CRS Definition: Cutter number

Cutter number:

Also called Cutter, a method of representing words or names by using a decimal point followed first by a letter of the alphabet, then by one or more Arabic numerals.  A Cutter number is read and sorted as a decimal number.  It is named for Charles Ammi Cutter, who developed several tables using letters and numbers to achieve an alphabetical arrangement.  Book numbers and some subdivisions in the classification schedules are types of Cutter numbers.

Where double Cuttering is used, the second Cutter is sometimes known as the book or author number/Cutter, while the first is alternately the subject or class Cutter or, in the case of literature, the author Cutter.

Example:

Call number:  Z733.U58G66 1991

Cutter number:  .U58  [for the United States]

G66  [for Goodrum, the author]