And now, some brickbats for these people who make life (i.e. access) harder for EVERYONE, especially those of us in the access business.
1. Printed materials (church hymnals/songbooks, I'm looking at YOU) whose indexes include initial articles when sorting. Without an alternate entry. Thus we have "A mighty fortress is our God" listed under "A", but not under "Mighty". And if the first word of the title is "Oh", it appears - yep - AFTER "O".
2. Programs, including library automation and cataloging software, which include initial articles when sorting. Thus we have A manual for writers listed under A, not M; The Odyssey under T, not O; and An education in Georgia under A, not E. And no option for changing this behavior.*
3. Programs which include non-alphanumeric characters when sorting. Thus --y no se lo tragó la tierra is at the top of the sort, since "-" comes before alphabetical characters in the ASCII scheme. I don't know about you, but I've never browsed for a title under "-". (Allowing for artistic license, here.)*
4. Websites that use ISBNs as a search option that MUST have hyphens in appropriate places or their search engine will refuse to find your item. God bless those sites that provide for either the hyphenated or non- options.
*Fortunately for the patrons, the software sorts these as one expects, without the article, according to whatever you've put in the "non-sorting characters" indicator. Why can't it do the same for the librarian/access-providing person?
1. Printed materials (church hymnals/songbooks, I'm looking at YOU) whose indexes include initial articles when sorting. Without an alternate entry. Thus we have "A mighty fortress is our God" listed under "A", but not under "Mighty". And if the first word of the title is "Oh", it appears - yep - AFTER "O".
2. Programs, including library automation and cataloging software, which include initial articles when sorting. Thus we have A manual for writers listed under A, not M; The Odyssey under T, not O; and An education in Georgia under A, not E. And no option for changing this behavior.*
3. Programs which include non-alphanumeric characters when sorting. Thus --y no se lo tragó la tierra is at the top of the sort, since "-" comes before alphabetical characters in the ASCII scheme. I don't know about you, but I've never browsed for a title under "-". (Allowing for artistic license, here.)*
4. Websites that use ISBNs as a search option that MUST have hyphens in appropriate places or their search engine will refuse to find your item. God bless those sites that provide for either the hyphenated or non- options.
*Fortunately for the patrons, the software sorts these as one expects, without the article, according to whatever you've put in the "non-sorting characters" indicator. Why can't it do the same for the librarian/access-providing person?
Authority Record
library_mofo- The Society for Librarians* Who Say "Motherfucker"
Designed by 
chasethestars
chasethestars
Comments
And don't get me started on how Ellery Queen ends up as an author's name, sometimes, and the title of a book, sometimes. Anyone who wanted to find all these books would go nuts wandering around the stacks.