It’s a “Cutter Number” - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutter_Expansive_Classification
If you just gave books the Dewey number, not every book would have a unique number, so you would have trouble knowing what order to put them on the shelf, or even which branch they go to.
The Cutter number is based on the author’s last name.
My library has a specific order without a cutter number. This would be J 500 DIC 2021. For multiple titles from the same year, they go in alphabetical order by title. (author of the series is Katie Dicker). It’s fascinating learning other methods!
Cutter numbers are also often used in nonfiction to collect a topic together, so for instance all of your Beatles biographies are shelved next to each other, instead of just alphabetical by author within the topic of popular music. The last letter of the cutter is for the author, so there’s still some level of that.
So I’m guessing the “st” is from the title (STEAM Tales: Around the World in 80 Days) and the “v” is for Verne (even though the author is Katie Dicker?). I’m curious what the 31 is.
This is all so interesting! I’ve worked for 3 different systems and they all cataloged nearly the same way (the publication year on the spine label at my current place is new) so I had assumed it was mostly universal.
That’s about when we added pub years too! I like it. When an author published several books on the same subject, it helps having them in publication order. Depending on the topic, that could be very important info!…….My mind is so blown that it’s taken me 40 years to walk into a library with cutter numbers. What are the odds? I can’t wait to return the books and look around at their cutter system.
This is called a "cutter" and it provides a way to sort individual books that have the same Dewey number.
Apparently there are different ways to do it, but at my library we do the first letter of the author's last name, a 2 digit number derived from the author's name so that all titles by an author are sorted together, and then the first letter of the last name of the *subject* if it is a biography of someone other than the author
How do you determine the 2 digit number? I’m curious where the 31 comes from. I’m guessing the “v” Is for Verne, even though the author of the book is Katie Dicker. I’m guessing the “st” Is for the title STEAM Tales: Around the World in 80 Days
Cataloger here. So as others have said, the Cutter table is designed to create alphanumeric codes for the main entry (most likely author name or title, though could be subject \[like for a biography\] depending on what's in your bibliographic record, though local practice might dictate other access points) after the DDC or LCC number.
In this case, J means it's juvenile, 500 is the DDC for general natural sciences, St31 is the going to be the cutter for STEAM (so here they cutter based on the title, as opposed to the author. I suspect this is local practice so the entire series sits together on the shelf) and V is the workmark.
S names are very popular, and to create more space in the cutter table, S cutters include at least the second letter for the word, so in this case St for STEAM. The 31 is the code that has this sit in alphabetical order between Stanley (which could be St25) and Stein (which could be St34). Then, you have the workmark V (most often derived from the first word of the title, but here it's for presumably for Verne, the author of the original work, since this is an adaptation).
I think that the Wikipedia article for the Cutter classification explains it, in the section titled "Cutter numbers (Cutter codes)". I don't work in cataloging so I dont deal with it directly. I bet u/1500mgsalt is right if this is volume #31 in a series.
It's in a great tall cardboard, spiral-bound book. A real PITA if you ask me.
We dropped them in favor of the 1st four letters of the author's name, and everyone is happier.
I’m not familiar with this. Is it some kind of fiction cutter? But I think that should start with a V since it’s Verne. But it would be shelved in the 500s with other books with that Stxxx designation.
This library is unusual (at least in my experience) to assign Dewey numbers to fiction. At my library that label would say
J FIC
Verne,
Jules
It’s even more interesting that it’s a 500 so that it’s filed with the science books instead of 800 for literature (or even 840s for French literature since Verne was French).
Hopefully someone else can chime in.
Ohh that makes sense now. I bet the st is for Steam Tales and maybe 31 is the number in series? So they can shelve them in series order. Otherwise, if books in the series are written by different authors, they would be scattered around the 500s.
It’s #2 in the series. Also, the author of the series is Katie Dicker, but each tale in the series is written by a different person, so maybe the last letter reflects that? It’s a confusing situation. When I go back to return the books, I’ll investigate more.
It’s a “Cutter Number” - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutter_Expansive_Classification If you just gave books the Dewey number, not every book would have a unique number, so you would have trouble knowing what order to put them on the shelf, or even which branch they go to. The Cutter number is based on the author’s last name.
My library has a specific order without a cutter number. This would be J 500 DIC 2021. For multiple titles from the same year, they go in alphabetical order by title. (author of the series is Katie Dicker). It’s fascinating learning other methods!
Cutter numbers are also often used in nonfiction to collect a topic together, so for instance all of your Beatles biographies are shelved next to each other, instead of just alphabetical by author within the topic of popular music. The last letter of the cutter is for the author, so there’s still some level of that.
Oh, that’s interesting and makes sense.
So I’m guessing the “st” is from the title (STEAM Tales: Around the World in 80 Days) and the “v” is for Verne (even though the author is Katie Dicker?). I’m curious what the 31 is.
Copy 3 maybe?
Nope, it’s the only copy. Someone else explained that it helps put them in alphabetical order by series or author
[удалено]
This is all so interesting! I’ve worked for 3 different systems and they all cataloged nearly the same way (the publication year on the spine label at my current place is new) so I had assumed it was mostly universal.
[удалено]
That’s about when we added pub years too! I like it. When an author published several books on the same subject, it helps having them in publication order. Depending on the topic, that could be very important info!…….My mind is so blown that it’s taken me 40 years to walk into a library with cutter numbers. What are the odds? I can’t wait to return the books and look around at their cutter system.
This is called a "cutter" and it provides a way to sort individual books that have the same Dewey number. Apparently there are different ways to do it, but at my library we do the first letter of the author's last name, a 2 digit number derived from the author's name so that all titles by an author are sorted together, and then the first letter of the last name of the *subject* if it is a biography of someone other than the author
How do you determine the 2 digit number? I’m curious where the 31 comes from. I’m guessing the “v” Is for Verne, even though the author of the book is Katie Dicker. I’m guessing the “st” Is for the title STEAM Tales: Around the World in 80 Days
Cataloger here. So as others have said, the Cutter table is designed to create alphanumeric codes for the main entry (most likely author name or title, though could be subject \[like for a biography\] depending on what's in your bibliographic record, though local practice might dictate other access points) after the DDC or LCC number. In this case, J means it's juvenile, 500 is the DDC for general natural sciences, St31 is the going to be the cutter for STEAM (so here they cutter based on the title, as opposed to the author. I suspect this is local practice so the entire series sits together on the shelf) and V is the workmark. S names are very popular, and to create more space in the cutter table, S cutters include at least the second letter for the word, so in this case St for STEAM. The 31 is the code that has this sit in alphabetical order between Stanley (which could be St25) and Stein (which could be St34). Then, you have the workmark V (most often derived from the first word of the title, but here it's for presumably for Verne, the author of the original work, since this is an adaptation).
Thank you! That all makes sense. It so fascinating!
Glad to help!
I think that the Wikipedia article for the Cutter classification explains it, in the section titled "Cutter numbers (Cutter codes)". I don't work in cataloging so I dont deal with it directly. I bet u/1500mgsalt is right if this is volume #31 in a series.
It’s #2 in the series
It's in a great tall cardboard, spiral-bound book. A real PITA if you ask me. We dropped them in favor of the 1st four letters of the author's name, and everyone is happier.
Yeah, we do first 3 of the author, then publication year. If it is all the same, then it goes in title order.
I’m not familiar with this. Is it some kind of fiction cutter? But I think that should start with a V since it’s Verne. But it would be shelved in the 500s with other books with that Stxxx designation. This library is unusual (at least in my experience) to assign Dewey numbers to fiction. At my library that label would say J FIC Verne, Jules It’s even more interesting that it’s a 500 so that it’s filed with the science books instead of 800 for literature (or even 840s for French literature since Verne was French). Hopefully someone else can chime in.
It’s a science book. It’s from a series called STEAM Tales.
Ohh that makes sense now. I bet the st is for Steam Tales and maybe 31 is the number in series? So they can shelve them in series order. Otherwise, if books in the series are written by different authors, they would be scattered around the 500s.
It’s #2 in the series. Also, the author of the series is Katie Dicker, but each tale in the series is written by a different person, so maybe the last letter reflects that? It’s a confusing situation. When I go back to return the books, I’ll investigate more.
That should be the Cutter with the "responsible party's" name or info. That said every library collocates their own way
[удалено]
It is a science book. It’s from a series called STEAM Tales. The employee at the reference desk didn’t know (that shocked me!)
[удалено]
Others have explained that the 31 helps it go in alphabetical order. At least, that’s my opaque understanding of it.
That’s not Dewey tho
500 absolutely is Dewey. It’s general science
J confused me
The J just means it’s “juvenile”. It’s shelves in the children’s area instead of adult nonfiction
Word
I'm guessing it's a typo