Conventions and Abbreviations

The bibliography is arranged alphabetically by the last name of the author or by the first word of the title. Author names that begin with Mc, Mac, M’, and so forth are arranged by precomputer library alphabetizing conventions as if they were spelled Mac. Names that begin with St. are arranged as if spelled Saint. Names such as De Smet, De Vries, Van Tramp, or Van der Zee are arranged depending on whether they are American or foreign authors. So De Smet and De Vries are found under the names Smet and Vries respectively because they are foreign authors, but Van Tramp, Van der Zee, and Van Deusen are found under Van because they are American authors.

Occasionally one will encounter “See references,” which contain personal names or periodical titles without an entry number or bibliographic entry. These are intended to direct the researcher to a different main entry that should be used instead of the initial name. For example:

O’Reilly, Harrington. See Nelson, John Young.M

This means that Harrington O’Reilly is a pseudonym, and under the entry Nelson, John Young we find the title Fifty years on the trail; a true story of western life by Harrington O’Reilly.
Another example:

Aaronic Herald. See Melchisedek and Aaronic Herald.

A similar convention occasionally appears as “See also” references. These entries refer to additional entries that may be important to examine. For example:

Deseret News. See also Deseret Evening News; Deseret News Weekly; Deseret Semi-Weekly News; Deseret Weekly.

Each entry of the bibliography has several discrete data fields that use a variety of conventions and abbreviations and are arranged in the following order:

Entry number. Sequential Arabic numbers, in bold, are assigned to each entry. Some numbers include sequential lowercase roman letters following the number.

Main entry. The main entry, in bold, is ordinarily a personal author (with the surname followed by the given name) or sometimes a corporate author. Where no author is listed, the main entry becomes the title. Authors are given in the form established by library authority control (that is, with full name given when known) rather than as they appear on the title page of the book. For example:

5053. Lyman, Chester Smith. Around the Horn to the Sandwich Islands and California 1845-1850, being a personal record kept by Chester S. Lyman… .

Exceptions: In some cases what is called a Uniform Title main entry is appropriate. When the entry is a book of scripture, the main entry is not a personal name, corporate name, or the printed title but rather a variation of the title, followed by the language it is printed in and the date printed. For example:

595. Book of Mormon. English. 1830. The book of Mormon: an account written by the hand of Mormon, upon plates taken from the plates of Nephi… By Joseph Smith, Junior, author and proprietor. Palmyra, [N.Y.], Printed by E. B. Grandin, for the author, 1830.

728. Book of Mormon. Hawaiian. 1855. Ka Buke a Moramona. He mooolelo i kakauia e ka lima o Moramona. Maluna iho o na Papa I laweia mailoko mai o na Papa o Nepal… I unuhiia ma ka Olelo Beritania ejosepa Samika, Opio. Na Geogi Q. Pukuniahi i unuhi ma ka olelo Hawaii. San Francisco, Paiia e Geogi Q. Pukuniahi, 1855.

Title. The title is given in italics as it appears on the title page. A lowercase style is used, capitalizing only proper nouns.

Place. This is the city where the item was published. If the city is not well known, the state or country is also given.

Publisher. The name of the publisher is given as it appears on the title page.

Printer. The name of the printer and occasionally the place of printing are given; sometimes the place of printing differs from the place of publication. In such cases, the place of printing follows the printer’s name.

Date. This is the date of publication or printing as it appears on the title page.

Pagination. The number of pages in the book, including unnumbered pages and leaves, are listed as they appear in the book with both roman numerals and arabic numerals. In the following example, two unnumbered preliminary leaves are followed by seven pages with roman numerals, then 237 pages with arabic numerals:

2p.l., xii, 237p.

Size. The size is measured in centimeters from top to bottom of binding. Ordinarily only height is given. For broadsides, broadsheets, and books that are wider than they are tall, both height and width dimensions are given. Size is rounded up or down to nearest full centimeter. For example:

15 x 20cm.

Illustration. Illustrations of all kinds-portraits, maps, charts, tables-are given in abbreviated form. For example:

illus., plate, ports., maps (fold.), facsims.

Series. Entries that are part of a stated series are usually numbered. The series statement follows the illustration data field and is placed inside parentheses. For example:

(Centennial series, no. 3)

Notes. Different types of notes include cover or caption title statement, printed wrapper statement, title in English statement (these notes appear only when the entry is a non-English book), and other edition(s) statement. Most entries also include notes that give brief statements describing the Mormon content found in the book. Some books are also listed in other published bibliographies with a bibliography number (see Bibliographies Cited). For example:

Caption title.
In brown printed wrappers.
Title in English: Crossing the plains in 1849.
Other editions: 1888 CtY, MH, UPB, US1C; 1890 CSmH, UU.
Includes an account of meeting the Mormons on the trail, p. 345-48.
Crawley 277, Byrd 1158, Fales & Flake 445.

Holdings. This is a coded, alphabetical list of institutional libraries that own an original copy of the book. This list of codes is not always intended to be comprehensive. In some cases, many institutional libraries own a copy, so rather than a large number of institutions only a modest number of repositories from a variety of locations around the country are listed (see Key to Library Symbols). When no known copies are found in institutional libraries or the only known copy is owned by a private collector, the terms “No copy located” or “Copy in private hands” appear in the holdings field. In the case of some Danish books that have no known institutional copy, the full bibliographic entry has been taken from Jørgen W. Schmidt’s En dansk Mormon Bibliografi, 1837-1984, a bibliography of Danish works. In these cases, “Schmidt” appears in the holdings field. Examples:

CtY, MH, NjP, UPB, US1C
No copy located.
Copy in private hands.
Schmidt.

Any field of data that appears surrounded by brackets, such as [1854] or [Independence, Mo.], means that the information inside the brackets does not appear on the title page. Rather, this data appears somewhere else in the book, such as on the verso of the title page or in the colophon at the end of the book, or information inside brackets is provided by the compilers. For example, a place of publication may be given as Norwich, [Eng.] because England does not appear anywhere in the book, but the compilers know the place of publication is Norwich, England, and not, for instance, Norwich, New York.

Abbreviations

———.

Main entry is the same as the previous entry

15 x 20cm.

15 centimeters in height by 20 centimeters in width

annual

Published once per year

approx.

Approximately

assem.

Assembly

at foot of

Text at the bottom of page

at head of

Text at the top of page

at head of title

Text at the top of title page

bimonthly

Published every other month

bks.

Books

broadsheet

Single sheet with printing on both sides

broadside

Single sheet with printing on one side

c

Copyright

ca.

Circa—used for an approximated date of publication

caption title

Title given as a caption at the top of the first page of text rather than on a typical title page

card

Printed on stiff card stock

chap.

Chapter

chart

Chart or charts

cm.

Centimeters

col.

Colored

colophon

A statement at the end of a book tliat includes publication information

comp.

Complete

cover title

Title given on the cover rather than on the title page or the title on the cover is different than the title on the title page

daily

Published daily

diagr.

Diagram or diagrams

doc.

Document

ex.

Executive

excl.

Excluding

facsim.

Facsimile or facsimiles

fold.

Folded

front.

Frontispiece—an illustration facing the title page

geneal.

Genealogical

H.House

(U.S. House of Representatives)

H. J. Res.

House Joint Resolution

H. R.

House Resolution

half title

Title of a book as printed on the leaf preceding the title page

illus.

Illustration or illustrations

inc.

Incomplete

irregularly

Published without regular frequency

l.

Leaf or leaves

legis.

Legislature

map

Map or maps

misc.

Miscellaneous

monthly

Published monthly

mss.

Manuscript—handwritten

music

Includes musical notation

no.

Number

nos.

Numbers

n.d.

No date of publication is given

n.p.

No place of publication is given

numb.

Numbered

p.

Page or pages

pamp.

Pamphlet or pamphlets

p.l.

Unnumbered preliminary leaf or leaves

pseud.

Pseudonym

part

Some, not all

photo

Photograph or photographs

plate

Plate or plates printed separately from the text and inserted during binding

port.

Portrait or portraits

pt.

Part or parts

res.

Resolution

S.

Senate (U.S. Senate)

(same)

Title and content is the same as the previous entry, or the title has a slight variation from the previous entry; when there is a variation in the title the new title is given following (same)

(same in Danish)

Content of book is a translation of the previous entry in Danish (or some language other than English)

(same under title)

Content of book is the same as previous entry, but the title is substantially different. Following the designation (same under title) the different title is then given.

semiannual

Published twice per year

semimonthly

Published twice per month

sess.

Session

ser.

Series

S. R.

Senate Resolution

tab.

Numerical table or tables

U.S. Cong.

U.S. Congress

v.

Volume or volumes

weekly

Published weekly

wrappers

Paper covers