Dept. Home
| Manual
| People
| Projects
| Reference
Classification: Subject Bibliography
Classify subject bibliography with the subject. Follow this policy when assigning a call
number to a work consisting mainly of references to books on a given subject.
References:
Chan, Lois Mai. Immroth's guide to the Library of Congress classification. 4th ed. p.
287-288, 347.
Instructions:
The Library of Congress classifies all bibliographies in numbers in the Z schedule. At BYU
we do not use the Z schedule for bibliographies on a subject for which a regular class
number exists. In such cases the bibliography is classed with other material on the same
subject. Bibliographies on multiple subjects, such as all the books published in a given
country or held by a given library, etc. may be classified in Z. Generally this means that
numbers in the range Z1200-Z8999 should not be used. Exceptions include Z5051-Z5056
(general bibliography), Z6601-Z6625 (bibliography of manuscripts) and Z6940-Z6964
(general bibliography of newspapers and periodicals).
To formulate call numbers for subject bibligraphies:
- Select the classification number that best fits the overall topic of the bibliography and
corresponds to the first subject heading you have assigned. For topics that are broken down
in the classification schedules, choose the "General works" number, if one exists. If LC
copy is available and an alternate class number has been assigned (a second subfield $a in the
050 field of the MARC record) that number may be used (see Immroth, p. 287-288).
- Check the online call number index or shelf list to determine if the number you have
chosen has been used before with a cutter beginning with "X". Make sure the number you
assign does not conflict with numbers already in the file.
- If the class number does not include a cutter, add .X1 as the first cutter
then assign a second cutter based on the main entry. If the class number includes a cutter as
an extension for a special topic, country, state, etc., formulate a second cutter with
X plus one or two digits to place the author in an alphabetical sequence with
other authors for which the number has been assigned or may be assigned. (Optionally, use
the .Z5-99 sliding scale described below to determine the second cutter.) Do not add the
lowercase x to the last cutter as you would with other locally assigned cutters. Add the date
of the work to the call number as usual.
.Z5-99 Sliding Scale:
Add one of the following numbers to form the final .X cutter according to the first letter in
the author's name or main entry.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H
| I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P
| Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X
| Y | Z |
| 5 | 52 | 53 | 55 | 56
| 58 | 6 | 62 | 63 | 65 | 66 | 68 |
7 | 72 | 74 | 76 | 78 | 8 | 83 | 85
| 87 | 9 | 93 | 95 | 96 | 97 |
Examples:
- You have the book A selected bibliography on modern French history, 1600 to the
present by John Bowditch, published in 1989. From the class schedules, you find the
general works number for French history/Modern, 1515- is DC110. You add
to this the .X1 cutter, a second cutter B6 for Bowditch formulated
according to the LC cutter table (Immroth, p. 347) and the date. The completed number is
DC110.X1B6 1989.
- You have a book by John Barber entitled Notes on historic sites in Utah County : a
bibliography, published in 1954. The class number for Utah County history is
F832.U8. Since this number already includes a cutter you can only add one
more. You choose X3, the X for bibliography and the 3 because Barber falls
near the beginning of the alphabet. The resulting call number, with date, is
F832.U8X3 1954.