ENCYCLOPEDIA OF

LIBRARY AND
INFORMATION SCIENCE

Executive Editor
ALLEN KENT

CHOOL OF LIBRARY A D INFOR~1 ATIO, SCIENCE

U "I VERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
PITTSOU RGll . PE ' S YLVAN IA

VOLUME45

SUPPLEMENT 10

MARCEL DEKKER. INC .. New York Basel

Copyrighted matenaJ
 COPYRIGHT 1990 BY MARCEL DEKKER, INC.

ALL RI GHTS RESERV,ED

Ni:ithtr rhis ht1<tk no r any part may be reproduced o r trans-

n1i 11ed in any form or by any m eans. elec1ro nic or n1echanical,
inllutJing phorvcop)vin!} micro filming. and recording, o r by
uny infor mation st.o.rage $Ind retrieval system. witho ut per
mission in writ ing from the publisher.

MARCEL DEKKER. INC.

270 M adison A~<enue. New Yo rk. New York 10016

LI BRA,RY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER 68-31232

fSBN 0-8 247-2045-8

Current Printing (last digit):

10 9 R 7 6 5 4 3 2 I

l'Rllll 11' 1> I N T HI: UNIT ED STAT ES OF A~l i;?R IC A

Copyrignted ;natenaJ


CONTENTS OF VOLUME 45
Contributors to Volun1e 45 v
ANGLO-AMERICAN CATALOGUING R ULES, S ECOND EDITION
Yogendra P. Dubey I
B OOK NUfl.iBER AND CALL N UMBER 1\lfohinde Partap Satija 18
COLOMBIA. NATIONAL L IBRAR Y OF 1tnabel Torres 46
COfl.iPUTER-AIDED COMPOSITION Dinel1Moghdam Davis 50
COMPUTER O UTPUT D evrcES David Ba~vden 64
D ESIGN OE CONTROLLED YOCA BULARCES Elaine Svenonius 82
EDUCATION OF BLACK LIBRARIANS Rosemary Ruhig Du Mont and
William Caynon 109
E GYPT, THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF 0/Jal Abdul-Rehei111 125
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION A CT Richard M . Schmidt. Jr. 127
F ULL-TEXT F INANCIAL S ERVICES I NFORMATION Barbara s. McCoy 130
I NFORMATION A CQUISITION WITH M ACHINE TRANSLATION
Victor Shou-Chuan Yang 139
KENYA, LIBRARY AND I NFORMATION SERVICES IN Joseph B. Ojiambo 198
LITIGATION S UPPORT Lalvrence H. Beru/ 222
LS/2000 Joan S. Mitcl1ell, Nancy H . Evans. a.n d Melanie D. Myers 241
MALI, NATIONAL LIBRARY OF Abdou/ Aziz Diallo 246
A MODULAR CURRICULUM IN INFORMATION STUDIES J. Andrew LArge 253
NEGLIG ENCE LAW FOR L IBRARIES Carol B. Allred 267
OCLC EUROPE-A STATUS REPORT David Buckle 288
P ER FORMANCE MEASURES FOR ACADEMIC LIBRARIES Don. H. Revill 294
RELATIONAL D ATA BASES Te"ence A. Brooks 333
SPECIALIZATION IN THE EDUCATION OF INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS
Robert V. Williams 339
TRANSBORDER D ATA FLOW Roddy Duchesne and Anna Lehn 360
USER S U RVEYS Stanley M. Verhoeven 373
V OCABU LARIES FOR O NLINE S U BJECT SEARCHI NG Anne B. Piternick 399

Ill

Copyrighted material
 CONTRIBUTORS TO VOLUME 45

OLFAT ABDUL-REHEIM, Director General, Documentation and Information Cen-

tre, General Egyptian Book Organization, Corniche El Nil-Boulac. Cairo,
Egypt: Egypt, The National Library of
CAROL B. ALLRED, Director and Professor of Law, Salmon P. Chase CoUege of
Law Library, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, Kentucky:
Negligence Law for Libraries
ABDOUL Aziz DIALLO, Director, Bibliotheque Nationale du MaH, Bama.ko,
Mali: Mali, National Library of
DAVID BAWDEN, Principal Information Scientist, Pfizer Central Research, Sand-
wich, Kent, England: Comp111er Outpul Devices
LAWRENCE H. BERUL, President, Amicus Research Group, Ltd., Rockville, Mary-
land: Litigation Support
TERRENCE A. BROOKS, Asisstanl Professor, Graduate School of Library and
Information Science. University of Washington, Seattle, Washington: .Rela-
tional Databases
DAVID BUCKLE, Managing Director, OCLC Europe, Birmingham, England:
OCLC Europe-A Sta.tus ReporL
WtLLIAM CAYNON, Assistant Professor, School of Library Science, Kent State
University, Kent, Ohio: Education ofBlack Librarians
DtNEH MOGHDAM DAVIS, Consultant, Information Services, Honolulu,
Hawaii: Computer-Aided Composition
YOGENDRA P. DUBEY, Ph.D., Associate Professor. Department of Library and
Information Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India: Ang/o-
American Catologing Rules, Second Edition
RODDY DUCHESNE, Manager, Information Technology Assessment, National
Library of Canada, Ottawa~ Canada: Transborder Data Ffo,v
ROSEMARY RUHIG DU MONT, Dean and Professor, School of library Science,
Kent State University, Kent, Ohio: Education ofBlack Librarians
NANCY H. EVANS, Data and Information Services Manager, University libraries,
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: LS/ 2000
J. ANDREW LARGE, Principal Lecturer, College of Librarianship Wales,
Aberystwyth, Wales: A Modular Curriculrtm in Information Studies

Copyrighted material
BOOK NUMBER AND CALL NUMBER 18

BOOK NUMBER AND CALL NUMBER

Knowledge per se is an abstract entity. Until or unless it is embodied in some

physical carrier it cannot easily be handled. preserved, and disseminated. Though
the nature and physical shape of knowledge carriers, called documents, has changed
pari passu y:tb the technological advances of society, documents have remained a
major means to record. preserve, a.nd disseminate knowledge. This has been true
since the invention of the alphabet and more so since the discovery of portable
writing surfaces.
Knowledge is the librarian's stock-in-trade. But as librarians and information
personnel, we deal only in that knowledge embodied in a vertiginous variety of
documents. Our so called oral knowledge in libraries is also in recorded form. It.
therefore, seems simply inevitable that the characteristics and oddities of the
physical forms of the documents be taken into consideration by those concerned
with the management of information and libraries.
It cannot be denied that it is only the organized library which satisfactorily
discharges its functions. Standard bibliographic description and orderly arrange-
ment are two key aspects of any organized library. Orderly and formulated arrange-
ment of documents is a safe investment for their easy and efficient retrieval. In
addition, classification has many spin-off uses and rewards: it facilitates browsing of
bookstacks, and mirrors the quality and quantity of various subjects in the library
collection. Uses of classification even for nonclassifying purposes are numerous.
Classification, therefore, has aptly been described as pervasive in all library work ( 1).
Library classification is a tool to assign to a document a unique and defined place
on the library shelves. Before the advent of Dewey Decimal Classification (DOC)
late in the nineteenth century, the location of a book in a library was either fixed or
absolute. Those systems used to determine that location are known as fixed location.
systems. Structurally speaking, such numbers used to define such a place ~onsisted
of two parts: (1) subject part and (2) location part. Take, for example, an imaginary
number R. 7.15. Here R means a subject, say mathematics~ and 7.15 means the 15th
book on the 7th shelf of the stack containing mathematics books. AJJ these symbols
were not universal, but local devices and so varied diversely from library to library.
The number of parts of a ..class number," ordinarily shown by a dot, also varied
from library to library (2). The problem was that as libraries grew, fixed location
systems could not preserve the subject grouping, however broad and crude. When
the space already allocated to a subject was filled, to accommodate new books either
the subject grouping had to be abandoned, or part of the collection had to be
numbered anew-the latter being a very taxing ordeal. To escape this vexing
problem, some libra.riaos resorted to other internal or external characteristics to
classify the documents, such as size, color of binding, language, place of publication,
or chiefly the accession number. While these methods never involved reclassifying
work to accommodate a new book in that ,.class," neither did they achieve the fine
results yielded by a subject classification. The basic conflict was between hospitality
and subject grouping, which Melvil Dewey very successfully and ingeniously solved
in an inspired moment on a fine morning in May 1873. Dewey's number represents
not the physical location of the book, but its subject contents; and the hospitality

Copyrignted material
BOOK NUMBER AND CALL NUMBER 22

likely to meet the desired book here or there within a small distance and so it does not
matter much if the location of the book is not pinpointed (12). For others it is an
avoidable complicated tool for a relatively simple process. Book numbers unneces-
sarily mystify a simple element of a document, thus adding to the complexity of the
notation (13). This is more so when alphabetical subarrangementachieved by them
is not so perfect. There cannot be any author table which lists the names of all
persons or beadings under which a document is to be cataloged.
Between these two extremes are the librarians who do not doubt the value of book
numbers but quarrel with the book numbering methods. They suggest subarranging
books within a given class by author name as printed on the book spine. Such a naive
suggestion has the sanction of as great a librarian as James Duff Brown, though
ironically be himself devised a book numbering method (14). P. J. Anderson of
University Library, Aberdeen, Scotland disgusted with the complicated cuttering
system, wrote to an editor in 1901: "I have yet to discover what is gained by
translating say 'Darwin' and ' Dickinson' into ' D24' and 'D56', if 'Dar' and 'Die'
serve the purpose of distinction" (15). Such an argument may appeal only to those
who are blissfully ignorant of the bibliographic complexities of the present day
publications. Few librarians have applied or succeeded with such suggestions.
Whatever the arguments against their usefulness, the value of book numbers bas
stood the test of time. H. E. Bliss warned that without book numbers the location of
books would be "very difficult, slow and uncertain" (16). Margaret Mann reported
that "some librarians after discarding book numbers found the result unsatisfactory
and have gone back to them" (17). Many experienced librarians the world over have
confmned her experience (18). There is no library which can not improve its services
by their use, to put forth another argument. S. R. Ranganathan, a zealot of minute
and impeccably systematic classification, enjoined classificationists to have a book
numbering system intrinsic to the classification system they design (/9). It can be
very easily learned on the job that without book numbers the cost of retrieving
documents will be burdensome and the location ofdocuments will be frustrating and
tiring both to the staff and the users. A no-book-number policy will only turn
potential readers away from effectively using the library, thus killing many ideas
before being born (20).

Collection Number and Call Number

Save in small libraries, the collection more often than not is divided into various
sections for the purpose of more efficient utiliza.tion and administration. For
example, manuscripts, rare books, and other such unreplenishable documents are
put under restricted and secure access. Nonbook material such as microfilms and
videocassettes cannot be mixed with the general collection, as such material must be
stored under different environmental conditions. Similarly, some books such as
atlases are oversized for standard shelves. Reference books owing to their high
frequency of use always form their own sequence in all libraries, as do the textbooks
in an academic library. The number ofsuch sections may vary from library to library
depending upon local needs. All such sections are further classified as usual. A

Copyrignted matenal
BOOK NUMBER AND CALL NUMBER 26

Abbot Ab 2 Olney 016

Anne An 7 Upton Up l
Edwards Ed9 Sinclair Si 6
Ives Iv 3 Smith Sm.5

Similarly, the author number for any word beginning with Sc consists of three initial
letters followed by one digit: Ii, lw, Ix, ly, Oo, Uo, Uq, U u, Ss, a.nd Sx are used without
any numerical digit following them, obviously as English names beginning with the
above letters, except U and Ly, are rare. Several versions of this table are available
printed up to 1886. Originally known as Cutter~s Alfabetic-Order Table, it is now
k.nown as Cutter's Two-Figure Author Table. Instructions for using the table were
made available in a separate booklet, and also published in different sources
(32, 33). By the mid 1880s Cutter tables bad become quite popular, and many
librarians including Melvil Dewey swore by their usefulness at various fora (34, 35).
Approval of as commanding a personality as Dewey imparted to it an added
momentum. A noteworthy feature of the table was that the distribution of numbers
to names was based somewhat on their statistical frequency of occurrence, though
the process was not carried to perfection (36).
Cutter's two-figure table suitable for small libraries was found inadequate for large
classes of fiction and individual biography (37). To meet the need of large and
rapidly expanding libraries (there were many), Cutter decided to expand his table to
three figures and add more na.mes. In 1892, the revision was entrusted to Miss Kate
Emery Sanborn (1860-1951) (later married to M. Gardner Jones), Cutter's assistant
at Boston Athenaeum from 1883 to 1891. Miss Sanborn was working as a cataloger at
the Mercantile Library, St. Louis and could not work under Cutter's direct supervi-
sion. The result was virtually an independent, albeit greatly improved, work by all
accounts and assessment. The revised work was published in two parts initially. The
frrst part for six letters only, namely vowels and S, was published and sold by C. A.
Cutter in 1892 (38). The table for the remaining 20 co.nsonants was made available in
1895 (39). Later these two \Vere consolidated into a single table (40). This complete
table contains more than 12,000 author numbers.
This is known as the Cutter-Sanborn Three-Figure Author Table, wherein a few
numbers betray ancestory to Cutter's Two-Figure Author Table. In this table,
regardless of any initial letter including vowels and S, every author number uni-
formly begins with one letter followed by a decimal digit varying from one to three:
two digits for the letters, E, I, 0 , U, J, K., Y, and Z; one digit for letters Q and X; all
other letters use three decimal digits. Uniformity in the use of only one initial letter
for every name came as a great relief to catalogers. In addition, it is a scientifically
constructed table with better correlation between the quantity of numbers assigned
to each letter of the alphabet and the frequency of names beginning with each letter
(41). For all its virtues, this table met w.ith almost instant success, and its popularity
continues unabated today. Of all the versions of Cutter tables, two-thirds sold are
those of Cutter-Sanborn afftliation.
Cutter had asked Miss Sanborn only to expand the table to three figures, wbe,reas
she produced an independent work which could not be used by the libraries using
Cutter's two-figure table to expand the existing author numbers. Thus his two-figure
table was falling :into disuse. This so disturbed Cutter that he tried to repudiate the

Copyrignted material
BOOK NUMBER AND CALL NUMBER 30

numbers are neither decimal nor are preceded by any initial alphabet in transcrip-
tion. However, the distribution of .numbers to names was according to frequency of
occurrence of names in biographical dictionaries (51 , 52). Otherwise there is
nothing to commend such a table, and use has dissipated over time. In 1893, C. R.
Olin, Librarian of Butchell College (now University of Akron) devised a table to
supplement Cutter's tw<rfigure author table for arranging collective biographies
(53). According to this table collective biQgrapbies arranged by editor/compiler
preceded the individual biographies arranged by the name of the biographee. He
used the letter A followed by numbers 11 to 99 to denote all names of editors and
compilers. An extract from the table is given below~
A 11 Ga 35
Ba 12 l 45
Da 25 Na 64
Ea 28 z 99

Author numbers for the following editors are given against them as examples:

Adams A 11 Thomas A 87
Baker A 12 Webster A94
Chambers A 17 Young A 98

To distinguish biographies of persons whose surnames begin with A from the

collective biographies, all individual biographies of persons whose ,surname starts
with A bega.n with the first two initial letters followed by a number from Cutter's two
figure author table. For example, a biography of Arnold will be, Ar 6. For the rest.
of the problems, Cutter two-figure table rules were used as such. The Olin
table remained appended to the Dewey Decimal Classification from edition 7 to l l
(1911-1932).
Louis Stanley Jast (1868-1944) City Librarian of :Manchester and known inJer
a/ia for promoting DOC in the United Kingdom, devised in l901 a simplification of
alphabetical subarrangement (54). In a paper published in two partS in Library
r,itJrld he proposed to use only the first two initial letters of the author's surname as
book numbers. In case there happened to be more than one author in the same
c.lass-as occurs in many cases-having the same fU"St two letters in their surnames,
then they would be differentiated by adding J, 2, 3 in accession order. For example
Johnso,n JO
Joyner JO 1
Jones J0 2
Jobson JO 3

The resulting subarrangement will be crudely alphabetical. The paper also described
an author numbering method for literary authors and their works with the betp of
the following table:

2 a-f 6 n -s
4 g-m 8 t -z

Copyrighted material
BOOK NUMBER AND CALL NUMBER 34

Here .R9 means Russell, and the following l means the seJection; E4 means Egnar.
Similarly,

AM101.B85T5 A Guide to the Exhibition Galleries of

the British Museum; with an introduction
by E . Maunde Thompson

AMlOl translates into individual museums; .88 to British Museum; th.e following S
to a guidebook.; a.nd TS to Thompson. For documents such as institutional publica-
tions, statutes, maps, histories, different editions, etc., the year of publication also
follows the first author number:
Z696.D51952 1976 The Eight.ee.n Editions of the
Dewey Decimal C lassification:
by John P. Comaromi 1976
G3804.N4 1954 N4 Visitor's Map of New York City
1954; 1ssued by the New York
City Department of Commerce and
Public Events

Here .N4 stands for the subject of the map; i.e., New York; 1954 its year, and the last
N4 for its author the New York City Department of Commerce.

AM101.B81 1932 Statutes and Rules for the British

Museum, 1932

Here 1932 is the year of publication.

Z699. L35 1976 Information Retrieval Systems by
F. W. Lancaster, 3rd edition 1976

In case of literature, the work mark is used to distinguish inter se the various works of
an author. In case of English fiction PZ, the work mark is the initial one~ or two
leners of the first word excluding definite articles:
PZ3.H981Cr Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley
PZ3.H981Br Brave New \Vorld by AIJou.s Huxley

Literary works other than fiction are usually cuttered for wor.k numbers:
PR 3487.D4 The Deserted Village by Oliver
Goldsmith
PR3487.$5 She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver
Goldsmith

The book numbering method also brings together various translations, commentar-
ies, and different versions of a work. In actual practice there are various unexplained
variations from the above officially prescribed procedure. There may be a bit of
difference with the oflicial author numbers at LC cards, for instance, if home
cuttering is done.

Copyrignted material
BOOK NUMBER AND CALL NUMBER 38

fa-fz 1580-1605 sa-sz 1918- 1943

ga-gz 1606-1631 ta-tz 1944- 1969
ha-hz 1632- 1657 ua-uz 1970- 1995

t8 1Z 1658- 1683 va-vz 1996- 2021
J8 J2 1684- 1709 wa-m 2022- 2047
k.a-kz 1710- 1735 X8 XZ 2048- 2073
la-lz 1736- 1761 ya-yz 2074- 2099
ma-mz 1762- 1787 UlU 2100- 2125

With his own classification system Brown transcribed the call number as follows:

Balfour. Manual of Botany (1905)

El00.3rn

Here El00.3 is the class number for a botany manual as per bis Subject Qassification
and rn is the book number for a book published in 1905. Brown resorted to pur'C
small alphabets, as alphanumeric notation as used by Biscoe is used in his classifica-
tion; it was necessary to clearly demarcate the book number from the class number
in transcription of the call number. Brown suggests that for any period prior to 1450
a similar date table can be constructed using Roman capital numerals. Though the
notation for Brown's book number is pure, simple, and easy to write, the table has
not been built on propQrtionate allocation of notation: the highly used years of 19th
and 20th centuries are denoted by two digits as are the less used years of the l5th to
18th centuries. Second, the table though constructed on a regular structure is not
mnemonic: the table will have to be referred to every time a book number is
assigned. Ignoring other problems of book numbers it by no means registers any
advance over Biscoes date table.
The ..Table 111" of Merrill's book numbers, previously described, was devoted to a
chronological table. Known as .. time decimals/ ' these numbers provided a method
to denote all the years from 900 BC to the 21st ce_ntury AD in one ascending
sequence of numerals (75). For example, 323 BC is denoted as 1787, wherein 17
denotes the 4th century BC and the 23 substituted by 87 by the foll.owing table: 9 for
l, 8 for 2, 7 for 3, 6 for4, 5 for 5. 4for6, 3 for7, 2 for 8, and l for9. This has been done
to keep the BC years in ascending order in line with the AD years. Denotation of AD
years is less complicated. For example, 1492 is denoted as 4492. Where 44 represents
the fifteenth century in the table and 92 the year of the century written as such. The
years after 1500 AD are denoted as such by dropping the millenium digit I, for
example, 1608 as 608 and 1987 as 987. Merrill, however, never cared to explain how
and in which situations these "time decimals" are to be used.
The eminent Indian librarian S. R. Ranganathan (1892-1972), who by dispQsition
chose chronological book numbers, because to him an alphabetical arrangement was
only better than no arrangement. For his wodd famous Colon Oassification, fu:st
published in 1933, the devised system of book numbers no less befitting and no tess
systematic, sophisticated, and efficacious than his faceted classification. His book
number is a complete system in itselfand is fully faceted like his classification. It is an
integraJ part of his classification system and very finely complements the Colon
Classification number; and so has been included and fully explained in ev.e:ry edition

Copyrignted mate ial

BOOK NUMBER AND CALL NUMBER 40

facets, while always intrinsically present in a document, can be made latent by the
application of the principle of favored category. For example:

I.(L) facet need not be added to books written in the most popular language ofthe library
2. (L) also remains suppressed in case of books belonging to the classes literature and
linguistics, though their translations will need language numbers
3. Periodical publications also need not have language facet in the book number

By the same principle, the facet [F] will be suppressed in case of the majority of
books. For example, [F] facet will be latent in case of printed cuboidal books in prose
of a general library; and in a microfilm library the form microfilm need not be
added. All other facets are added, if needed. Thus a very small number of books will
need to include language and form facets in the book number (79).
For example, a book published in 1969 in the English language will be: K9 in a
library in an English-speaking country and 11 lK.9 in a library where English is not
the main language; here 111 means English language as taken from the language table
of the CC.
If the above "book" is a cinema film, then its book number will be 111 f953K9,
where f953 is the form facet for cinema film. And ifthe above document is present in
a library devoted to ftlms and where English is the main language, then its book
number will simply be K.9. If the above book is in two volumes, then the first and
second volumes will, respectively, have the book numbers K9.l and K9.2; and if the
already mentioned cinema film published in 1969 has a second copy, then the latter
will have the book number 111 f953K9; 1, where ";l" mea.ns the second copy.
Superficially the facet formula and its book numbers seem more complex than
they really are. In actual practice, in the majority of the cases, the book number
consists of the year facet comprising only two digits. In practice the long facet
formula produces brief book numbers. It is no exaggeration to say it is simpler and
more mechanical to apply than Cutter's author numbers. Nevertheless, it remains
the most scientific and complete book number-a la Ranganathan approach.
Ranganathan has been able to attend to even the very obscure oddities of book
numbers. The success of bis method is attributable to the fact that Ranganathan has
only assigned those fllnctions to book numbers which strictly fall in its jurisdiction.
Therea.fter, he is thorough and meticulous. Ranganathan's debt to Biscoe is obvious.
Biscoe not only provided the foundations for Ranganathan's system, but some of
Biscoe's devices have been used as such. Ranganatha.n only transformed Biscoe's
simple system into a complete and systematic one.
As such there have been no real advances in the field since Ranganathan. In 1961
in his International Classification, Arthur Fremont Rider (1885-1961) suggested
modifications of Biscoe's book number without changing the table (80). He pro-
posed that instead of subarranging books by their publication year, these be divided
f U'St by the decade of publications, and within the decade the subarrangement if
needed be carried further alphabetically by author. The Rider book number consists
of two Roman capital numerals; the fU'St denotes the decade of its publication as
from Biscoe's table and the second the first letter of the heading under which the
document bas been cataloged in the main entry. For example, a book by Alvin
Tomer, published in 1980 will be numbered YT; as wilJ all book:> oy Tomer published

Copyrignted matenal
41 BOOK NUMBER AND CALL NUMBER

in the 1980s. Obviously these two letters may occasionally fail to completely
individualize documents as two or more authors with the same initial letters in their
surnames may happen to write on the same specific subject in a given decade. In
such cases the digits 1, 2, 3, and so on are added to later book numbers for their
individualization. Curiously it has two strains of chronological and alphabetical
characteristics applied together. Since a decade is too big a span in book publishing,
the subarrangement will defacto be an alphabetical one. Fremont Rider, notable for
his futuristic approach to library problems and a man of vision, tried unsuccessfully
to borrow the best of the rival worlds: to temper the organizational finesse of
chronological systems with the retrieval efficiency of the alphabetical methods. He
achieved neither goal.
Though subsidiary to subject classification systems, book numbers have mostly
developed independent of them. Their path of development shows as many
advances as regressions.
Alphabetical systems were perfected by Cutter and Sanborn by the dawn of the
twentieth century and a little later. With their golden age past, the history of book
numbers in the twentieth century with the exception of Ranganathan in 1933, is
unexciting at best. This century, associates such notable names as Brown, Bliss,
Ranganathan, and Rider with book numbers. Yet it lacks the climax or excitement
that one finds in classification research and history. Some librarians have endeav"'
ored to augment the existing systems with local or linguistic variations; while others
have unnecessarily tried to m)'Stify in numbers what otherwise is a simple affair of
alphabets, Such a tendency seems to have been prompted under the influence of
DOC and other classifications where use of decimal digits have been used so
rewardingly. "This is perhaps due to blind mania for numerals, e,ven when the
alphabet serves the purpose equally. Much ingenuity has been wasted over the
translation of letters into numerals," how aptly says Ranganathan! (8/).

State of the Art

No new book numbering system bas come to the fore and none appears to be in
the offing. Book numbers sizeably figured in the professional circles of the last two
decades of the nineteenth century, which can be described as their golden age. The
literature of this period is composed ofnew systems, conference proceedings, journal
literature, even full issues ofjournals devoted to the topic, letters to the editors, and
other forms. Up to the 1960s, book numbers wielded a significant place in every
worthwhile textbook on subject cataloging and classification published on both sides
of the Atlantic. Interest in them waned gradually notwithstanding their continued
practical applications in libraries (82). Oassification conferen.ces have totally forgot-
ten the topic. It hardly crops up in corridor talks. To the new generation it seems a
subject out of vogue. In a nutshell, it is a passe science and a saturated art
maintaining visibility mostly through examination question papers. Lac.k ofinterest
is further corroborated by the fact that the 1969 Swanson-Swift revisions of Cutter
tables were virtually ignored in the professional literature, except for a passing notice
of their av.ailability; Lebnus and Comaromi's monographs on book numbers (in
1980 and 1981, respectively) fared only a little better.

Copyrighted material
BOOK NUMBER AND CALL NUMBER 42

Apart from early micro literature, a few independent pamphlets and books on the
subject have appeared now and then. The first independent and exclusive study of
book numbers was published in 1917. This previously mentioned official booklet of
18 pages was a descriptive study of the LC author nu.mbering practice by Anna
C(antrell) Laws (d.1928). who at that time was Assistant in Charge of shelf listing at
the Library of Congress. The book remained unsuperceded for a long time only to be
replaced by another nascent official manual by the sh.elf-listing section of the LC
(83). Theory and practices of various book numbering procedures were ably
described by Bertha R(ickenbrode) Barden (1883- ?) then Assistant Professor of
Library Science, Case Western Reserve University. This is a small manual of 31
pages, written for students and practitioners, describing the use of book numbers in
different classes and for different collections. This illuminating study suggested
solutions to many intriguing problems. It also proposed book numbers for some
special classes, which, however, have become dated due to changes and expansions in
the DOC. Amid the practical problems it is equally poised between the theory and
history of book numbers in brief. Its continued usefulness has been tangibly proved
by its reprinting in 1971. The next full-volumed independent study on the subject was
published after a long interim in 1980 (84). This book, by the late Donald J. Lehnus
(1934-1983), Associate Professor of Library Science at the University of Mississippi,
is a superb theory-oriented book which nevertheless is not lacking in practical
details. It provides deep insight into the development a.nd mechanism of au.t hor
numbers. The largest ever compiled bibliography attached to this book is another
valuable feature (85). A review described it as "the definitive guide to present
practice" (86). Oosely following, in 1981, came another independent and very
significant book on the topic by John P. Comaromi, Editor, Dewey Decimal
Oassification (and then also Chief of the Decimal Oassification Division of the
Library of Congress). It may not be out of place to note that it is the first study of
book numbers issued by a commercial publisher. It is equally a scholarly book,
including a significant chapter on LC cuttering procedure in full detail. This amply
illustrated book is valuable for its characteristically personal but highly readable
style. Both are standard works, but regretfully did not attract many reviews except
for a motivated and much belated article (87). Sale proceeds are also discouraging,
further substantiating the lack of interest in so practical a subject. Both these books,
though overlapping in their coverage, have ignored Ranganathan 's systematic and
standard book number, continuing the American trend of apathy to things Ran-
ganathan. This vaccum has now been filled by an independent booklet from India
devoted exclusively to Ranganathan's book numbers (88). It sheds light with ample
illustrations on the finer intricacies of the Ranganathan system.
A retrospective glance at the history and literature of book numbers reveals that
the subject has remained mostly in the American domain. British contributions are
small and insignificant; whereas India's small but significant contribution made by
Ranganathan bas been mostly ignored in the West, though in India this indigenous
system is widely used and written about (89).
Most of the literature and history of book numbers remains unearthed. Home-
made and local conventions on book numbers are innumerable, but unreported in
the professional literature which considers them trivial issues. Many classification

Copyrignted material
43 BOOK NUMBER AND CALL NUMBER

systems are silent on the matter; many ad hoc or hodge-podge methods pass as book
numbers. Consequently, in many libraries book numbers per se are meted out scant
attention even stepmotherty treatment as Comaromi aptly writes (90). For all this,.
study of book numbers is fading into oblivion. Now no ingenious minds are
addressing the problem; and no new book numbers are evolving. Their scholarship is
in a serious predicament.. Unless interest in this area is vigorously revived and the
problems discussed at wider and higher levels, their future is uncertain. Above alJ, we
are yet to ponder over the form and role of book numbers in the envisaged era of
paperless (or more appropriately, less paper) libraries and in on-line retrieval systems
where the "book" will vanish into a formless soft matter.

REFERENCES
1. B. I. Palmer, "Oassification as a Foundation Study for Librarians. in /1seifand Education, Library
Association. London, 1962, pp. 58-67.
2. J. P. Comaromi, The EighJeen Editions ofthe Dewey Decimal Classificmion, Forest~. Albany,
NY, 1976, p. 94.
3. Ref..2, p. 99.
4. J. P. Comaromi, Book Numbers: A His1orical S1udy and Practical Guide to their Use. Libraries
Unlimited. Little1on, CO, l981, p. 11.8.
5. B. S. Wynar, ...Creation ofComplete Call Numbers," in Introduction 10 Cmaloguing and Classifica-
tion, 7th ed. (G. Taylor, Ed.). Libraries Unlimited, Littleton, CO, 1985, p. 426.
6. B. R. Barden, Book Numbers: A Manual for Sludents lvith a Basic Code ofRules. American Library
Association, Chicago, 1937, p. 9.
7. L. M. Chan, " Library of Congress Oassification," in Cataloguing and Classifwarion: An Introduc-
tion, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1985, pp. 287-291.
8. C. H. Swan, "Alfab-Order Table for Names of Places," Libr. J., II, J 18 (April 1886).
9. W. S. Biscoe, '"CbronoJogical Arrangement on Shelves,,. Libr. 1.. 10, 246-247 (ScpteJnber/October
1885).
10. M. Mann, Introduction to Cataloguing and Classification of Books. 2nd ed. American Library
Association, Chicago, 1941 (1971 ~print}, p. 88.
II. American ul>tary Association, il Survey of Libraries in the Uniled States 1927. ALA, Chicago,
1927, v. 4, p. 17.
12. W H. Phillips, A Primer of Book ClassijicaJion. rev. ed, Association of Assistant Librarians,
London, 1951-, pp. 54- 55.
13. Ref. 6. p. 10.
14. J. D. Brown, Subject C/assific<IJion V>'ith Tables, Indexes, etc for the Subdivisions of Subjects, The
Library Supply Co., London, 1906, p. 26.
15. P. J. Anderson, ..Aulhor and Work Marks," Libr. JVorld. 3(35), 280 (May 1901).
16. H. E. Bliss, Organi;uzJion ofKno~ledge in Libraries and the Subjecr Approach EO Books. 2nd ed.,
H. W. Wilson, New York, 1939, p. 68.
17. Ref. JO, p. 89
18. J. Holock, ..Om afskafTelse af forfattermaeker" (..About Doing Away with Author Numbers"),
Bib/io1ekaren. 19(1), 1-4 (1957).
19. S. R. Ranganathan, Prolegomena to Library Classifica1io11, 3rd ed., assisted by M. A. Gopinath.
Asia Publishing House, Bombay, 1967, p. 501.
20. Ref. 4, p. 52.
21. S. R.. Ranganatban, O>lon ClassificaJion. 6th ed, Asia Publishing House, Bombay, 1959.
pp. l.18-1.19.
22. M. Dewey. Simplified Library Rules, Library Supply Bureau, Boston, 1898. p. 53.
23. M. Dewey, "Book Numbers,'" Libr. Nores. 3(11), 422 (October 1893).
24. Ref. 4, p. 37.
25. Ref. 4. p. 49.

Copyrighted material
BOOK NUMBER AND CALL NUMBER 44

26. Ref. 4. pp. 49-50.

27. J. Schwartz. A New Classification and Notation," Libr. J.. 7, 148- 166 (July/August 1882).
28. C. A. Cuner. "Another Plan for Numbering Books," Libr. J .. 3, 249-251(September1878).
29. " Plans for Numbering. with Special Reference to Fiction: A Library Symposium," Libr. J.. 4, 38-4 7
(February 1879).
30. M. Dewey, in Ref. 29, p. 47.
31. Ref. 18. p. 40.
32. C. A. Cutter, Boston AthenaeunL How to Get Books "''ith an Explanation Qfthe New Way o/1\farking
Books. Press of Rockwell and Churchill, Boston, 1882, pp. 14- 15.
33. C. A. Cutter, ..How to Use Cutter~s Decimal Author Tables." Libr. J., 12, 251 -252 (July 1887); 549
(December 1887).
34. Dui's Doings," Libr. J.. 7, 237(September1882).
35. M. Dewey, "Remarks in the Proceedings of the ALA Buffalo Conference. August 14, 1883." Libr. J ..
8, 275 (September/ October 1883).
36. D. J. l..chnus, Book N11mbers: History. Principles. and Application, American Library Association,
Chicago, 1980, pp. 58-66.
37. Ref. 6, p. 7.
38. C. A. Culler's, A/fabetic Order Table. Alternatives/or the Vowels and S. Altered and Filled with Three
Figures. by Kate E. Sanborn, Library Bureau, Boston, 1892. 4pp ofTables, 33xl7 cm.
39. C. A. Cwter's A/fabetic Order Tables-Consonants Except S. Altered and Filled with Three-Figures.
by Kate E. Sanborn, Library Bureau, Boston, 1895, 14pp. 33x28 cm.
40. C. A. Culler's .41/abetic Order Table Consonants Except S. and Volvels and S. Altered and Filled with
Three Figures. by Miss Kate E. Sanborn. Library Bureau, Boston, 1896. 18 pp, 33xl5 cm.
41. Ref. 36, pp. 58-66.
42. C. A. Cutler's Tivo Figure Author Table. Swanson-Swift Revision 1969, H. R. Huntting Co,
Chicopee, MA, 1969, 29 pp, 39x29 cm.
43. C. A. Cwter:S Three Figure Author Table. Swanson-Swift Revision 1969. H. R. Hunning Co.,
Chicopee, MA, 1969, 29 pp, 39x29 cm.
44. CuuerSanborn Three Figure Author Table, s~ansonS.,.,,ifl Revision. 1-1. R. Huntting Co.,
Chicopee, MA, 1969, 33pp, 39x22 cm .
45. CuuerSanborn Three Figure Au1hor Table, H. R. Huntting Co, Chicopee, MA (Distributors). 1964,
8pp 35 cm.
46. M. P. Satija, "History of Book Numbers," ln1. Classif., 14(2), Sec 6 (1987). This paper also explains
some Indian cuttering procedures; and catalogues some unauthoriud editions of Cutter-Sanborn
tables published in India
4 7. A. C. Laws, Author Notation in the Library ofCongress. Government Printing Office, Washington,
D.C., 1917, p. 18.
48. H. E. Bliss, "Simplified Book Notation," Libr. J . 35, 545 (1910).
49. H. E. Bliss, ''A Simplified Alphabetic Order Table," Libr. J.. 37, 71-72 (1912).
.50. Z. Brown, "More About Cutter Numbers," Libr. J .. S7, 437 (1932).
51. A. P. Massey. "Classification of Fiction," Libr. J ., 6, 7-9 (January 1881).
52. Ref. 4, pp. 41 - 42.
53. C. R. Olin,"An Order Table for Collective Biography," Libr. J., 18. 144 (May 1893).
54. L. Stanley Jast, "A New Book Numbers,.. 2 pts, libr. World, 3, 120-123, 150-152 (1901).
55. W. S. Merrill, The Merrill Book Numbers,,. Public Libr., 17, 127- 129 (April 1912).
56. Letter dated August 27. 1987 to the author from Mary K . D. Pietris. Chief Subject Cataloging
Division. Processing Services. Libra ry of Congress. To quote from her letters: "We use the terms
'book number' and author number' interchangeably. We adoPtcd 'book number' because many
entries under title arc in fact cuttered for tbe title. not for any aurhor."
57. Ref. 47. pp. 5-6.
58. Ref. 4, p. 92.
59. Library of Congress. ShelfU st Rules. Government Printing Office, Washington. DC, 1902.
60. Ref. 47. 18p.
61. J. P. Jmmroth, A Guide to the l ibrary of Congress Classification. 2nd ed. Libraries Unlimited,
Littleton. CO, 1971. pp. 48-49: 95-98. (This book has now been revised by Lois Mai Chan. 1980.
402p.)

Copyrighted matenal