Book Number And Call Number v4572

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

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COPYRIGHT© 1990 BY MARCEL DEKKER, INC.

ALL RI GHTS RESERV,ED Ni:itht·r rhis ht1
MARCEL DEKKER. INC. 270 M adison A~<enue. New Yo rk. New York 10016

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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

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CONTENTS OF VOLUME 45 Contributors to Volun1e 45

v

ANGLO-AMERICAN CATALOGUING R ULES, S ECOND EDITION

Yogendra P. Dubey

I

1\lfohinde Partap Satija COLOMBIA. NATIONAL L IBRAR Y OF 1tnabel Torres COfl.iPUTER-AIDED COMPOSITION Dinel1Moghdam Davis COMPUTER O UTPUT D evrcES David Ba~vden D ESIGN OE CONTROLLED YOCA BULARCES Elaine Svenonius EDUCATION OF BLACK LIBRARIANS Rosemary Ruhig Du Mont and William Caynon E GYPT, THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF 0/Jal Abdul-Rehei111 FREEDOM OF INFORMATION A CT Richard M . Schmidt. Jr. F ULL-TEXT F INANCIAL S ERVICES I NFORMATION Barbara s. McCoy B OOK NUfl.iBER AND CALL N UMBER

18

46 50

64 82 109

125 127 130

I NFORMATION A CQUISITION WITH M ACHINE TRANSLATION

Victor Shou-Chuan Yang KENYA, LIBRARY AND I NFORMATION SERVICES IN

Joseph B. Ojiambo

Lalvrence H. Beru/ LS/2000 Joan S. Mitcl1ell, Nancy H . Evans. a.n d Melanie D. Myers MALI, NATIONAL LIBRARY OF Abdou/ Aziz Diallo J. Andrew LArge A MODULAR CURRICULUM IN INFORMATION STUDIES NEGLIG ENCE LAW FOR L IBRARIES Carol B. Allred OCLC EUROPE-A STATUS REPORT David Buckle Don. H. Revill P ER FORMANCE MEASURES FOR ACADEMIC LIBRARIES RELATIONAL D ATA BASES Te"ence A. Brooks LITIGATION S UPPORT

139 198 222 241

246 253

267 288 294

333

SPECIALIZATION IN THE EDUCATION OF INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS

Robert V. Williams Roddy Duchesne and Anna Lehn S U RVEYS Stanley M. Verhoeven Anne B. Piternick V OCABU LARIES FOR O NLINE S U BJECT SEARCHI NG

TRANSBORDER D ATA FLOW

339

360 373

399

Ill

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CONTRIBUTORS TO VOLUME 45 OLFAT ABDUL-REHEIM, Director General, Documentation and Information Centre, 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, Sandwich, Kent, England: Comp111er Outpul Devices LAWRENCE H. BERUL, President, Amicus Research Group, Ltd., Rockville, Maryland: Litigation TERRENCE A. BROOKS, Asisstanl Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Washington, Seattle, Washington: .Relational 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/oAmerican Catog 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 v

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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 u 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 arrangement are two key aspects of any organized library. Orderly and formulated arrangement 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

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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 unnecessarily 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, ened 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 s. 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 istration. 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

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BOOK NUMBER AND CALL NUMBER Abbot

Ab 2 An 7

Anne Edwards

Ed9

Ives

Iv 3

Olney Upton Sinclair Smith

26

016 Up l Si 6 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 supervision. The result was virtually an independent, albeit greatly improved, work by all s 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 uniformly 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

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numbers are neither decimal nor are preceded by any initial alphabet in transcription. 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
11 12

Ga l

35 45

Da Ea

25 28

Na

64

z

99

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

A 11 A 12 A 17

Thomas Webster

A 87 A94

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 Joyner Jones Jobson

JO JO 1 J0 2 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

4

g-m

6 8

n -s t -z

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Here .R9 means Russell, and the following l means the seJection; E4 means Egnar. Similarly, A Guide to the Exhibition Galleries of the British Museum; with an introduction by E . Maunde Thompson

AM101.B85T5

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 publications, statutes, maps, histories, different editions, etc., the year of publication also follows the first author number: Z696.D51952

G3804.N4

1976

1954

N4

The Eight.ee.n Editions of the Dewey Decimal C lassification: by John P. Comaromi 1976 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 PZ3.H981Br

Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley Brave New \Vorld by AIJou.s Huxley

Literary works other than fiction are usually cuttered for wor.k numbers: PR 3487.D4 PR3487.$5

The Deserted Village by Oliver Goldsmith She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith

The book numbering method also brings together various translations, commentaries, 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.

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BOOK NUMBER AND CALL NUMBER fa-fz

1580-1605

ga-gz ha-hz

1606-1631 1632- 1657 1658- 1683 1684- 1709 1710- 1735 1736- 1761 1762- 1787

•

•

t8 ·1Z

J8· J2

k.a-kz la-lz

ma-mz

sa-sz ta-tz ua-uz va-vz wa-m

1918- 1943 1944- 1969

1970- 1995 1996- 2021

2022- 2047

ya-yz

2048- 2073 2074- 2099

Ul·U

2100- 2125

X8· XZ

38

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 classification; 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 s any advance over Biscoe•s 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

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

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 proposed 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

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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 catag 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 forgotten 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 e 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 ing notice of their av.ailability; Lebnus and Comaromi's monographs on book numbers (in 1980 and 1981, respectively) fared only a little better.

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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 Ranganathan. 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. Homemade and local conventions on book numbers are innumerable, but unreported in the professional literature which considers them trivial issues. Many classification

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systems are silent on the matter; many ad hoc or hodge-podge methods 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.

2. 3. 4.

5. 6.

7. 8. 9. 10. II.

12. 13.

14. 15.

16. 17. 18.

19.

20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25.

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

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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. Cuuer·Sanborn Three Figure Author Table, s~·anson·S.,.,,ifl Revision. 1-1. R. Huntting Co., Chicopee, MA, 1969, 33pp, 39x22 cm . 45. Cuuer·Sanborn 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 Catag Division. Processing Services. Libra ry of Congress. To quote from her letters: "We use the '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.)

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