Work Letters: a summary of LC practice

This document was edited from an AUTOCAT message on January 22, 1997 from Gene Kinnaly, Senior Technical Advisor, Library Services, Library of Congress. This is NOT an official statement of LC.

MIT follows LC practice as described in this summary.

The Work Letter "b"

LC uses work letter "b" for editions; that is, same author and title, appearing in the same class, with the same cutter number assigned, published in the same year. This happens often in literature, with, for example, a New York imprint and a London imprint; also, with a large print edition published in the same year as the regular edition.

The Work Letter "a"

LC uses the work letter "a" for :

• Photocopies or "true" facsmiles. They use the same call number as the original work, with the date of the original work, plus the work letter "a", so that the photocopy or facsimile will shelve directly next to the original work.
  • NOTE: a typo in Subject Cataloging Manual: Shelflisting, G140, on dates. It should say to add an "a" to the date. It has been flagged for correction.
• Works entered under a corporate body (110). The first work published in a particular year gets that year added to the call number; subsequent works published in the same year get work letters starting with "a".
• Works entered under a conference or congress (111, or sometimes 110). If a date is present in the heading, LC uses that date in the call number; subsequent works with the same heading get the same date with work letter starting with "a"
• "Dump numbers". This term refers most often to a cutter used in which no way represents the main entry. An example is the biography table, where A3 represents an autobiography classed in an individual biography number. If two autobiographies by the same person were published in the same year, LC uses the "a' to distinguish them (e.g., .K56 A3 1997 ; .K56 .A3 1997a)
• N class: exhibition catalogs or collections of an artist. When two of either occur in the same year, LC's practice is to consult the .xA4 part of the table for special artists on the first cutter; the second work published in the same year would take work letter "a" tacked onto the date (e.g. .V36.A4 1996; .V36.A4 1996a). In these cases, LC doesn't use translation number (e.g. they use.A4, not A413 for English translations of exhibitions catalogs).

Other Work Letters/Other Usage

• "x"; at MIT, used for DDC recon, because shelflisting to prevent call number conflicts is not done in this project. The “trailing x” should alert catalogers not to follow precedent in these call numbers when determining cutters for LC exceptions (artists, literary authors, etc.). Not generally used by LC, this "trailing x" is most often used by other institutions to distinguish their call number from an LC call number, and is most often found tacked onto the cutter rather than the date; early in the NCCP project, libraries like Harvard used trailing x's.
• "z"; used for an uncertain range of publication dates, for example:
  • 197- ; use 1970z [if corporate body, use 1970]
  • 197-? ; use 1970z [if corporate body, use 1970]
  • 19-- ; use 1900z [if corporate body, use 1900]
  • 19--? ; use 1900z [if corporate body, use 1900]
  • Although it is rarely encountered, "z" is also used for commentaries on a specific conference, where the name of the conference is usually the first subject heading assigned. The call number consists of a class number, a cutter number for the conference, the date of the conference (from the conference heading), and work letters starting with "z" letters such as "za, "zb", and so on).
• Serials entered under a corporate body or conference. Here, the first work received would take work letter "a" tacked onto the cutter; subsequent works would take letters "b", "c", and so on.
• Multiple work letters. In certain exceptional cases, LC will use all 26 letters tacked onto the date. The best example of this is class HA201 for the census of the United States. This class is subarranged by the date of the census, but with no cutters. They use "aa", "ab", and so on as needed.

Most of the above practices are documented in the Subject Cataloging Manual: Shelflisting. Memos consulted were : G140-Corporate Bodies; G230-Conferences, Congresses, Meetings, etc.; G240-Societies; also, see the Preferred shelflist Order in G60-Call Numbers.