Library of Congress

versus

Univers i ty of Sussex ‘Local ’ C lass ifi cat ion

University of Sussex Library Classification

60/40

http://tinyurl.com/p28vck2

LC

An alphanumeric system

Call numbers serve to group books of the same subject together

Every Call number has at least two parts: the Class number (or classmark) and the Cutter number (or shelfmark)

LC Call numbers

The first part of the Call number – first letters, first line of numbers (and sometimes a subject subdivision Cutter number), indicate the subject of the book

The second element is referred to as the Cutter number (named after Charles Ammi Cutter who developed the Cutter Expansive Classification scheme in the late 19th century) and is determined by using the initial letter of the author’s surname or the first letter of the subject followed by a numeric rendering of the subsequent letters arrived at using the LC Cutter table

Cutter numbers

The point of the Cutter number system is that it allows for infinite expansion of the Call number decimal and will always give an individual book a unique shelf location

It was developed by the LC to reflect its own collections and being a Copyright library has a huge range of stock. The Cutter table must be used as a guide and numbers for individual libraries must reflect the alphanumeric range of the individual collections in order to maintain unique shelf locations

Volume and copy numbers - LC

Sometimes a Call number will contain a volume number, labelled v.1, v.2, etc. These are shelved in whole number numerical order within the set of books

A Call number will contain a copy number if there are multiple copies of the same book on the shelf, labelled c.1, c.2, etc. These are shelved in whole number order

British Horror Cinema - LC

The book: British Horror Cinema, edited by Steve Chibnall and Julian Petley has the LC Call number :

PN1995 = Drama—Motion pictures—Other special topics, A-

Z

.9

.H6 = Cutter number for the subject ‘Horror’

B75 = Cutter number for the title ‘British’

2001 = Date of publication

British Horror Cinema - Sussex

PN1995 = Drama—Motion pictures—Other special

topics, A-Z

.9

.H6 = Cutter number for the subject ‘Horror’

BRI = Verbal extension (VE) for the title ‘British’

Cloud Atlas - LC

The novel: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell has the LC Call number :

PR6063 = English literature—1961-2000—Individual

authors—M

.I83 = Cutter number for Mitchell

C56 = Cutter number for the title Cloud

2004 = Date of publication

Cloud Atlas - Sussex

PF = English literature – individual authors

96904 = unique author number based on DoB

CLO = First 3 letters of the title

Sussex Sociology Classes

Women, feminist identity and society in the 1980's, edited by Myriam Diaz-Diocaretz and Iris M. Zavala is classified:

HC = Social structure

6400 = Status relations between the sexes, feminism

WOM = First 3 letters of the title, ‘Women’

Sussex Sociology Classes

Female and male in West Africa, edited by Christine Oppong is classified:

HC = Social structure

6410 = Status relations between the sexes, feminism (continentally subdivided)

(FEM) = First 3 letters of the title ‘Female’ (bracketed)

Sussex Sociology Classes

The village woman in Ghana by Jette Bukh is classified:

HC = Social structure

6410 = Status relations between the sexes, feminism (continentally subdivided)

GHA = 3-letter country code for ‘Ghana’

(BUK) = First 3 letters of the author’s surname ‘Bukh’ (bracketed)

Sussex Sociology Classes

So by using continental subdivision we can at least space up the Call numbers as such:

HC HC HC6400 6410 6410WOM (FEM) GHA

(BUK)But it still goes nowhere near to giving an individual title a unique Call number leading to retrieval difficulty

Sussex Literature Classes

Limitations of Sussex classification scheme v. LC?

Future-proofing

Reclassification

Contextualising the Classification process at Sussex

Orders for new items entered (via ISBN) on website of online supplier

Cataloguing team catalogue and classify each item before sending completed file to Acquisitions

Acquisitions team verify fund codes etc. and send orders from the online shopping cart to our book supplier who, via an EDI process, supplies the bibliographic data to our LMS server overnight

Following morning orders are checked on our LMS and sent to book supplier who will normally fulfill orders and supply ‘shelf-ready’ within 2 weeks