Thanks so much for your help! I have summarized the responses below
(actually, Cheryl, I left yours in full because I thought that some other
"newbie" might benefit from it). Actually, I am not really a 'newbie," but I
might as well be when it comes to cataloging.

Cordially,
John Roy

 

David Christensen

Recommended Cutter's Tables

http://www.kfupm.edu.sa/library/cod-web/Cutter-numbers.htm

 

Gene Kinnaly, Program Specialist, New Books Project, Cataloging in
Publication Division, Library of Congress

LC's Subject Cataloging Manual: Shelflisting, available on Cataloger's
Desktop. Memo G60 on call numbers includes the Cutter table used by LC
staff to construct LC call numbers.

 

Cheryl Boettcher Tarsala, Adjunct Assistant Professor, LEEP Program,
Graduate School of Library and Information Science,

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

LC Cutters are almost infinitely mutable. You probably already have the
little Cutter table that goes with LCC. If not, there are many versions
copied on the web, like this one:
http://staff.library.mun.ca/staff/toolbox/tables/lccutter.htm

 

If you look, you can see that your example concurs directly with the table,
.R6 for Ro, then adding 7 for an additional letter, in this case "S."

 

If you are checking copy, however, you'll discover that many LC-assigned
cutters simply do not match the official table. This is because the table is
only a starting point. LC's choice of cutters is entirely *situational,*
based on previous cutter number assignments in any given range of the LC
classification. (If you have the Chan textbook, there's one important
paragraph, at the top of page 345: "Each entry must be added to the existing
entries in the shelflist is such a way as to preserve alphabetical order in
accordance with filing rules." This trumps the table)

 

So the table is only a *starting point,* fitting into the existing shelflist
is the key. As a practicing cataloger, you can take this two ways: either
you forget about the wider world of LCC and just make sure it's unique for
your library--adjusting the number decimally up or down--or you can go to
the LC online catalog and look the numbers in their call number browse and
make your numbers fit into their alphabetical sequence:

 

http://catalog.loc.gov/

 

I think in the past, especially in small collections, nobody really cared
about making cutters that fit into a virtual, national shelflist in this
way--or even into one's own collection, but it may save time in the future
because you'll avoid clashing numbers on future works with LC-assigned
cutters.

 

If you still have general questions about LCC, Chapter 13 of Chan's
Cataoging and Classification 1995 is an excellent reference source and
rereading it now will have much more relevance than back in cataloging
class!

 

Beth Picknally Camden, Acting Director, Content Management Services,
University Library

Recommended Cutter's Tables Wesbite

http://130.15.161.74/techserv/lc-cut.html