines, City of" | | | Rule #11 | | If there is more than one way to refer to something, than cross reference. This can become very important when looking at some names when it is difficult to know which is the first, middle or last name. | |
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| We welcome your thoughts on this, and we hope this strategy will assist your organization.
Vaughn Warrington, C.R.M.
Infofile Systems Inc.
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There is a national standard color code for file folders. By using infofile's industry standard color coded labels you decrease filing time in the office, eliminate misfiles and drastically reduce training time for all employees.
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| | Other Filing Rules Resources
This is the most concise, all-encompassing set of filing rules we have seen to date. No matter which filing rules you adopt, we recommend you lay them out in a format very similar to this web page and have them posted at your filing system(s). The following are a few resources which confirm these rules and offer additional options should you believe you have special circumstances.
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