On StackExchange, someone asks why programmers talk about “calling” a function. Several possible allusions spring to mind: Calling a function is like calling on a friend — we go, we stay a while, we come back. Calling a function is like calling for a servant — a summoning to perform a task. Calling a function is like making a phone call — we ask a question and get an answer from outside ourselves. The true answer seems to be the middle one — “calling” as in “calling up, summoning” — but indirectly, originating in the notion of “calling for” a subroutine out of a library of subroutines in the same way that we’d “call for” a book out of a closed-stack library of books. The OED’s first citation for call number in the library-science sense comes from Melvil Dewey (yes, that Dewey) in 1876. The OED defines it as: A mark, esp. a number, on a library book, or listed in a library’s catalogue, indicating the book’s location in the library; a book’s press mark or shelf mark. I see librarians using the term “call-number” in The Library Journal 13.9 (1888) as if it was very well established already by that point: Mr. Davidson read a letter from Mr. A.W. Tyler […] enclosing sample of the new call blank used at the Plainfield (N.J.) P. L., giving more room for the signature and address of the applicant. […] “In connection with Mr. Tyler’s new call slip […] I always feel outraged when I make up a long list of call numbers in order to make sure of a book, and then the librarian keeps the list, and the next time I have it all to do over again.” According to The Organization of Information 4th ed. (Joudrey & Taylor, 2017): Call number. A notation on a resource that matches the same notation in the metadata description and is used to identify and locate the item; it often consists of a classification notation and a cutter number, and it may also include a workmark and/or a date. It is the number used to “call” for an item in a closed-stack library; thus the source of the name “call nu...
First seen: 2025-07-09 04:33
Last seen: 2025-07-09 06:33