I don’t know if this is true anymore, but the phonebook has several sections:
For a phone book in general:
At the front, is municipal stuff, like city maps and post office information.
Next is a section of ‘white pages’ where you can find residential home phone numbers listed alphabetically by last name. There are likely to be several people with the name you are looking for and it is socially acceptable to call asking, ‘Are you the A. Brown that went to Baker High school in 1995?’
Next are the yellow pages. Other commenters have described how that is organized, but I’ll add a couple tips. The alphabetical listings of business names under each category have to fit around paid advertisements, which significantly break up the flow of list. You can either just look at the paid advertisements (they are larger and with boxes and images) or be sure to check for your alphabetized list continuing on both sides of the ads.
Also, it is often difficult to guess the right category. (Will pizza go under ‘pizza delivery’, ‘restaurants’ or ‘Italian Food’?) You simply have to hunt around. Often, the wrong category will have a tip like, ‘See X’ if you looked under Y.
The three sections that you describe don’t always go in that order, and they may also be separated into different volumes.
Also, the white pages should include both residential and business listings, although sometimes these also are separated from each other. The businesses here are strictly by name, not by category like in the yellow pages (and the listings are either cheaper or free).
I don’t know if this is true anymore, but the phonebook has several sections:
For a phone book in general:
At the front, is municipal stuff, like city maps and post office information.
Next is a section of ‘white pages’ where you can find residential home phone numbers listed alphabetically by last name. There are likely to be several people with the name you are looking for and it is socially acceptable to call asking, ‘Are you the A. Brown that went to Baker High school in 1995?’
Next are the yellow pages. Other commenters have described how that is organized, but I’ll add a couple tips. The alphabetical listings of business names under each category have to fit around paid advertisements, which significantly break up the flow of list. You can either just look at the paid advertisements (they are larger and with boxes and images) or be sure to check for your alphabetized list continuing on both sides of the ads.
Also, it is often difficult to guess the right category. (Will pizza go under ‘pizza delivery’, ‘restaurants’ or ‘Italian Food’?) You simply have to hunt around. Often, the wrong category will have a tip like, ‘See X’ if you looked under Y.
The three sections that you describe don’t always go in that order, and they may also be separated into different volumes.
Also, the white pages should include both residential and business listings, although sometimes these also are separated from each other. The businesses here are strictly by name, not by category like in the yellow pages (and the listings are either cheaper or free).