RESOURCE CENTRE MANUAL
HEALTHLINK WORLDWIDE
5.4.4 Filing catalogue cards
Catalogue cards need to be filed in a way that makes them easy to use. There are
three different ways of filing catalogue cards. They can be filed as three separate
catalogues in three separate boxes (Author, Title and Subject), or as two catalogues
(Author/Title and Subject), or as a single ‘dictionary catalogue’ in which they are all
filed together in alphabetical order, such as:
MacDonald, James
McKenzie, R
Malaria
Malaria Manual
Measles
Ngechu, Mary
(author)
(author)
(subject)
(title)
(subject)
(author)
Examples of different ways to file catalogue cards are shown on the next page.
Standard rules need to be followed when filing cards:
• English: Ignore A, An and The at the beginning of a title.
• French: Ignore La, L', Le, Les, Un and Une at the beginning of a title.
• Portuguese: Ignore A, O, Um and Uma at the beginning of a title.
• For books by the same author, file cards alphabetically by title.
• For books with more than one edition, file cards for the most recent edition
first.
• For books on the same subject, file cards alphabetically by author, and then by
title as above.
SECTION 5: ORGANISING THE INFORMATION
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