1240 
DECIMAL CLASSIFICATION 
great deal of time and in the average library is not worth what it costs. 
L alone would mean a book publisht somewhere in the sos of the 19th 
century, and Fg one of the last decade of the 18th (Fog being the mark 
for 1709). This occasional uncertainty is analogous to the case of anony- 
mous and pseudonymous books in an author arrangement. 
Dates B. C. may be treated in any one of the 3 ways suggested below. 
If numbers are given from date of writing or first publication there will be 
a few A books; but if from date of printing or copyright, none at all. Of 
the 3 ways below of treating dates B. C. the first is best: 
1 Subtract the decade B. C. from gg and use the resulting number, thus 
securing correct order with a shorter number than in 2. This approximate 
date is close enough, since exact year of writing is difficult to determin and 
the number of books in any subject in a single decade small. 
Alternativs are: 
2 Subtract the date B. C. from 1oco and use the resulting number, 
which will secure proper sequence. 
3 Use actual B. C. date, since among so few books no great confusion 
would result from thus inverting the regular order. 
Resulting numbers would then be: 
Year 
B. C. 
9n9 
ee. 
- 
Complementa-v 
‘s 
\ 
r 
)2 
"5 
Complementar® 
year (2) 
tear 
*7 
A927 
Agzz 
Actual 
date (3) 
£ Agog 
5 A363 
t A73 
= Nag 
Olin book numbers The best means of separating collectiv from indi- 
vidual biografy is Olin book numbers. They are used exactly like Cutter 
author numbers; but as they translate all surnames of compilers into A 
followd immediately by figures, they precede the first Cutter number, 
Aaz and thus automatically shelv biografic compilations before the cutterd 
individual lives; e. g. Strickland’s Queens of England would be A84 (Olin 
number) and stand before a life of Queen Anne, Any (Cutter number) 
whether clast 920 or 923.1. 
See next page for table.