Are you having problems using the WebDewey number building tool for history numbers built with Table 2 Geographic Areas notation plus notation for historical period? If yes, let’s try building numbers for two similar works.
First example. Let’s start by building a number for London in the Victorian period: Victorian London: The Life of a City, 1840-1870. The first LCSH is "London (England)—History—19th century."
Step 1. Go to 930-990 History of specific continents, countries, localities; extraterrestrial world to find the add notes that you need. Click Start to get the initial add note displayed in the Create built number box:
As the add note indicates, the base number for the history number is 9, and 9 appears in the title bar of the Create built number box.
Step 2. Find the Table 2 notation for London (England): T2—421 Greater London. With that full record displayed, click Add in the Create built number box. The Table 2 notation appears in the Create built number box, and the title bar shows that the number built so far is 942.1:
The number building tool takes us back to 930-990.
Step 3. In the add table at 930-990 History of specific continents, countries, localities; extraterrestrial worlds, click 01-09 Historical periods. That displays the full record for 930-990:01-09 Historical periods, with its Notes box:
Click Add to get the add note displayed in the Create built number box:
As the title bar shows, the number built thus far is 942.10.
Step 4. Find the record that has these Relative Index entries:
England—19th century
England—1837-1901
Victoria, Queen of Great Britain—English history
One easy approach is to browse for "England" in the Relative Index. What we find is a number marked with an orange puzzle piece to signal that it is a built number (942.081):
For best results, we should not use that built number to build our new number. Records for built numbers do not have add notes. Records for spans that are not centered entries commonly do have add notes. We look up in the hierarchy to find the record with the add note used to build 942.081: 942.06-942.08 House of Stuart and Commonwealth periods to present, 1603- . Click to display that record. Then click Add to get the add note displayed in the Create built number box:
Step 5. Find the record that has these Relative Index entries:
Great Britain—19th century
Great Britain—1837-1901
Victoria, Queen of Great Britain—British history
The number for Queen Victoria in British history (941.081 Reign of Victoria, 1837-1901) is not marked as a built number. Click Add to get that number displayed in the Create built number box:
Step 6. Click Save. The newly built number will be displayed in the Hierarchy box:
We have an opportunity to change the user term and add other user terms to the built number. A summary of the pieces used to build the number remains with the record:
Second example. Now let’s try a book that is similar: Elizabeth's London: Everyday Life in Elizabethan London. For this work, the subject headings are as follows:
Elizabeth I, Queen of England, 1533-1603—Homes and haunts—England—London
London (England)—Social life and customs—16th century
London (England)—History—16th century
Even though the first heading gives emphasis to Queen Elizabeth, this work is similar to the other work in giving broad historical treatment to life in London during a specific historical period. The DDC number will be the same except for the different time period.
Steps 1-3 are the same as for the first example. Before we start on step 4, the Create built number box looks like this:
Step 4. Find the record that has these Relative Index entries:
Armada, 1588
Elizabeth I, Queen of England—English history
England—1558-1603
Spanish Armada, 1588
What we find is a number not marked with an orange puzzle piece (942.055 Reign of Elizabeth I, 1558-1603):
Click Add to get 942.055 displayed in the Create built number box:
Step 6. Click Save. The newly built number, 942.1055, will be displayed in the Hierarchy box:
We have an opportunity to change the user term and add other user terms to the built number.
Unfortunately, although the number 942.1055 was correctly built, the summary that remains with the record is incorrect. Somehow, between creating the user term that serves as a caption and creating the summary, the number building tool forgets where the "055" came from:
The MARC 765 fields associated with that summary are correspondingly incorrect. This problem occurs whenever there are no local add instructions involved in building a number; that is, the key difference between the results of the first example and the second example is the add note at 942.06-942.08—the add note that we made sure was displayed in the Create built number box.
The good news is that until we are able to fix this problem, you can still use the number building tool to create correct history numbers and give them good user terms.
Additional resources
• Posts on using the number building tool with standard subdivisions (post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4)
• Posts on using the number building tool in music (part 1, part 2)
• Post on using the number building tool in literature
• Post on using the number building tool for works on natural resources
• WebDewey training modules for the WebDewey number building tool
Note: The general approach to building numbers described in posts about a specific discipline can be applied in other disciplines.
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