I had a Table of Last Resort once. It had three legs and I gave it away at a car boot sale (381.195) circa 1985. The DDC, on the other hand, has held on to its own such table for 40 years, and ... well, let’s just say it’s become part of the furniture. And a much-loved part at that (thanks, Laura!). Here it is at section 5.9 of the "Introduction" to DDC 22 (p. xlv of the print version):
"When several numbers have been found for the work in hand, and each seems as good as the next, the following table of last resort (in order of preference) may be used as a guideline in the absence of any other rule: ... (1) Kinds of things (2) Parts of things (3) Materials from which things, kinds, or parts are made (4) Properties of things, kinds, parts, or materials (5) Processes within things, kinds, parts, or materials (6) Operations upon things, kinds, parts, or materials (7) Instrumentalities for performing such operations ..."
In the DDC context, this table’s origins can be traced to the "Editor’s introduction" to Edition 17 (1965), where it was referred to as a "precedence formula." It wasn’t until DDC 20 (1989) that the more expressive sobriquet that survives today was adopted. The function of the Table of Last Resort is to give classifiers guidance in selecting a base number from among multiple alternatives, in the absence of other instructions. In this sense, it specifies a "preference order" -- as opposed to a "citation order," i.e., the order in which the concepts making up a compound subject should be represented. (In the DDC, citation order is always carefully detailed in number-building instructions.) But preference orders often correspond closely to citation orders, and the general concern to specify such orders can be traced at least as far back as Cutter and his recommendation that the concepts making up a subject heading be placed in order of "significance." Related proposals include Kaiser’s concrete–process formula, Ranganathan’s PMEST (personality–matter–energy–space–time), and Coates’ thing–part–material–action–agent. The order reflected in the DDC’s Table of Last Resort fits in somewhere between Coates’ suggestion and Vickery’s substance–organ–constituent–structure–shape–property–patient–action–operation–process–agent–space–time!
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