The bibliography is arranged alphabetically according to either the last name of the author or the first word of the title (excluding of course initial articles). Authors’ names that begin with Mc, Mac, M’, and so forth, are arranged alphabetically according to 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 by library convention, depending on whether they are American or foreign authors. Thus, De Smet and De Vries are found under the names Smet and Vries, respectively, because these 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 are 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.” This means that Harrington O’Reilly is a pseudonym for John Young Nelson; 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 with title: “Aaronic Herald. See Melchisedek and Aaronic Herald.” A similar convention occasionally appears as “See also references.” These references refer the researcher 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 is composed of several data fields that use a variety of conventions and abbreviations and are arranged in the following order:

Entry number. Entry numbers are sequential Arabic numbers in bold 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, surname followed by given name, or sometimes a corporate author. Where there is no author listed, the main entry becomes the title. Authors are given in the form established by library authority control (i.e., 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, a 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. Examples:

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 Nepai . . . I unuhiia ma ka Olelo Beritania e Josepa Samika, Opio. Na Geogi Q. Pukuniahi i unuhi ma ka olelo Hawaii. San Francisco, Paiia e Geogi Q. Pukuniahi, 1855.

Title. Title is given in italics as it appears on the title page.

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

Publisher. Name of publisher as it appears on the title page.

Printer. Name of printer. Occasionally the place of printing is also given, and sometimes it is different from the place of publication. In such cases the place of printing follows the printer’s name.

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

Pagination. Number of pages in the book, including unnumbered pages and leaves, ordered as they appear in the book, with both roman numerals and arabic numerals. For example:

2p.l., xii, 237p.

Size. Size measured in centimeters from top to bottom of binding. Ordinarily only height is given. For broadsides, broadsheets, and books that are wider than 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, and so on, 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 formatted inside a pair of parentheses. For example:

(Centennial series, no. 3)

Notes. There are a variety of different types of notes, including 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, USlC; 1890. CSmH, UU.

Includes an account of meeting the Mormons on the trail, p. 345–48.

Crawley 277, Byrd 1158, Fales & Flake 445.

Holdings

A coded, alphabetically ordered list of institutional libraries that own an original copy of the book in their collection. This list of codes is not always intended to be comprehensive. In some cases there are many institutional libraries that own a copy, and so rather than list 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 there are no known copies found in institutional libraries or the only known copy is owned by a private collector, the term “No copy located” or “Copy in private hands” appears in the holdings field. In the case of some Danish books where no known institutional copy exists, the full bibliographic entry has been taken from a bibliography of Danish works in Jorgon W. Schmidt’s Oh, Du Zion, I Vest den Danske Mormon-Emigration, 1850–1900. In these cases “Schmidt” appears in the holdings field. For example:

CtY, MH, NjP, UPB, USlC

No copy located.

Copy in private hands.

Schmidt.

Any field of data that appears surrounded by brackets [1854] or [Independence, Mo.] means that the data inside the brackets does not appear on the title page. Rather, this data has been provided by the compilers or it 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. For example, a place of publication may be given as Norwich, [Eng.] where England may not appear anywhere in the book but it is known by the compilers that the place of publication is Norwich, England, and not, for instance, Norwich, New York.

Abbreviations

Arranged alphabetically.

———. 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

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 twice per month

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

chart. Chart or charts

cm. Centimeters

col. Colored

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

Doc. Document

Ex. Executive

facsim. Facsimile or facsimiles

fold. Folded

front. Frontispiece. An illustration facing the title page

H. House (U.S. House of Representatives)

H. J. Res. House Joint Resolution

H. R. House Resolution

illus. Illustration or illustrations

inc. Incomplete

irregularly Published without regular frequency

l. Leaf or leaves

map. Map or maps

Misc. Miscellaneous

monthly Published monthly

music Includes musical notation

no. Number

nos. Numbers

n.d. No date of publication is given

n.p. No place of publication is given

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

Res. Resolution

S. Senate (U.S. Senate)

(same) Title is same as the previous entry

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

(same under title) Content of book is the same as previous entry but the title is 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

table Numerical table of tables

U.S. Cong. U.S. Congress

i. Volume or volume

weekly Published weekly

wrappers Paper covers