Generating Cutter numbers

[Gerard Flanagan]

skryskalla at gmail.com wrote:
> Gerard Flanagan wrote:
> > All
> >
> > would anyone happen to have code to generate Cutter Numbers:
> >
> >   eg. http://www1.kfupm.edu.sa/library/cod-web/Cutter-numbers.htm
> >
> > or is anyone looking for something to do?-)  (I'm under pressure!)
> >
> > def cutter(lname, fname, book_title):
> >
>
> What do you use lname and fname (author first name and last name?) for?
>  The page you linked to does not have any information (that I could
> see) about first names or last names.
>

Sorry, couldn't find a better link, I'm struggling to find anything
definitive about this.

I'm cataloging a small library and want to generate a unique id (called
a 'call number') for each book.  This id is composed of:

 * Dewey 3-digit Subject Classification Number
 * Dewey Decimal  (always 0 for the minute)
 * Cutter Number
 * Copy number  (multiple copies or volumes)

(That Celestial Emporium again...)

I haven't researched it much but it seems the Cutter number is used to
distinguish between authors with the same name, and between different
books written by the same author - so you need last name, first name
and title.  But it may be as much art as science.

> I wrote a script to see if I could capture what the table is doing on
> the page you linked to.  It gets the Cutter number right about 50% of
> the time, otherwise its off by a few digits.
>
> I am stumped about what to do when the first letter is Q not followed
> by U.  It says to use numbers 2-29 for the second letters a-t, but that
> is obviously not right (for one thing t would be 21, not 29).
>
> Since you seem a little bit more experienced in library science could
> you explain what is going on? :)
>
> you can find the script here:
> http://lost-theory.org/python/cutter.txt
>

Thanks very much for taking the time - I'll have to go study it now!
But I don't think it will be as simple now since the Cutter may depend
on books already in the database.  Maybe I'll just stick a random
string on the end of what your function produces!

Thanks again.

Gerard