On Sept. 15, OCLC released the OCLC Dewey Cutter Macro, a new automated cuttering tool for Dewey libraries that currently use either the Cutter or the Cutter-Sanborn tables. OCLC also plans to incorporate the macro into OCLC Access Suite 2.0, OCLC Cataloging Micro Enhancer for Windows 1.10, and OCLC CJK Software 3.0. The tables and a cuttering application are already available in OCLC's Dewey for Windows 1.1 software. The responsibility for completing the Dewey call number by cuttering the record has always fallen to local libraries. The Cutter number specifies where on the shelf a book is placed so that it can quickly be found by library staff or users.
Many libraries also append publication dates or work marks after the cutter number.
Only after manual cuttering can Dewey libraries create a spine label and place the book on the shelf. The project team in the OCLC Office of Research developed a prototype to prove the feasibility of the macro. That gives you some idea what cuttering is like today. To manually cutter a record, a cataloger or shelf-lister has to look up a name in the table, find a match, find the corresponding number, and type it into the MARC record. As of Aug. 23, WorldCat showed 1,669 holdings by member libraries for that book, which has its master record from the Library of Congress.