Cutter

Cutter, Charles A. (1837-1903).
American librarian. Cutter's rules (1876) are classic, but unfortunately often neglected rules. Cutter's system of classification, Expansive Classification (1891–93), used the alphabet instead of numbers; it was the basis of the Library of Congress Classification.

Cutter formulated the following objectives of the library catalog:

1. To enable a person to fine a book of which either
   A. the author) }
   B. the title       } is known
   C. the subject) }

2. To show what the library has
   D. by a given author
   E. on a given subject
   F. in a given kind of literature

3. To assist in the choice of a book
G. as to its edition (bibliographically)
H. as to its character (literary or topical)

Fugmann (1994, p. 419) writes:
"Neglect of Cutter's Rule.
...At the end of the last century Cutter established the rule that in this translation process it is always the most specific, most appropriate expressions that should be looked up in the vocabulary of notations and assigned to the texts [Note 4 & 5 excluded]. In this way the expressions for the topics to be made retrievable are rendered most predictable.

For example, in case of the text:

Pesticides for the combating of the rice stalk borer,

an indexer obeying Cutter's rule is obliged to use the descriptor "insecticides" (if this is the most specific term in the vocabulary) and is not permitted to use pesticides although this descriptor is even suggested by the wording of the text. This rule renders the process of indexing most predictable and independent of the contingencies of natural language text phrasing.

In merely "controlled indexing" however, as has become widely common, the indexer is perfectly permitted to index with "pesticides" because this descriptor satisfies the requirement of being contained in the controlled vocabulary.

This type of lack of predictability serious impairs both the completeness and the precision of the search results and are wrongly called into doubt the effectiveness of any vocabulary-based indexing".

Literature:

Cutter, C. A. (1876). Rules for a Dictionary Catalog. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. (2.ed. 1889).

Fugman, R. (1994). Representational Predicatibility: Key to the Resolution of Several Pending Issues in Indexing and Information Supply. Advances in Knowledge Organization, 4, 414-422.

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