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Alphabetical order

8 replies

FlamedToACrisp · 28/02/2020 23:20

Which comes first: a gap, a hyphen or a letter?

What would you say is the correct alphabetical order for this list?

new hope, newly, new world, new format, new-found freedom

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Haworthia · 28/02/2020 23:24

I would say letter, then hyphen, then gap (although I can’t think of a scenario when you’d need to sort anything in that way).

Trust me, I’m a qualified librarian

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Doyoumind · 28/02/2020 23:25

Newly
New-found freedom
New format
New hope
New world

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PennyRoyal · 28/02/2020 23:39

⬆️ what @Doyoumind said ⬆️
That's the order I'd place them in.

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FlamedToACrisp · 28/02/2020 23:40

The scenario is a vocabulary list of words and phrases in alphabetical order.

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ItsGoingTibiaK · 29/02/2020 11:00

There isn’t a single answer!

A dictionary would generally alphabetise letter-by-letter, ignoring spaces and hyphens, so your list would be:

New format
New-found freedom
New hope
Newly
New world

Indexes vary depending on the type of publication and the house style.

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Andylion · 04/03/2020 17:32

Trust me, I’m a qualified librarian

But according to LC shelving "nothing comes before something", and (as I just looked up), a hyphenated word is treated as two words, so:

New format
New-found freedom
New hope
New world
Newly

But if were aren't shelving, I don't know.

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Andylion · 04/03/2020 17:34

I realize that I have no clue what cataloging system libraries in the UK use. I am in Canada.

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Andylion · 04/03/2020 18:18

And I further realize that I am talking about words, not call numbers. . For the first time this year in my job, I trained the student library workers to shelve both monographs and journals, which we shelve alphabetically by title.

Well, enough about me.....