CSAN: Cutter-Sanborn Number Generator

csan is a CLI tool that generates a Cutter-Sanborn identifier, given a first and a last name.

The Cutter-Sanborn identifier, commonly called "Cutter number", is an alphanumeric code that forms part of the call number in library classification systems in order to arrange books alphabetically by author. It consists of the first letter of the author's last name followed by three-digit number derived from a predefined table. This system was originally developed by Charles Cutter, and revised by Kate Sanborn.

Installation

You can install this tool using pip or uv:

uv tool install csan

pip install csan

Usage

usage: csan [-h] -f FIRST_NAME -l LAST_NAME [-t TITLE] [-v]

Cutter-Sanborn identifier generator.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -f FIRST_NAME, --first-name FIRST_NAME
  -l LAST_NAME, --last-name LAST_NAME
  -t TITLE, --title TITLE
  -v, --verbose

Examples

• csan -f John -l Doe -> D649
• csan -f John -l Doe -t "My Book" -> D649m
• csan -f First -l Last -v -> L349, with log output to the console
• csan -f Jorge -l "De la Cruz" -> D332