LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CUTTER NUMBERS Jenna Lemay December

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CUTTER NUMBERS Jenna Lemay, December 2015

WHAT ARE CUTTER NUMBERS • Alpha-numeric code used to further distinguish books after the basic call number • Devised by Charles Ammi Cutter in the late 1800 s • Used in the Dewey Decimal System, but more extensively in the Library of Congress System • Books with the same basic call number a grouped alphabetically based on the added cutter number • Mostly used by cuttering the author’s name, but also used for titles, subjects, geographic areas, and other topic subdivisions

HOW TO MAKE CUTTER NUMBERS • Author’s name • Start with the first letter of the author’s last name • Cutter the following numbers based on the other letters in the authors last name using the cutter chart

HOW TO MAKE CUTTER NUMBERS

HOW TO MAKE CUTTER NUMBERS • Author’s name • Start with the first letter of the author’s last name • Cutter the following numbers based on the other letters in the authors last name using the cutter chart • The amount of digits following the first letter will depend on the library and the size of its collection • Each author should have a different cutter number • For example, authors with the same last name will need different cutter numbers • John Smith =. S 65, James Smith =. S 63

EXAMPLES IN LIBRARIES

HOW TO MAKE CUTTER NUMBERS

EXAMPLES IN LIBRARIES

HOW TO MAKE CUTTER NUMBERS • Subject, geographic area, title, etc. • LCC will give license to cutter • Can add author cutter after this, but no more than 2 cutters

EXAMPLES IN LIBRARIES

THANKS FOR LISTENING I hope you learned some interesting information about cutter numbers