Page 126 - DLIS002_KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGUING THEORY

Unit 6: Concept of Call Number

The entire schedule is oriented toward western art music. It is difficult to use Class M to classify Notes
sound recordings. (Some libraries use a variation of LC Class M; other libraries shelve recordings
by accession number or manufacturer number. One system used by many public libraries is the
ANSCR classification system for sound recordings, which includes over fifty major categories
into which sound recordings may be organized.)

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
10. Class numbers in the Library of Congress Classification system are…………………..
11. ………………..collection contains a greater variety of forms or types of works than may be
provided for by any more specific neighbouring class.
12. Each number in the ………………….row is the last digit in the first number of a span of
numbers.
6.5 Book Number

Book numbers (also called item numbers) combine with collection numbers and class numbers
to form call numbers. Book numbers are a way of organizing and ordering books about the
same subject that share the same class number. They allocate books on the shelf in a helpful
manner and provide unique call numbers for every item in the collection. Book numbers are a
minor but important part of classification and cataloguing. Brief surveys are made of their
history, Cutter and Cutter-Sanborn tables, alphabetical and chronological orderings,
Ranganathan’s faceted book numbers, and Library of Congress call numbers. The future of book
numbers is surveyed.

Book numbers are parts of call numbers, together with collection numbers and class numbers.
Book numbers come at the end, and arrange books about the same subject so that they can be
given useful order on the shelf and a unique location in the collection. The collection number, if
used, indicates a major grouping within a library or library system, e.g. REF for reference or J
for the juvenile collection. The class number of a book tells what it is about, but many books can
be about the same thing and share the same class number. Book numbers are different for each
book having the same class number and will make the full call number completely individual.
Just as different classification schemes lead to different class numbers, so do the different book
number systems lead to incompatible book numbers? The library of the Faculty of Information
Studies at the University of Toronto (at which copies of all the books in the bibliography can be
found) uses the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC). Their policy for making book numbers is
to make an author number from the main entry, then add a title mark equal to the first letter of
the title (personal conversation with Joseph Cox, 1 February 2003). For example, Satija and
Comaromi (1992) have the call number025.428 S2523B MC. MC is the collection number, indicating
in which of the many campus libraries it can be found. (The name has since changed, which is
confusing.)025.428 is the class number, indicating the subject is shelf-listing. There are many
books in the library about shelf-listing. How to tell them apart? With a book number: for this
book, S2523B. S2523 is from Satija, and B is from Book Numbers. A Library of Congress (LC)
example is a copy of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, found in the main University of
Toronto library at PR 4558.A1 1947 ROBA 1. PR 4558 is class number, and stands for David
Copperfield, while A1 indicates that copies are arranged in chronological order and 1947 is the
year of this particular edition. The library has appended its own collection mark (ROBA) and a
copy number. S. R. Ranganathan devised his own, very detailed, faceted book number system,
and in Colon Classification (1964), he helpfully includes a complete call number on the copyright

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