The program's core intellectual property lies in its two four-figure tables. To appreciate their value, one must understand their history and design. The classic Cutter tables (Cutter Three-Figure and Cutter-Sanborn Three-Figure) were designed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when library collections were significantly smaller and the nature of authorship was less complex. Today's libraries, with vastly larger collections and more diverse authorship patterns (including corporate bodies and conferences), have found these older tables increasingly inadequate, leading to frequent duplicate cutter numbers that require manual adjustment. The need for a more robust and granular system led to the creation of the four-figure tables.
Maya blinked. “A program?”
OCLC's response was to revise and expand both classic tables into four-figure versions, with several key improvements: Oclc Dewey Cutter Program V1 10.6