Best Ways to Organize a Classical Record LP Collection ?

Label than a to z i have over 5 thousand.

ebm, which A to Z you sort?
If Ansermet conducts Brahms what letter will that be?

Composer, composition, Label, artist.

Opera in separate section, as does vocal centered around 1 artist

Records w/ various composers w/ 1 artist, I put in so called Collection section. So say Van Cliburn plays romantic Favorites goes under V.

Repeat works or more than 1 composition by the same artist then goes chronologically based on release date w/in the label. So-

Beethoven Symphonies -Karajan 1st cycle goes before 2nd cycle.
Or, La Boheme on Decca (London) - Mono Tebaldi goes before Stereo Tebaldi goes before Freni, Pavarotti.

I sort of agree with elee - 

I have my music divided into four groups, Orchestral, Vocal, Chamber, and solo (or two) piano music. In each group I sub-divide as needed for what ever is appropriate to me, for example  usually by composer/performer/label, but for solo piano I have two seperate sub groups, one for performers (i.e. I love Moravec so I have all of his music filed under his name) but more often filed by composer and I have them filed in the order of my personal performance preference.

To me it makes sense for you, having such a large collection to sort through, would be just to file them by composer. Then as you become more familiar with the actual recordings themselves where/how you want to file them should become evident.

What fun you should have.......:-)

I have a collection of about 3,000 classical LPs.  They are generally ordered chronologically by when composed.  Hence, medieval, renaissance, baroque, classical, etc. Bach before Haydn before Mozart before Beethoven, etc. Vocal and opera recordings are segregated from instrumental but are also arranged chronologically.

 Recordings by the same composer are ordered: symphonies and other large orchestral works; concerti; chamber works; solo instruments.  It's far from perfect, but I can usually find what I'm looking for very quickly.