Table G Practices
Table of Contents
- Instructions for Applying Table G
- Historical Geographic Locations
- Subordinate Political Units
- United States -- Special Instructions
- Examples for Applying Table G
- Expanded Country Notation
Instructions for Applying Table G
Table G is a cutter system of notations that provides
geographical or jurisdictional arrangement of materials under specific class
numbers in the NLM Classification. The use of Table G permits a shelving order
which is controlled geographically and alphabetically. Table G is applied only
when a class number heading is annotated by "(Table G)." When LC Classification
numbers are used, the geographical breakdown or tables provided in the LC
schedules are applied.
The geographic tables of the NLM Classification consist of nine geographic
regions. Additionally, special provision is made for international agencies that
frequently publish materials related to medicine. Each region or group
is identified by a letter.
A--United States
D--Americas
F--Great Britain
G--Europe
H--Africa
J--Middle East and Asia
K--Australasia
L--Islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans
M--International Agencies
P--Polar Regions
The notation is composed of two letters and one or two numbers from the Cutter-Sanborn tables. The first letter of a notation represents the geographical region or jurisdiction, and the second one is the first letter of the name of a country or, in the case for the states of the United States, a state.
New geographic notations are interpolated into Table G when needed following the established pattern. When a country changes its name a Table G notation is assigned to the new name. The notation for the latest form of a name is used regardless of which form of name is found in the item or when the item was produced. Exception: For serials classed in W2, use the appropriate Table G notation for the country name used at the time of publication.
Historical Geographic Locations
With the 2009 edition of the NLM Classification, a new Table G Section was created for historical jurisdictions or entities that existed in the past and whose former territories are not encompassed by a single present day country. Some of the jurisdictions listed in this section were removed from the Obsolete Table G Notations section. Some cutters of present day countries are also being used for the historical lands even though these are not one-to-one matches. For example, GR9, the cutter assigned to Russia (Federation), is also assigned to the USSR and Russia (Pre-1917).
Subordinate Political Units
The Table provides a state or political unit break down only for the United States and Great Britain. A work that is limited to a city, or a state, province or its equivalent, takes the geographic notation for the state or country, or for the smallest area below the national level that has its own notation. Other heavily used state or country notations may be modified to form county (province, state, etc.) or city notations by the addition of .1 (county) or .2 (city) to the appropriate notation.
Examples:
Table G Subordinate Political Unit AM3 Maryland AM3.1 M7 Montgomery County AM3.2 B2 Baltimore DC2 Canada DC2.1 B8 British Columbia DC2.2 V2 Vancouver FE5 England FE5.1 M6 Middlesex FE5.2 L6 London
Instructions on how to expand a country notation are given below under
an Expanded Country Notation. Table G notations no
longer in use are found in Table G under the heading
Obsolete Table G Notations.
United States -- Special Instructions
Special provisions are made for United States government documents published at the federal, state or local level. Works pertaining to the internal affairs of the various departments or agencies of the U.S. Federal Government, with the exception of the Armed Forces, take the designation "A."
Publications pertaining to the internal affairs of the Armed Forces take the following designations:
A1 Department of Defense
A2 Department of the Army
A3 Army Air Forces (to 1947)
A4 Department of the Air Force
A5 Department of the Navy
AA1 is used for materials pertaining to the United States as a whole but not to the internal
affairs of the government. AA1 is used also for materials that span four or more states or
territories, unless there is a number for the region.
As noted above, each state is provided with a separate number. The only city appearing in Table G is New York City. For other subordinate political units in the United States it is the individual state number which is so modified, as indicated above.
Examples for Applying Table G
1. Application of Table G to monographic materials.
United States
| Call Number | Main Entry/Title |
|---|---|
| WZ 70 AM3 |
Hume, Ruth Fox, 1922- Medicine in Maryland |
| WA 546 AM3.1 M7 |
Ziegler, Mark V., 1981- A survey of the Health Department of Montgomery County, Maryland |
| WA 546 AC2.2 L86 |
United States. Bureau of the Census Social and health indicators system, Los Angeles |
Foreign
| Call Number | Main Entry/Title |
|---|---|
| WZ 70 FE5 |
Anning, Stephen T. The history of medicine of Leeds |
| WM 11 GG4 |
Psychoanalyze in Berlin |
| WA 900 JI4.1 W5 |
Health on the march, 1948-1950, West Bengal ("W5" represents West Bengal, the state) |
2. The application of Table G to serial documents (W2)
United States
| Call Number | Main Entry/Title |
|---|---|
| W2 A3 |
United States. Army. Air Corps. Material Division Air Corps technical report |
| W2 AC |
Connecticut Commission on Alcoholism Annual report |
Foreign
| Call Number | Main Entry/Title |
|---|---|
| W2 FA1 |
Great Britain. General Register Office Quarterly return of marriages, births, and death ... |
| W2 DC2.1 S2 |
Saskatchewan. Bureau of Public Health Annual report |
3. The application of Table G to hospital reports
As instructed in the WX schedule under "WX 2 Serial hospital reports" these serials are arranged geographically and cuttered for the hospital. Decimal subdivisions .1 and .2 for subordinate political divisions are not used, but a notation is added to represent the city.
Civilian hospitals
| Call Number | Main Entry/Title |
|---|---|
| WX 2 AP4 P5 |
Hahnemann Hospital tidings |
| WX 2 GS8 L2 |
Lasarettet i Landskrona Aarsberättelse |
| WX 2 AF4 J2 |
St. Luke's Hospital (Jacksonville, Fla.) Annual report |
U.S. Military Hospitals.
Named hospitals have fixed locations and are cuttered the same way as civilian hospitals except
that the military symbol precedes the geographical notation. Numbered hospitals did not have
fixed locations and geographical notation is not applied to them.
| Call Number | Main Entry/Title |
|---|---|
| WX 2 A2 D6 |
United States. Army. Walter Reed Army Hospital, Washington, D.C.
Annual report |
| WX 2 A2 141 |
United States. Army. General Hospital No. 141 Year book |
Expanded Country Notation
The expanded country notation below for Australia is an example of how a cataloging agency may expand the notation of a state, country, etc. when the need arises. NLM has used this method; however, since these expansions are infrequent and on an ad hoc basis they are not printed in the Classification.
| Table G | Organizational Entity | |
|---|---|---|
| KA8 | Australia | |
| .C6 | Commission of Inquiry into Poverty | |
| .D3 | Department of Health | |
| .D32 | Department of Labor and Immigration | |
| .D34 | Department of Science | |
| .D4 | Department of Social Security | |
| .H6 | Hospitals and Health Services, etc. | |
| KA8.1 | ||
| .A8 | Australian Capital Territory | |
| .N3 | New South Wales | |
| .N6 | Northern Territory | |
| .Q3 | Queensland, etc. | |
| KA8.2 | ||
| .A3 | Adelaide | |
| .B8 | Brisbane | |
| .C2 | Canberra, etc. | |
This kind of pattern can be used for any single country number.
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