Cutter Expansive Classification: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Library classification system}}

The '''Cutter Expansive Classification''' system is a [[library classification]] system devised by [[Charles Ammi Cutter]]. The system was the basis for the top categories of the [[Library of Congress Classification]].<ref>{{r
|n=LaMontagne-1961
|r={{cite book
|last=LaMontagne, |first=Leo E.
'' |title=American Library Classification: With Special Reference to the Library of Congress''.
|publication-place=Hamden, CT, |publisher=Shoe String Press. |date=1961, p. 226.</ref>

}}

|p=226

}}

== History of the Expansive Classification ==

[[Charles Ammi Cutter]] (1837–1903), inspired by the decimal classification of his contemporary [[Melvil Dewey]], and with Dewey's initial encouragement, developed his own classification scheme for the [[Winchester, TownMassachusetts]] Librarytown library and then the [[Boston AthenaeumAthenæum]],<ref>{{r|n=LaMontagne, Leo E. ''American Library Classification: With Special Reference to the Library of Congress''. Hamden, CT, Shoe String Press. -1961, |p. =208.</ref>}} at which he served as librarian for twenty-four years. He began work on it around the year 1880, publishing an overview of the new system in 1882. The same classification would later be used, but with a different notation, also devised by Cutter, at the [[Cary Memorial Library|Cary Library]] in [[Lexington, Massachusetts]].<ref>{{r
|n=Cutter,-1891
|r={{cite book
|last=Cutter |first=C. A.
[ |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L10oAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1
'' |title=Expansive Classification: Part I: The First Six Classifications'']. Boston, C. A. Cutter. 1891–93, p. 1.</ref>

|publication-place=Boston |publisher=C. A. Cutter

|date=1891–93

}}

|p=1

}}

Many libraries found this system too detailed and complex for their needs, and Cutter received many requests from librarians at small libraries who wanted the classification adapted for their collections. While numbers and letters are required in large library classifications, small libraries did not need their classification system to be too specific.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Murray |first=Stuart |title=The Library: An Illustrated History |publisher=Skyhorse Publishing |year=2009 |pages=205}}</ref> He devised the Expansive Classification in response, to meet the needs of growing libraries, and to address some of the complaints of his critics.<ref>For the Expansive Classification as a response to Cutter's critics, see: {{harvnb|Miksa, Francis L., ed. ''Charles Ammi Cutter: Library Systematizer''. Littleton, CO, Libraries Unlimited. |1977, |p. =58.}}

* For the Expansive Classification as a response to the growing needs of libraries, see {{harvnb|Miksa, above,|1977|p=58}} and also: {{harvnb|LaMontagne, Leo E. ''American Library Classification: With Special Reference to the Library of Congress''. Hamden, CT, Shoe String Press. |1961, |p. =209}}.

* The above issues are also discussed by Cutter in {{harvnb|Cutter|1891–93}}.</ref>

* The above issues are also discussed by Cutter in his [https://books.google.com/books?id=L10oAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1 ''Expansive Classification: Part I: The First Six Classifications'']. Boston, C. A. Cutter. 1891–93.</ref> Cutter completed and published an introduction and schedules for the first six classifications of his new system ([https://books.google.com/books?id=L10oAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1 ''Expansive Classification: Part I: The First Six Classifications'']), but his work on the seventh was interrupted by his death in 1903.<ref>LaMontagne, Leo E. ''American Library Classification: With Special Reference to the Library of Congress''. Hamden, CT, Shoe String Press. 1961, p. 210.</ref>

Cutter completed and published an introduction and schedules for the first six classifications of his new system (''Expansive Classification: Part I: The First Six Classifications''),{{r|n=Cutter-1891}} but his work on the seventh was interrupted by his death in 1903.{{r|n=LaMontagne-1961|p=210}}

The Cutter Expansive Classification, although adopted by comparatively few libraries,<ref>{{Cite webr|url=https://journals.ala.org/index.php/lrts/article/viewFile/5419/6654|title=The Contracting World of Cutter's Expansive Classification|lastn=Winke|first=R. Conrad|date=2013|website=American Library Association|access-date=18 June 20192004}}</ref> has been called one of the most logical and scholarly of American classifications.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Winke|first1=R. Conrad|title=The Contracting World of Cutter's Expansive Classification|journal=Library Resources & Technical Services|date=2004|volume=48|issue=2|page=123|url=https://journals.ala.org/index.php/lrts/article/viewFile/5419/6654}}</ref> Library historian Leo E. LaMontagne writes:r

|n=Winke-2004

|r={{cite journal

|last1=Winke |first1=R. Conrad

|title=The Contracting World of Cutter's Expansive Classification

|journal=Library Resources & Technical Services

|date=2004 |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=122–129

|url=https://journals.ala.org/index.php/lrts/article/view/5419/6654

|doi=10.5860/lrts.48n2.122-129

|doi-access=free}}

|p=123

}}

Library historian Leo E. LaMontagne wrote:

<blockquote>Cutter produced the best classification of the nineteenth century. While his system was less "scientific" than that of [[J. P. Lesley]], its other key features – notation, specificity, and versatility – make it deserving of the praise it has received.<ref>{{r|n=LaMontagne, Leo E. ''American Library Classification: With Special Reference to the Library of Congress''. Hamden, CT, Shoe String Press. -1961, |p. =215</ref>}}</blockquote>

Its top level divisions served as a basis for the [[Library of Congress classificationClassification]], which also took over some of its features.<ref>{{r|n=LaMontagne, Leo E. ''American Library Classification: With Special Reference to the Library of Congress''. Hamden, Connecticut, Shoe String Press. -1961, |p. =226.</ref>}} It did not catch on as did Dewey's system because Cutter died before it was completely finished, making no provision for the kind of development necessary as the bounds of knowledge expanded and scholarly emphases changed throughout the twentieth century.<ref>{{Cite journal r| urln=https://journals.ala.org/index.php/lrts/article/view/5419/6654 |title = The Contracting World of Cutter's Expansive Classification|journal = Library Resources & Technical Services|date = 5 November 2013|volume = 48|issue = 2|pages = 122–129|last1 = Winke|first1 = R. Conrad-2004}}</ref>

== Structure of the Expansive Classification ==

The Expansive Classification uses seven separate schedules, each designed to be used by libraries of different sizes. After the first, each schedule was an expansion of the previous one,<ref>Miksa, Francis L., ed. ''Charles Ammi Cutter: Library Systematizer''. Littleton, CO, Libraries Unlimited. 1977, p. 58.</ref> and Cutter provided instructions for how a library might change from one expansion to another as it grows.<ref>Cutter, C. A. [https://books.google.com/books?id=L10oAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1 ''Expansive Classification: Part I: The First Six Classifications'']. Boston, C. A. Cutter. 1891–93, p. 21–23.</ref>{{r

|n=Miksa-1977

|r={{cite book

|editor-last=Miksa |editor-first=Francis L.

|title=Charles Ammi Cutter: Library Systematizer

|publication-place=Littleton, CO |publisher=Libraries Unlimited |date=1977

}}

|p=58

}}

and Cutter provided instructions for how a library might change from one expansion to another as it grows.{{r|n=Cutter-1891|pp=21–23}}

== Summary of the Expansive Classification schedules ==

=== First classification ===

The first classification is meant for only the very small libraries. The first classification has only seven top -level classes, and only eight classes in all.total:

* '''A''' Works of reference and general works which include several of the following sections, and so could not go in any one.

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=== Further classifications ===

Further expansions add more top -level classes and subdivisions. Many subclasses arranged systematically, with common divisions, such as those by geography and language, following a consistent system throughout.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924092476229 |title = Expansive classification|year = 1891}}</ref>

By the fifth classification all the letters of the alphabet are in use for top -level classes. These are:

* '''A''' General Works

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* '''Z''' Book arts

These schedules were not meant to be fixed, but were to be adapted to meet the needs of each library. For example, books on the English language may be put in X, and books on language in general in a subclass of X, or this can be reversed. The first option is less logical, but results in shorter marks for most English language libraries.<ref>Cutter, C. A. [https://books.google.com/books?id{{r|n=L10oAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1 ''Expansive Classification: Part I: The First Six Classifications'']. Boston, C. A. Cutter. 1891–93, -1891|p. =27.</ref>}}

== HowConstruction Expansive Classificationof call numbers are constructed ==

{{Expand section|citations and corrections|date=August 2011}}

Most call numbers in the Expansive Classification follow conventions offering clues to the book's subject. The first line represents the subject, the second the author (and perhaps title), the third and fourth dates of editions, indications of translations, and critical works on particular books or authors. All numbers in the Expansive Classification are (or should be) shelved as if in decimal order.

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On the third line a capital Y indicates a work about the author or book represented by the first two lines, and a capital E (for English—other letters are used for other languages) indicates a translation into English. If both criticism and translation apply to a single title, the number expands into four lines.

=== Cutter numbers (Cutter codes) ===

{{Expand section|examples and additional citations|date=August 2011}}

One of the features adopted by other systems, including Library of Congress, is the Cutter number or Cutter code. It is an alphanumeric device to code text so that it can be arranged in alphabetical order using the fewest characters. It contains one or two initial letters and Arabic numbers, treated as a decimal. To construct a Cutter number, a cataloguer consults a Cutter table as required by the classification rules. Although Cutter numbers are mostly used for coding the names of authors, the system can be used for titles, subjects, geographic areas, and more.

{| class=wikitable

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|}

Initial letters Qa–Qt are assigned Q2–Q29, while entries beginning with numerals have a Cutter number A12–A19, therefore sorting before the first A entry.<ref>{{cite web|title=LC Cutter Tables |url=http://staff.library.mun.ca/staff/toolbox/tables/lccutter.htm |website=Queen Elizabeth II Libraries |publisher=Memorial University of Newfoundland |access-date=14 August 2014 |url-status=bot: unknowndead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140814173419/http://staff.library.mun.ca/staff/toolbox/tables/lccutter.htm |archive-date=14 August 2014 }}</ref>

So to make the three -digit Cutter number for "Cutter", one would start with "C", then looking under ''other consonants'', find that "u" gives the number 8, and under ''additional letters'', "t" is 8, giving a Cutter number of "C88".

== Notes ==

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* Hufford, Jon R. "The Pragmatic Basis of Catalog Codes: Has the User Been Ignored?". ''Cataloging and Classification Quarterly'' 14 (1991): 27–38.

* Immroth, John Philip. "Cutter, Charles Ammi". ''Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science''. [[Allen Kent]] and Harold Lancour, ed. 47 vols. New York, M. Dekker [1968– ]

* Slavis, Dobrica. "CUTT-x: An Expert System for Automatic Assignment of Cutter Numbers". ''Cataloging and Classification Quarterly''. Vol 22, no. 2, 1996.

* LaMontagne, Leo E. ''American Library Classification: With Special Reference to the Library of Congress''. Hamden, CT, Shoe String Press. 1961.

*Slavis, Dobrica. "CUTT-x: An Expert System for Automatic Assignment of Cutter Numbers". ''Cataloging and Classification Quarterly''. Vol 22, no. 2, 1996.

* Tauber, Maurice F., and Edith Wise. "Classification Systems". [[Ralph R. Shaw (Librarian)|Ralph R. Shaw]], ed.. ''The State of the Library Art''. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers U. Graduate School of Library Service, 1961. 1–528.