20 Call, book and collection numbers: Ranganathan`s chronological system

Dr M P Satija

Structure:

1. Elements of documents 1.1 Definition
2. Chronological Book numbers
2.1 Advantages of chronological systems
3. Ranganathan’s system
3.1 [L] Language Facet
3.1.1 Omission of the language facets
3.2 [F] Form Facet
3.2.1 Omission of Form Facets
3.3 [Y] Year Facet
3.3.1 [A] Accession part of the year number
3.4 [V] Volume Number of the Document
3.5 [S] Supplement Number of the Document
3.6 [C] Copy Number of the Document
3.7 [:g] Criticism/Evaluation Number
3.7.1 [EVN] Accession Part OF THE Evaluation Number
4. Problems
4.1 Keeping together different editions of a book
5. Collection Number
5.1 Notation for collection number
6. Using CC Book Numbers with other Schemes
7. Glossary
8. References
9. Test Questions

1. Elements of documents

S.R. Ranganathan is of the view that a document comprises of Gross body (Physical carrier) Subtle body (language, style, viewpoint, presentation, etc.) and the Soul (knowledge and subject). These days classification of documents though are based on their subject contents, viz., knowledge, yet the oddities and realities of the physical and subtle bodies of the documents cannot and should not be ignored. In a library one cannot arrange books distinctively without also accounting for these physical peculiarities. Therefore, it is generally seen that a class number alone fails to individualise a book in a library or a reference in a bibliography, howsoever deep a classification may be. Many books in a library may get the same class number by virtue of having the same specific subject. ln such cases to assign a unique individual place to a given document — as it is the requirement of every library — these documents are given a further notation, also called External Notation.

1.1 Definition

This extemal notation based on some non-subject considerations, used to arrange documents within a given specific class number, is known as a Book Number. Function of a book number starts from where that of a class number ends. A book number for a document has a meaning in the context of its class numbers. A book number is a satellite of the class number. Book number may be based on either some or all of the considerations such as author, title, edition, language, format, physical form or the year of publication. Supplement, concordance, volume, or copy numbers too may have to be considered. In many schemes of classification and consequently in libraries book numbers get only insignificant treatment – even step motherly behaviour. Not only this, many schemes are silent on the issue. The DDC in its earlier editions included a scheme of book numbers. Since the 12th edition, it has been abandoned leaving the libraries to use any standard or locally devised methods of book numbers. Therefore, it has prompted classifiers to use any locally devised arbitrary method of giving book numbers.

2. Chronological Book numbers

There are two major systems of book numbers namely alphabetical and chronological. Chronological book numbers have their origin in accession arrangement first proposed by Melvil Dewey. His assistant W.S. Biscoe in 1885 put forward a method to sub arrange books by the year of publication. It has since become an accepted alternative to Cuttering. Though the antecedents of Biscoe’s method can easily be seen in Dewey’s accession method but Biscoe credited Cutter and others of its times for the basic ideas of his time tables. The year of publication which is essential basis of Biscoe’s method is converted for brevity and simplicity into alphanumeric notations from the following table:

A	B.C.E.	J	1830-1839	S	1920-1929
B	C.E.1-999	K	1840-1849	T	1930-1939
C	1000-1499	L	1850-1859	U	1940-1949
D	1500-1599	M	1860-1869	V	1950-1959
E	1600-1699	N	1870-1879	W	1960-1969
F	1700-1799	O	1880-1889	X	1970-1979
G	1800-1809	P	1890-1899	Y	1980-1989
H	1810-1819	Q	1900-1909	Z	1900-1999
I	1820-1829	R	1910-1919

Year of copyright is taken for this purpose. Some of the years are translated into notations as follows:

1900	Q0	1925	S5	1961	W1
1993	Z3	1999	Z9

Another great librarian James Duff Brown (1862-1914) proposed another chronological system in the first edition of his Subject Classification (1906). His ‘Extended Date Table’ subarranged books by year of publication denoted by two small alphabets as follows:

For example, 1762 is denoted by ma, 1787 by mz, 1995 by uz, 2000 by ve. This table is not known to be used anywhere else.

2.1 Advantages of chronological systems

1. Users usually wish to get the latest material or the oldest, or pertaining to a certain span of time, accordingly they may get their material gathered at one place. It, therefore, satisfies the Fourth Law of Library Science by saving the time of the users in locating books.

2. Knowledge is growing, documents are increasing in number, thus library is a growing organism. When books on a given specific subject are arranged in their sequence of their publication, this sort of arrangement helps to trace the development of a subject over a given period. Therefore, such a sub arrangement is helpful in writing trend reports, state-of-the-art reports and history of a given subject. This sort of arrangement satisfies the Fifth Law of Library Science.

3. When as per the Fifth Law, a Library grows, some old books may not be of use to the common users. Therefore, chronological book numbers may help in weeding out obsolete books, belonging prior to a certain date. Therefore, it again helps to satisfy the Fifth Law of Library Science.

Similarly on many more counts the supremacy of a chronological book numbers can be listed.Melvil Dewey recommending system by Biscoe in 2nd edition of the DDC wrote “It’s advantage is in presenting the historical development of the subject… in science it has a special value…”.

3. Ranganathan’s system

It was Ranganathan who brought the chronological system to perfection. Like his classification system his book number system is minute and systematic. In the facet formula of book number Ranganathan has provided even obscure and rarely occurring oddities in books. Besides the year of publication, his book number takes notice of language, form, volume number, supplement, copy number and critical commentary, if any. The colon book number facet formula along with the indicator digits is:

[L] [F] [Y] [A] . [V]-[S] ; [C] : g[EVN] Wherein

L — Language of the document. F — Form of the document.

Y — Year of publication of the document. A — Accession part of the year number. V –Volume number of the document.

S — Supplement number of the document.

C — Copy number of the document.

g — Evaluation Number

EVN — Accession part of the evaluation number.

Apparently the formula is quite complex and it looks that the resulting book number would be quite lengthy. Far from this, in practice the CC book number is very simple and brief; and it is estimated that about 90 per cent of the book numbers consist of only two digits for the year number. Other facets are only occasionally geared into service. Position and role of various facets in the book number formula are as follows.

3.1 [L] Language Facet

It is worth noting that the first characteristic to subdivide a given specific class is the language. So, in this way all the documents in one language having the same class number come together. Since most of the library users are monolingual, they find together at one place all the books in their language. This saves their time.

The language isolates are the same as meant for the general CC schedule [as given on pages 2.26-2.27 (Chapter 5) (CC-6)]. For example,

111	English	153	Punjabi
113	German	156	Gujarati
122	French	157	Bengali
123	Spanish	3	Dravidian languages
142	Russian	31	Tamil
15	Sanskrit	35	Telugu
152	Hindi

3.1.1 Omission of the language facet

In many cases, as enumerated below, the language number is omitted:

(a) There is no need of language facet for books in the favoured language of the library. Favoured language of the library is either the mother-tongue or the official language. In other words, it is the language in which most of the holdings of the library are written. For example, in India, English is the favoured language in majority of the libraries. Since the majority of the books in the library are in the favoured language, so most of the books will not need this facet. This makes for brevity and simplicity of the book number.

(b) Book Numbers for books in the main classes Literature and Linguistics do not require the language facet as the language number is already present in the class number, and as such it will be superfluous to repeat it. In cases of language inequality the language facet in book number may be needed.

Language inequality is a situation when a critical book on literature or linguistics is written in other than its original language. For example, Shakespeare in Hindi or French, for that reason in any language other than English is a case of language inequality. Similarly, a book on French grammar or history of Spanish language written, say, in English are another cases of language inequality. Prem Chand’s Godan in any language other than Hindi is a case of language inequality.

3.2 [F] Form Facet

The form facet represents the way of presentation of the subject in the document. lt is what Ranganathan calls the subtle body of the document. For example, a book may be all pictures; another may be a practical book; yet another may be merely a tabulated data. In ancient India, books on medicine and astronomy were written in poetry form. List of forms can be multiplied and in this age of information revolution and multimedia many new forms of documents are being invented and introduced. Isolate numbers, consisting of Roman smalls usually followed by an lndo-Arabic numeral have been enlisted on page 2.3 (Chapter 02) of CC- 6 (1963). For example,

a5	Alphabetical	h2	Histogram
a6	Chronological	p1	Lecture

b	Index	p7	Symposium
c	List	q	Code
d	Databook	v	Practical
f	Picture	w1	Verse
f953	Cinema film	w2	Drama
g	Plan	w4	Letter
h	Graph	x	Quotation

Ranganathan’s list is not exhaustive as many more form of documents are available these days.

3.2.1 Omission of Form Facets

However, the Form number is omitted in the books which are in the favoured form of the library. In a general library printed cuboid books in prose make the popular Form category. Hence majority of the book numbers are without this facet, too. For example, a book on economic progress through “graphs” will get the form facet ‘h’ in book number and a lecture will get the facet number p1 in book number, but any ordinary book will get no form facet.

3.3 [Y] Year Facet

This is the indispensable facet, as no Colon Book Number is without it. This facet denotes the year of publication of the book. For this purpose, Ranganathan has designed a special chronological table from 1880 to 2119 to provide brief isolate numbers for this facet. This table, given at page 1.13 of CC-6, 1963, is as follows:

A	Before 1880	J	1950-1959
B	1880-1889	K	1960-1969
C	1890-1899	L	1970-1979
D	1900-1909	M	1980-1989
E	1910-1919	N	1990-1999
F	1920-1929	P	2000-2009
G	1930-1939	Q	2010-2019

H	1940-1949	R	2020-2029
S	2030-2039	X	2080-2089
T	2040-2049	Y	2090-2099
U	2050-2059	ZA	2100-2109
V	2060-2069	ZB	2110-2119
W	2070-2079

Letters I and O are not used to avoid confusion with 1 & 0 respectively.

In the Table every digit from B onwards spans a decade; and a particular year is denoted by adding the year number of that decade to the decade digit. For example, 1987 is M7, 1969 is K9, 2000 is P0 and 2005 is P05 and 2010 is Q0. Therefore, a book on Lectures on Economics published in 2014 will be plQ4; and a book on Lectures on Economics in Hindi published in 2011 will be 153 p1Q1.

Similarly the book number for a document published in 1973 in film form in Russian language will be

142 f953L3

where 142 is Russian language, f953 is film, L3 is 1973

3.3.1 [A] Accession part of the year number

This is a device to distinguish more than one book published in the same year, same language and same form having the same class number. This consists in adding 1, 2, 3, etc., for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc., book to the year number of the book number. For example, the first book on Physics published in 1987 will have the class number M7; and the second will have M71; and the 3rd, M72 and so on. Again, let us say, in 2013 several books on the history of Hindi literature were published. All will have the class number O152v. Their book numbers in order will be:

Q3 for the 1st book

Q31 for the 2nd book

Q32 for the 3rd book

Q33 for the 4th book

Q3n-1 for the nth book;

This device is not much used except for a very current and popular topic say, computers, environment, biotechnology, etc.

3.4 [V] Volume Number of the Document

Many books especially the reference books and other source documents are completed in many volumes. Quite obviously all the volumes of a ‘book’ need to be placed together. To do this, Ranganathan suggests to put 1, 2, 3, etc., for the first, second and third volume, etc., after the accession part of the year number facet. Volume Number is preceded by a dot (.). Suppose we have a book Palgrave’s Dictionary of Economics in 3 Volumes published in 2004. Each volume will have the book number:

P4.1 1st Volume

P4.2 2nd Volume

P4.3 3rd Volume

3.5 [S] Supplement Number of the Document

Sometimes it happens that to update a book, or to correct the earlier one, or to add some latest development in the field, a supplement to original book is issued. Sometimes more than one supplement may be issued successively. Need to keep together the original and the supplements is pretty obvious. A supplement separated from its original book is like a child lost in a fair. So, to keep the host and the associated books together Ranganathan prescribed a symbol hyphen (-) followed by the supplement Number. ln the formula it comes after the Volume [V] facet. The supplement will bear the year number [Y] of the original book, and not the actual year of its publication. Let us say, a book published in 2009 has two supplements issued in 2010 and 2011. Their book numbers will respectively be:

P9 Original Book
P9-1 1st supplement
P9-2 2nd supplement

If the book is multivolumed then the supplement is placed after the last volume unless specified otherwise. The supplement number will be:

P9.1	1st volume
P9.2	2nd volume
P9.2-1	1st supplement (2009)
P9.2-2	2nd supplement (2011)

It is a simple but very effective device to keep the parent and associated books together.

3.6 [C] Copy Number of the Document

It usually happens that a book is acquired in multiple copies by a particular library. Academic libraries usually acquire multiple copies of text books. So, all these books will have to be kept together in a given section of the library. To keep all these copies together Ranganathan provided a copy number facet in the formula. It is positioned after the supplement number and its indicator digit is semicolon (;). The first copy will have no copy number and the second copy will be indicated as ;1, the third copy will be indicated as ;2 and so on. For example, a book published in Urdu on Indian history published in 1987 has 10 copies. All of them will have the class number V44 or 954 and their book numbers will be:

168M7	1st copy
168M7;1	2nd copy
168M7;2	3rd copy
….	….
168M7;9	10th copy

3.7 [: g] Criticism/Evaluation Number

This is analogous to the Energy Posteriorising Common Isolate (PCI) of the Colon Classification, though here it is applied to the book number and not to the class number. There are some non-classical or semi-classical books having a semblance of a classic. It is imperative to keep a book and its various commentaries or evaluations together. This is done by adding ‘:g’ to the last facet of the book number. For example, if a book published in 1980 has its commentary published in 1983, their book number will be as follows

M0 For original book

M0:g First commentary published in 1983

It will keep the parent (host) book and its sequel/commentaries together.

3.7.1 [EVN] Accession Part OF THE Evaluation Number

This acts exactly as [A] does for [Y] facet. The [EVN] is only to distinguish one commentary from the other, and is done by adding 1, 2, 3, etc., to ‘:g’ for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th commentary, respectively. So, for the above book

M0: gl 2nd commentar

MO:g2 3rd commentary

M0:g3 4th commentary

M0:g4 5th commentary, and so on.

4. Problems

So far so good. However, this facet formula is not without problems. For example, it is not able to keep together all the books of the same author on one subject. This is a minor problem compared to another problem of keeping together the different editions of a book.

4.1 Keeping together different editions of a book

Since different editions are published in different years, each edition will have the book number based on the year of its publication, and hence will get separated. For example, let us say, a book first published in 2008 was issued in 2nd edition in 2014. Their book numbers respectively will be: P8 and Q4. Obviously, these ‘two’ books will get separated by many intervening books published between 2008 and 2014. Hence the problem. But Ranganathan had not been oblivious of the problem. At the first instance, Ranganathan did not consider it necessary to keep the different editions of a book together. It would serve no purpose, he felt. However, to those insisting on keeping together these editions, Ranganathan suggested that an edition may be treated as a copy of the first edition. For example, in the above case the second edition will get the book number:

P8; Q4

So, if this book has another edition, say, in 2020 it will have the book number: P8;R0

Thus the three editions will have the book numbers

P8 lst edition (2008)

P8;Q4 2nd edition (2014)

P8;R0 3rd edition (2020)

Hence the three editions will get juxtaposed. This method, however, is not a neat solution to the problem as the latter editions are out of their chronological place. Despite these minor problems, Ranganathan’s is still the most developed Book Number yet formulated. One great advantage of Ranganathan’s system and for that reason of any chronological Book Number is that these are applicable to all the documents irrespective of the language, script or the cultural or ethnic origin of the author. Chronological tables may be devised locally based on literary warrant.

5. Collection Number

In the art of library classification, the first division of books does not take into consideration the subject matter. For convenience of administration, every big library divides its documents into different sections. Every big library is a cluster of parallel libraries, i.e., libraries within a library. Parallel libraries are called sections. The first consideration is the section to which a book should go. We first determine whether the book under classification is a rare book, manuscript, thesis, textbook, reference book or any special collection book. These sections may be dictated by the utilitarian purpose such as reference or a textbook or for the convenience of managing them such as abnormal sized book, rare books, fragile or very precious books, and so on. Thus in a library there are many mini libraries within a given library.

5.1 Notation for collection number

The symbol determining the section of the book preceding the class number is termed as the collection number. Putting the symbol for the collection number seems so simple and obvious that no scheme other than the CC has discussed it in an academic way. Here the collection number has been designed in relation to the book number; in many cases the collection number is denoted by adding some indicator digit to the book number. While in some cases—mostly utility oriented—a separate symbol is added for the collection number. It may be any arbitrary symbol, but usually the initials of the section name:

R Reference

RR Rare book

T Thesis

Tx Text

G Government publication

RP Reports

For departmental libraries Ranganathan suggests the following convention:

BD Mathematics Department

DD Engineering Department

LD Medical College

RD Philosophy Department

YD Sociology Department

ZD Law Department

But for the abnormal books Ranganathan gives the following rules:

Underline the book number for small sized books Over line the book number for large sized books Both underline and over line the book number for abnormal books Encircle the book number for worn out and fragile books.

Since each symbol creates its own section, so no ordinal value of these digits has been fixed. These sections may be located at convenience. The most general collection is not given any collection number — application of the favoured category principle. Thus majority of the books will have no Section Number.

The combination of collection number, class number, and the book number when taken together in the above sequence is termed as the call number. The equation is :

Call Number = Collection Number + Class Number + Book Number

It is the call number which determines the specific and unique place of a document in the library. It means every document has a unique call number in the library. It is called Call Number as in closed libraries in 19th century books were ‘called’ from the stacks by these numbers.

6. Using CC Book Numbers with other Schemes

It is not necessary that only the libraries using Colon Classification can use this book number system. Libraries using different schemes such as DDC, UDC, or Bliss’ Bibliographic classification can use these book numbers with equal ease and effectiveness. But in such cases some adaptation will have to be made. Sometimes what Ranganathan has included in the Book Number is a part of class numbers in other systems. Form of a book a standard subdivision in the DDC; and in UDC language of the book is accounted for in the class numbers. Therefore, in such cases the CC book, numbers will have to be adapted accordingly.

7. Glossary

Call Number: A composite number which provides a unique identification number and thus a precisely identifiable place to a document on library shelves. Every document has its individual call number as is your telephone number in your region.

Chronological book number: Book numbers which sub arrange books in some serial order of their receipt in the library, or strictly speaking by the year of their publication. Chronological book numbers, which originated from the accession order, have been elaborated by W.S. Biscoe, J.D. Brown, and S. R. Ranganathan took it to almost perfection.

Collection number: Refers to the section of the library holding a certain type of documents, such as Manuscripts section, Textbooks section or Periodical publications section: The library’s holdings are divided into section for convenience of management and safety of documents. This division makes a library a cluster of libraries within; libraries within a library.

External notation: Another name for book/author numbers. A notation other than for the class number. It is termed so as it denotes some external characteristics of the document whereas the internal characteristics of the document are denoted by the class number.

Form of the Document: In the CC it refers mostly to the internal format or the mode of presentation of the subject, e.g., a book in pictures, or in data tables, or the subject presented in a dictionary or chronological order. It also refers to the external formats such as microfilm, or CD-ROM.

Language inequality: Refer to the situation when a commentary on a book of literature/languages is written in a language other than of the host book. For example, a book of Hindi literature written in English or Gitanjali by Tagore translated into French, and for that reason, in any language, other than Bengali; Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Hindi or even in Spanish are instances of language inequality. Similarly, a book on Hindi grammar written in English is also a case of language inequality.

8. References

Ranganathan S.R. 1963. Colon Classification, 6th edition. Bombay: Asia. p. 1.9-1.17
Satija, M.P. 1987. A Primer on Ranganathan Book Number. New Delhi: Mittal Publications, pp. xvii, 87
“This work explains Ranganathan’s book number in all its details, ramifications and intricacies. The text has been illustrated with ample examples. This is a simple and systematic exposition of the theory and practice of book numbers developed by Ranganathan”, International Classification, 15(2), p. 102 (Cochrane A. Pauline, 1989).
Satija, M.P. 1990. “Book Number and Call Number” in Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, ed. by Allen Kent. New York: Marcel Dekker, Vol.45, pp. 18-45.
Satija, M.P. and Comaromi, John P. 1992. Beyond Classification: Book Numbers. New Delhi: Ess Ess, , pp. 60-78.
Satija, M.P. 2008. Book Numbers: Indian and Cutter. New Delhi : Viva Books. ISBN 81—309—0957-X.

Learn More:

Module LIS/KOP – C/13(2): Call, Book Numbers: Ranganathan’s Chronological system

Do you know

Book number and collection number represent the bibliographic aspect of the document.
Ranganathan’s Chronological system seems borrowed from chronological book numbers devised by W.S. Bisco (1853-1933), a close friend and assistant of Melvil Dewey.
Ranganathan might have preferred chronological system because of his dislike of alphabetical methods in whole of librarianship.

Points to remember

Ranganathan’s formulated the cannon of Book number to form it an integral part of his CC
Ranganathan’s book numbering system is most comprehensive system devised so far.
It may be noted in Ranganathan’s book number the first criterion for sub arrangement is not year of publication, but the language of the document and then the form of the document.
Year of publication is the third criterion.

But more often than not year becomes the first factor of sub arrangement as the first two factors become latent in ordinary books in the popular language of the library