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La novela verdadera / Javier Chiabrando ; [edited by Carola Moreno]. (OCLC #872414080)

The author’s name authority record includes a call number that has already been assigned to him:

    053 _0 PQ7798.13.H45

so we don’t have to start by shelflisting the author under PQ7798.13 (Spanish Literature … Argentina … Individual authors or works 1961-2000, A-Z … starting with C). Note that the first letter of Chiabrando is already accounted for in the number, so the letter in the first cutter is H for cHiabrando.

The second cutter is for the title of the book. In this case we skip the initial article La and start at Novela, following the Subject Cataloging Manual on Shelflisting’s Filing rules (G 100), Rule 13 (“Initial Articles”). Our call number is:

    PQ7798.13.H45 N68 2013
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Grun-tu-molani / Vidyan Ravinthiran. (OCLC #868082716)

Our main library’s general collection spans three floors, and we set the location manually in the catalog for each book based on call number. The distribution is currently:

  • Third floor: A – DX
  • Fourth floor: E – PR2749
  • Fifth floor: PR2750 – Z

For books close to the boundary (like this one at PR6118: English literature, 2001- , Individual authors starting with R) I peek up at the sign to check their placement. For books slightly further away, I often sing at least part of the alphabet ( … L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S … ) to just make sure. Apparently even all of my practice doing quicksort by hand has not solidified that part of the alphabet’s ordering in my head.

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América en Cervantes : entrega de la medalla de oro “José Vasconcelos 2013” / a Antonio Rey Hazas ; edición de José J. Labrador Herraiz. (OCLC #887155141)

The free-floating subdivision

    --Knowledge--[specific topic]

should be used under individual persons for works on the person’s knowledge or educational background of a specific topic. That topic itself should be assigned as an additional subject heading:

    600 10 ǂa Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de, ǂd 1547-1616 ǂx Knowledge
        ǂx America.
    651 _0 ǂa America.
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The BOCA basic mechanical code. (OCLC #2157951)

There are many reasons that materials might reside in a library’s special collections. They may be rare or fragile, but they may just be “a special collection” important to the library, like a reference collection which must stay in the library.

For example, our Design Library keeps building codes in its special collections. These are important to lawyers handling law suits involving buildings, as a building must only meet the code in effect when it was built, not necessarily the current one.

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Science and the moral life. (OCLC #373672)

Not all “series-like” statements need to be treated like a series; for example, “A Mentor Book” on the cover. There is a series authority record for the phrase, but it does not include series treatment fields. Instead, it has instructions and explanatory notes:

    667 __ ǂa Give phrase as a quoted note if not already included
        in the body of the entry
    667 __ ǂa Undifferentiated phrase record: Covers all instances
        when this character string used by any publisher is   
        considered to be a series-like phrase; if character 
        string is considered to be a series, separate SAR has
        been made

I did not find a series authority record for a series of that name from that publisher, and had no reason to trace the series locally, so did not create a local series authority record. Instead, I included a quoted note:

    500 __ ǂa "A mentor book"--T.p. verso.

as it also appears on the back of the title page.

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On a shelf of old mysterious problems, I found four cardboard boxes of catalog cards. These were the shelf list and catalog for the sound recordings (on records and audio cassettes) in our media collection. I blew the dust off of the cards and packed them neatly into drawers in a nearby card catalog cabinet, which houses cards for similar collections.

Those cards poking up out of the right drawer are “see also” cards, like this one:

They are housed in plastic sleeves that make them stand up above the other cards.

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Epistle to white Christians / Fred D. Wentzel. (OCLC #1039631)

When cataloging, we look for the title on its preferred source of information (RDA) or chief source (AACR2) which for books is the title page. A cover or spine title may not be the authoritative title in the first place, but may also lose letters when damaged. Though the spine title on this volume is technically different from the one on the title page, I chose not to add it in a 246 18.

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Otsuchi : moving forward from the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami : a photo essay of a small town in Japan / Meiji Gakuin University Volunteer Center ; editing and design, Cody Rapley. (OCLC #889095202)

Most call numbers in Library of Congress Classification follow a pretty standard pattern: 1-3 capital letters, a number (possibly with a decimal part), one or two cutters, and sometimes a year. One exception is in call numbers for books about events like earthquakes, where the class number also includes a year for the occurrence (in addition to the year that might be in the “item number” part of the call number). For example, HV599 is for general works about earthquakes, but HV600 is for works about specific earthquakes by date, then subarranged by place, A-Z, and by author, A-Z.

This title about the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, so the first cutter is for Tōhoku, the region where that earthquake took place. The second cutter is for the main entry, which in this case is the title. This forms the call number:

HV600 2011 .T64 ǂb O87 2014
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From Aristotle to Schrödinger : the curiosity of physics / Antonis Modinos. (OCLC #867822764)

I didn’t spot the popular copy for this book on my first search because I did a personal name search for the author’s first and last name:

    pn: antonis and pn: modinos

Unfortunately, pn: indexes relatively few fields, all for access points:

    100/a,b,c,d,j,q,u
    700/a,b,c,d,j,q,u

I didn’t find the record, because the author’s name authority has been established only with his first initial:

    Modinos, A., ǂd 1938-

(details confirmed on distributor web sites).

A broader index for author names is au: which indexes the same fields as above, but many more as well, including 245ǂc (which would include the full form as transcribed in the statement of responsibility) but more unusual ones too, including:

  • 505ǂr – Statement of responsibility in a formatted contents note
  • 508ǂa – Creation/production credits note
  • 511ǂa – Participant or performer note
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Reports … [microform]. (OCLC #40340781)

This set of microfiche came to my attention via a packet of printouts (circa 2005) detailing seven different problems with its (original) cataloging record, including:

  • typos
  • wrong number of fiche
  • lack of analytical title access points
  • sharing a call number with unrelated fiche

The cover page email ended with “UGH, sounds liked you’d rather I forget this, right?” (I guess it was in fact forgotten!)

I brought the set down to my desk and examined it briefly with a lightbox app and a 10x loupe (just strong enough to read the title pages) and managed to sort out all of its problems. It still shares a call number with another title, but have similar topics they appear to have been published as a set (numbering is continuous).