[Koha-devel] Some thoughts about the "Dewey" field (was: What's a "Dewey"?)

[Saiful Amin]

<quote who="Ambrose Li [CCCGT]">
> On Thu, Nov 28, 2002 at 11:01:44AM -0500, Andrew Arensburger wrote:
>> 	So while we're at it, can anyone clarify the general form of a
>> Dewey number? I've seen "123" and "123.45", of course, but also
>> apostrophes and slashes: "123.45'67". Would
>
> The apostrophes and slashes are like the middle dots you see in
> dictionaries; they help the cataloguer to know where the "word
> break" in the code is. In the case of a code like "123.45'67",
> it means that the library has the liberty to choose between
> assigning "123.45" (less detail in the catalogue) and "123.4567"
> (more detail). AFAIK deployed Dewey codes should not have slashes
> or apostrophes.

The dot after first three digits in a DC number doesn't have any semantic
value.  It's only to give a better look to the number ... to soothe the
eyes perhaps ;-)

AFAIK, the latest edition of DC has implemented apostrophe (perhaps for
individualising the "Area" number).  Till now only UDC uses slashes I
believe.

Saiful

DRTC
Bangalore, India.