The Cutter in a Dewey call number comes from the Cutter-Sanborn table.
The language model does not apply
that table accurately. For Julián Rodríguez Fernández it may return R63
or R444. In the table the value is R696. With a wrong Cutter the book
is shelved in the wrong place.
Collect calculates the Cutter and the ISAD-G level code after extracting the record. It does not use what the model put in those fields. The model still proposes title, author and subjects.
Dewey Cutter
In Dewey the Cutter completes the call number (082$b; in UDC, 080$b).
Collect looks up the surname in the Cutter-Sanborn Three-Figure
Revised table, about 12,000 public entries, by longest prefix. If it
finds it, that code goes in the record and in holdings (852).
If the surname is not in the table, Collect leaves the code for the initial. The surname can be added to the table. Until then the field needs review.
LC Cutter
In Library of Congress classification the Cutter (050$b) comes from an
algorithm published by LC. There is a result for any word. Collect
calculates that value and replaces whatever the model proposed.
The full algorithm lengthens the Cutter letter by letter. Rodriguez
would give .R6375449. In practice two or three digits are used. Collect
cuts to the configured length, two by default, and leaves .R63. If the
record has the data, it can add:
- The work mark: the first significant letter of the title, to tell works by the same author apart.
- In
CTclasses, if there is a personal name as subject, the biographee’s Cutter. A biography of Lincoln by Smith takes Lincoln’s Cutter.
The biographee rule applies only when both conditions are met (CT class
and a personal name as subject). If one is missing, the author is used.
Which classes count as biographical is an institutional decision.
ISAD-G description level
In ISAD-G each unit has a level (fonds, section, series, item) and that level is coded in the record. Whoever knows the fonds decides whether a set is a series or a section. Collect writes the code that matches that decision. It does not ask the model for the code.
Limits
In Dewey, if the surname is not in the table, the initial remains. In LC the Cutter can always be calculated; work mark and biographee need title and subject on the record. The ISAD-G code is written when the level has already been decided.
Records still need review. What stops changing from one batch to the next is the Cutter for the same author and the level code.
To continue the conversation
If you catalog in Dewey or LC, or describe fonds in ISAD-G, and you want to see how these rules look with your surnames and your conventions, write to us at info@janium.com.