'^-'m M B 3 T2b TD5 ^'Mi' ii'i'^f EXPLANATION OF THE Alphabetic-Order Marks (THREE-FIGURE TABLES; By CHARIvES A. CUTTER Northampton, Mass. Hbrai.d Job Pki>-t 1908 THE CUTTER ORDER-MARKS; WHY AND HOW THEY ARE USED * It lias been found convenient by librarians to aiTange some classes of books alphabetically. In Biography, for instance if the books stand on the shelves in the order of the names of the persons whose lives they relate, one knows that Adams will be at the beginning of the class and Washington at the end and Jefferson somewhere near the middle ; and one can go to the shelf and get the life one wants without having to consult a catalog first, which makes a saving, not only of time but of eyes and patience. Moreover, one will find all the lives of Washington standing side by side, which will often not happen on any other plan. In Fiction such an aiTangement, either by authors' names or by titles, is almost a necessity. In Poetry and the Drama also it is useful ; and, in fact, in every class it is better than an aiTangement by sizes, which merely makes the shelves look a little more orderly, or by accession-number, which has no advantage at all.f But it is also found that the books must have some marks on the back to keep them in order. The binders' titles will not do, because often they do not contain the word by which the book should be aiTanged ; and when they do the ari'anger cannot alwa3^s see at a glance which of several words is the one to arrange by. Moreover, we want some brief mark peculiar to each book, and not belonging to any other copy, by which to charge the volume to the borrower. Therefore I letter on the lower part of the back of each book : * vSome preliuiiuary discussions on this subject may be fouud in "Plans for numbering with especial reference to fiction, a library symposium." — Library Jour- nal. 4:38-47. t The plea that in science accession order assists study by putting the older works at the beginning of each subject and modern works at the end is true only in the rearrangtnuut of an old librarj' ; in a new library, or in the subse- quent history of the old library, it would not be valid unless libraries always bought books in the order in which they are published and never received gifts of old books. Chronological order, made up as books usually ccme into a library, will be a very mottled affair. (2) 1. In one line, the letters or fignres that denote its CLASS and snb-class. 2. In another line, the initial of the author's name, fol- lowed by certain figures (to be explained later on); this line stands for the author's name. 3. In another line, the initial of the TITlH (used only when there are two works by the same author in the same sub-class.) 4. In the same line, when there is more than one copy of the same work, I put 2 for the second copy, 3 for the third, if there is one, and so on. Class and author Yi- 362 Defoe's Novels Class, author, and title YP 362 r Defoe's Robinsou Crusoe Class, author, title, and copy Yf 362 r4 Robinson Crusoe 4th copy ALPHABETIC ORDER. Books on the shelves are kept alphabeted by authors by marking them wdth the initial of the author's family name* followed b-^' o'le or m "e decimal figures assigned according to a table so coi -rai ^ the names whose initials are followed by some of ire rs of the alphabet have tliQ Jirs^ num- bers, and tliG. e initials are followed by /a/er letters have /a/er nuiu '^ , 167 Gould, 729 '^21 Grand, 762 ^^52 Grote, 915 7 Guizot, 949 *In the case of a; publications etc.), the < cataloging, according to c the Decimal Classification .. instead of the name of the author subject forms part of the class-mai tTwo sets of tables have h. initial; the second with 3 figurt.-,. because the two figures of tlK ft 3-figure table. nymous works, periodicals, government determined by the heading adopted for ictionary catalog. In biography, when of the subject of the life should be used ; iw . xpansive Classification, the name of the --k, as a life of Gerry, Eg 321. ;;n issued : the first with only 2 figures after the These can be used successively in the same class, rst are the same as the first two figures of the (3^ 31;i811 If the books are arra?iiged in the order of these numbers, of course they will be in alphabetical order. To use the table. 1. Find the first few letters of the author's name in the table ; the figures following added to the initial arc the mark : E.g., for the name Holmes the table gives Holm 734, the mark is h734. Lounsbury (Loun 932) is l932, Terhune (Terh 272). t272. Hux- ley is h982, Macaulay is m119, Thackeray, t325. In printing a catalog, the printer should be cautioned not to use the old style figures (i, 2, 3, 4, etc.), in which the figure 1 is the same as the "small capital" letter i. 2. For names beginning with A, H, I, O, U, and S, I prefer to use the first two letters of the author's name instead of the initial, and for names beginning Mdth Sc three letters. Only two figures are used, the second letter taking the place of a figure. Thus, Abrantes is Ab84, Adler, Ad59, Afghan, Af34, Agnew, Ag63, Alison, A148. In this way more distinction is obtained with the same number of marks. 3. If the first letters of the name do not occur in the table take the letters next previous in the alphabetical order. For Pecksniff we take the number of Peck, U.; for Manners, the number of Mannag; for Ahern the number of Aher; for Erato the number of Erath. 4. If the nitmber found is already in use, annex another decimal. E. g., if there is a Harris, Ferdinand h241, Harris, George niay be numbered with a fourth figure, h2414; Harris, Frank h241 1 ; Harris, Henry h2416; Harris, Isaac h2418. This can be carried to any extent. In making such insertions it is necessary to consider in what part of the gap the new name will go best, so as to leave room on one side or the other for future insertions. Except in enormous classes, one would rarely get to the fifth figure. But bad judgment in choosing the fourth figure might hasten the need of adding a fifth. Avoid using the number 1 as long as other numbers aie vacant, because when it is once used nothing can well be inserted before it; one can- not put, for instance, anything between 22 and 221. Zero should be used only in extreme cases because it might be mistaken for the let ter Q _of a work-mark ; otherwise 220 would come between 22 and 221. (4) 5. The figures are to be considered as decimals, and an-anged on the shelf in the order h2, h21, h211, h2111, h2112, h22, h23, h233, h24, h3, and so on. That is, all the numbers beginning with 2 ccnie before a number beginning with 3, and all the numbers beginning with 21 before any beginning with 22, and all beginning with 221 before any beginning with 222; just as in a dictionary all the words beginning with Ab come before words beginning with Ac, and all the Aca words come before Acb words. Some persons are apprehensive that this decimal arrangement will be hard to itse, or at least hard to teach to stupid assistants and (when the public are allowed to go to the shelves) to a public unwilling to take the trotible to comprehend. It may be so sometimes ; I can only sa}'- that I have never had any difficult}^ with anyone, boy or girl, man or woman, when the arrangement was explained as it is above. But if this is con- sidered a serious objection to the use of these atithorjiiai'ks, the difficulty can be entirely avoided by using two figures with the initial in all cases, treating them as ordinals, and when t\vo names are to be represented by the same combination, so that subdivision becomes necessary, starting a new series of ordinals either from 1 to 9, or from 11 to 99, by putting a point after the first two figures, e. g., H21.1, or H21.]l. The sttipidest attend- ant could not fail to comprehend the order H34, H34.1, H34.2, H34.3, H34.4, and so on. As it would be awkward to use two decimal points (H34.2.1, H34.2.2), it wotild be well to use two figures after the decimal point in very large collections, as Fiction and Biography, thus, H34, H34.li, H34.12, H34.13, etc. Of course this ordinal method does not allow infinite inter- calation. A time will come when some new name cannot be inserted in its proper order, because its number is alread}' occupied. But a notation consisting of an initial followed by fotir characters provides places for so mau}^ names that this misfortune will not occur soon or frequently. And when it does occur the approximate alphabetical arrangement that will here and there restilt is ver}'^ much better than no alphabetic order at all. (5) Further niarks.'^ 6. On the shelves three alphabetical series should be made, by sizes, O including all books 25 cm. high or less, Q between 25 and 30, F over 30. These will be indicated by the sign that separates the class mark from the anthor-and-book mark, * for O and smaller sizes, -|- for Q, || for F. In small libraries it is best to make only one series of books under each division ; the few books that are too large for the shelves can be turned down; very large books can be kept in some separate case. But in a library of size, and especially in a library that has many old books, there are likely to be so many quartos and folios that provision must be made to keep them by themselves, and yet in juxtaposition with the smaller books of their class. It is well always to mark the books for Q and F \Aith these dis- tinctive marks, but these two sizes may often be mixed advantageously in a single alphabet, on the shelves, especially where there aie only one or two folios with many quartos, or one or two quartos with many folio.<=. The three size-marks are for marking the catalog and the back of the title page; they are not used in lettering the backs of the books; in a majority of cases the book's size is sufficiently shown to the attendant who puts it up by the fact that a Q book will not go on an O shelf. 7. In numbering Q and F books a single figure will usu- ally be enough, because there will usually be few books of those sizes in any class, and .therefore fewer marks are needed to dis- tinguish them ; often the initial alone would be enough in F. 8. Different books by Tpie same author in the same class are distinguished by work-marks consisting of the first letter or letters of the catch-title after a thin space. E. g., Dicken's Chimes, d554 c; Christmas carol, d554 ch; Cricket on the hearth, d554 CR ; David Copperfield, d554 d ; Dombey and son, d554 do. 9. Other copies or other editions are noted by adding 2 or 3 or 4, as the case may be, to the work-mark. E. g., another edition of Dombey and son, d554 do2. * pQr a discussion of other methods see Library notes, vol 3. (6) 10. The special mark for translations, for use in large libraries or in large special collections in a S7uall library^ is tbe initial of the language, a capital letter added (after a size-mark) to the aiithor-mark. E. g.. Goethe's Dramatische werke "0554 " Dramatic works •g554"E *' (Euvres dramatiques '0554 F Faust •g554f " Faust, in English ■g554fE 11. If there are several translations distinguish them by adding the initial of the translator's name to the language- mark. E.g. ust, in the original, ■g554 f " " English by Austin •g554 FEa " Bernays •g554 FEb " Blackie •g554 F-Ebl ' " Bowen •g554 FEbo " Brooks •g554 FEbr " French " Blaze de Bury •g554 F'Fb " Italian " Maffei •g554 Flm These marks are long. But it must be reraeraberd that the need for such marks does not occur at all in a small collection of books, and very rarely in a large one. Moreover, if any one wants to avoid them alto- gether, he can do so by giving up the exact arrangement of versions, and simply numbering texts and translations in numerical order as they are received, which is not bad where there is no access to the shelves, and almost as good as exact arrangement where there is access, until the number of editions and translations becomes very large, for instance, among the classics in a college library, or in the cai^e of Shakspeare, Goethe, and Dante, in any large general library. 12. In Biography, which is to be arranged b}^ the names of the subjects of the lives, distinguish different authors by adding their initials. E. g., Chadwick's Defoe Morley's Defoe Wilson's Defoe •d362 c •d362 m •d362 w 13. When in a large collection the number of editions of a single work exceeds or is likely to exceed 9, the different edi- tions may be distinguished b}'- adding the 3^ear of publication (7) (usually of the first volume, if there are more than one) instead of a number 2, 3, or 4. E. g.. Paradise lost, ed. of 1G67 •iviG42 p 16(57 " " reprint of same ■mG42 p 1G67.2 " ed. of 1732 •m642 p 1732 " ed. of 1754 -^1642 p 1754 Paradise regained 1^642 r l-lr. If it is desired to keep a commentary on any work immediately after the work add to the work-mark a capital 'Y and (if necessary) the initial of the commentator. For diction- aries and concordances add 'Z. E. g., Frehse's Worterbuch zu Renter's saramtlichen werken would be R 319 Zf. The various marks then are : Class as Ce Size as ',-!-, || Author as d55 Work as d Copy or Edition as 2, 3, 4 " " " when very many as 1887 Translation as (into English) "E Other copies of English Translation as 'E2, .E3 Translation by another hand as (d being initial of translator's name) "Ed Commentary or other illustrative work as 'Y Dictionary as 'Z Another as (p being initial of author of dictionary) *Zp Eor a fuller explanation, see Cutter's Expansive classification, pt. 1, p. 139-lGO. This includes a way to mark a large collection of Greek and Latin classics (such as would be found in a college library), first published in the Library Journal, 11:280-289. See, also, the full scheme for mark- ing a Shakspeare, Dante, Goethe, Moliere, or Milton collection, in the 7th Expansive classification, class X, p. 49-74, enlarged from Library Jour- nal. 9 : 137-139. (8; r- % ♦« A ■■/< . ■ COH'?