A lesson in Alphabetic Filing

The following lesson was designed by Vaughn Warrington, CRM (President - infofile systems inc.), and used as course material for a College based Records Management course.

Alphabetic Filing

• alpha filing requires knowledge of alphabetic arrangement
• also requires knowledge of rules of alpha filing

Rules of Alphabetic Arrangement
Three Aspects:

1. What alpha sequence
2. What is alpha order
3. What is the order of entry

Alpha Sequence
Used for arrangement of:

• names
• locations
• subjects
• titles
• or common characteristics

Alphabetic Order
Three conventions:

1. letter by letter
2. word by word
3. unit by unit


1. letter by letter
• letters in title are simply strung together ignoring spaces, dashes, etc.
2. word by word
• word by word, letter by letter within words, according to order of English alphabet
3. unit by unit
• Established by ARMA
• "each word abbreviation, and initial is a separate filing unit unless otherwise defined in a separate rule. Alphabetizing of each unit is completed before proceeding to next unit."
• Unit by Unit, "Allows us to make decisions regarding prefixes, combinations, and compound words"
• See ARMA's publication at http://www.arma.org/Bookstore/product_detail.cfm?itemID=1006

Order of entry
Order of entry is, "Finding the first unit to be considered for filing."

• Wide range of interpretation as to what first unit is, rules must be established.

Advantages of Alphabetic Filing

• direct access system - no cross references required (usually, see Filing Rules, #11)
• allows for browsing, within system
• requires no additional index to be maintained
• ease of use, most people familiar with a - z's

Disadvantages of Alphabetic Filing
Alphabetical vs. numeric

• not designed for large volumes of files
• duplication of names can occur
• uniqueness of files is not possible (or additional references are required such as date)