Forenames. When Christian names ar given in ful, the arrangement should be in strict alfabetical order, following the surname. And use should be made of all the helps which the cataloger has given for distinguishing two or more persons whose names ar identical.
Titles, such as Gen., Don., Sir, ar to be allowed to stand, but not to affect the arrangement.
Numerals occurring as hedings should be treated as if written out in letters. The novel “39 men for one woman” should be entered under t.
Initials. If the cataloger has simply followed the title-page and given only initials of Christian names, the only safe course is to treat every initial as a name; and, on the axiom “Nothing before something,” the initial should precede the ful name. Thus J. precedes James even tho, as may afterwards be learned, the J. stands for Jehoshaphat.
Dash. In order to save space in printing, and for distinctness to the eye, it is wel to use a dash to represent a word or group of words that might otherwise hav to be repeated; or to inset the words that come under the general heding. Care should be taken to make clear what the dash stands for, and to confine its use within proper bounds.
It may be used when we hav several books written by one person; but it should not be used to cover another person of the same surname.
It may be used to represent a word or group of words that indicate a definite subject, as heat, moral science, socialists and Fourierism, society for the diffusion of useful knowledge. But it should not be used to represent a part of a compound subject-heding, nor a part of a title; e. g., in the entries Historical portraits, Historical reading, the word Historical should be spelled out in each case.
APPENDIX V. ABBREVIATIONS.
The list of abbreviations originally given on p. [57], § [116], was enlarged in the report of the committee on catalogue rules of the American Library Association (Library journal, 3: 16–19). It there included the abbreviations for the most usual forenames formed by the initial followed by a colon for men and by two periods for women (as J:=John, M..=Mary), devised by C: A. Cutter and first published in the Library journal, 1: 405 and 5: 176. It was republished, classified, but with many omissions and additions, by Melvil Dewey in Library notes, 1: 206–211, and also on a convenient card. It is here reprinted in full with his additions.
A list of abbreviations used in describing bindings, prepared by E. H. Woodruff, was published in the Library journal for May, 1887.