1. LIB 630 Classification and
Cataloging
Spring 2013
Searching for
Shamrocks?
Access Points for St. Patrick’s Day

2. 2
Access points?
access point
A unit of information in a bibliographic record
under which a person may search for and
identify items listed in the library catalog or
bibliographic database. Access points have
traditionally included the main entry, added
entries, subject headings, classification or call
number, and codes such as the standard
number, but with machine-readable
cataloging, almost any portion of the catalog
record (name of publisher, type of material, etc.)
can serve as an access point.

3. 3
Plain English, please?
An access point
is a feature (or an attribute) of a work
(book, DVD, etc.) that someone might be
likely to choose in order to be able to find
that work
– e. g. Title, author, other names associated
with the work (publisher, corporate
body, etc.), subject, keyword, classification
number, etc.

4. 4
Access point: Main entry
Comes from card catalog days
One card designated as the one to have all
the information about a book
– ODLIS:
“The entry in a library catalog that
provides the fullest description of a
bibliographic item, by which the work
is to be uniformly identified and cited.
In AACR2, the main entry is the
primary access point.”
• main entry

5. 5
Short Digression
What is AACR2?
The Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules
(AACR) are a[n inter]national cataloging
code first published in 1967. AACR2
stands for the Anglo-American Cataloguing
Rules, Second Edition.
AACR2 has been succeeded by Resource
Description and Access (commonly
referred to as RDA), which was released in
June 2010.
– From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

6. Form of the main entry
6
Traditionally by author
The most important thing about a
book was that there was a person
responsible for it.
– Thus, card catalogs were arranged
first and foremost alphabetically
by author (where one could be
found)
– e.g. Markham, Marion M.
The St. Patrick’s Day shamrock
mystery / Marion M. Markham
; illustrated by Karen A. Jerome.

7. 7
Main Entry
Example
Bunting, Eve
S is for shamrock : an Ireland
alphabet / written by Eve
Bunting ; illustrated by Matt Faulkner. -
Chelsea, Mich. : Sleeping Bear Press, c2007.
1 v. (unpaged) : col. ill. ; 27 x 29 cm.
 See Standard format for a card catalog entry ,
part of Idaho’s Alternative Basic Library
Education (ABLE) Course 5: Introduction to
Technical Services and Cataloging for
other examples

8. 8
A “real” main entry card
OCLC Catalog Cards 8 Card Appearance and Card Packs

9. 9
Main entry as source for Cutter
What is a “Cutter number”?
Cutter numbers primarily distinguish among
books by the same author. A librarian uses a
table (e.g., the Cutter-Sanborn Three-Figure
Author table that the Cutter family [still] owns) to
look up the correct Cutter.
Cutters usually consist of the first letter of the
author's last name and a series of numbers that
makes sure books end up placed on shelves
alphabetically, usually by title.
– Catalogers decide numbers following the
Dewey Decimal

10. 10
Cutter numbers
Cutter?
Among his other contributions to the
wonderful world of librarianship,
Charles Ammi Cutter [1837-1903] devised
a way to assign an alpha-numeric code for
authors' last names. Use of this system
allows all books within a particular Dewey
Decimal number to be arranged
alphabetically on the shelf, usually by title.
Catalogers try to assign distinct numbers for
each name.
The Cutter Number from Dewey Decimal in
the UIUC Bookstacks
March 11, 2013 Classification

11. 11
Let’s go Cuttering!
Cutter numbers
The cutter number for a book usually consists of the
first letter of the author's last name and a series of
numbers. This series of numbers comes from a
table that is designed to help maintain an
alphabetical arrangement of names.
Conley, Ellen C767
Conley, Robert C768
Cook, Robin C77
Cook, Thomas C773
What if the library has several works by the same
author? How do we keep the call number unique?
To do that a work mark or work letter is used to
distinguish the various works of a single author.
Cook, Robin Acceptable Risk 813.54 C77a
Cook, Robin Fever 813.54 C77f
http://library.mtsu.edu/dewey/index.php#Cutter

12. 12
Do school librarians go “Cuttering”?
Depends on the size of the school library
Most often they will use just the 3-letter
abbreviation (or something similar).
Cutter #

13. Personal names
How do we write them?
Concise AACR2:
Why do they call –General Rule:
it a heading?
Rule 31A Choose, as the basis for the
Because the heading [i.e. access point], the name by
“access point” on which the person is commonly known.
a catalog card
was the
It may be the person’s real
heading, or the name, pseudonym, nickname, title, na
header on the top me in religion, initials, or any other
of the card, by type of name.
which they were
filed in the e.g. Saint Patrick (Latin:
catalog cabinet. Patricius, Irish: Naomh Pádraig) (from

14. 14
A personal author
Saint Patrick

15. 15
Titles as access points
Problem of varying titles for the same work:

16. 16
Solution?
Create a “uniform title”
“A uniform title is the specific title by which all
variations of a work that has appeared under
varying titles and which has no identifiable author
are to be referred to for cataloging purposes. A
Uniform Title Main Entry search can be useful in
finding such works. Examples include the Bible, the
Bhagavad-Gita, the Epic of Gilgamesh, Aesop's
Fables, the Arabian Nights, etc.”
– Uniform Title Main Entry Search: Help

17. 17
Uniform title rule
Concise AACR2:
Rule 59 Individual Titles
– 59A. If you use a uniform title,
choose the title by which the work is best known.
Decide this by consulting reference sources (including
other catalogues) and other manifestations of the
same work. If you are in doubt as to which title is
best known, use the earliest title.
– 59B. Choose the title in the original language, unless
you are cataloguing an older work originally written
in a nonroman alphabet language
[Greek, Russian, etc.]

18. 18
St. Patrick’s uniform title?
Original Latin title:

19. 19
Other access points
Keywords vs. subject headings
Keywords: the actual words used in the
record (from the
title, author, notes, etc.), where the
meaning of the words is less
important, just that they’re there.
Subject headings: Words selected from an
official list that indicate what the record is
about, where the meaning is important (the
words used in the subject headings may
not even appear in the record).

20. 20
Differences
Keyword search on St. Patrick and snakes
Notice the numbers!

21. 21
Using a subject heading search
Saint Patrick as the subject, and keyword snakes
Notice the numbers!

22. 22
Subject headings more focused
Both St. Patrick and Snakes as
subject, one result:

23. 23
Geographical Headings
Difficulties with geographical names:
Firstly, there are a number of homonym
geographical proper names
– e.g. out of the seven most important cities called
London, three are located in the U.S. [ and one in
Ontario, Canada] and there is an island called
London too
Secondly, there is a great variety of types of
geographical names
Thirdly, the same geographical place can have
[different] names in different languages
– Geographical names as access points for retrieving database
records. Theory and practices of a library regulation Abstract
from Hungarian Library Review.

24. 24
An Irish geographical dilemma
Ireland, Eire or what?
Concise AACR2 rule 46A:
–Give the name of the place found in
(in this order of preference):
1) current English-language
gazetteers and atlases
2) other current English-language
reference sources

25. 25
Example
Ireland, not
Eire

26. 26
Access points in Follett Destiny
Basic search:
Possible access points

27. 27
Access points in Follett Destiny
Dropdown boxes enable you to choose or
Power search: combine access points of
Keyword, Title, Author, Subject, Series, or Note

28. 28
Access points in Follett Destiny
Visual, providing selections of topics: